the ppo's mahler fifth

Maybe it is unfair to compare this year's season ender with last year's.

 

In 2012 the PPO ended the season with two stunning and brilliant performances: of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and of Brahm's First Piano Concerto featuring the first female winner of the Leeds  International Pianoforte Competition, Sofya Gulyak (she has a new website here). I attended the night for the Brahm's, for that equally powerful and delicate first movement that I love. I came away thinking myself blessed to have heard Gulyak perform. Gulyak plays with definite musicality and virtuosity, two qualities for which legendary pianists are justly celebrated. I was also gratified her playing was not marked with the idiosyncracies of certain too individualistic pianists who are fond of banging Kreisler transcriptions on the piano, ugh.

 

By the end of the Rite of Spring I was on my feet, screaming my head off with surprise and delight. I never expected I would like Stravinsky's work. I never expected the PPO would pull it off quite, quite brilliantly. Oh, PPO, that night you made me realize you could perform any work, that you truly have the potential to be a great orchestra.

(Wow I still can't get over that night.)

 

This year for their season ender Ochanine paired the Liszt concerto with a Mahler symphony, the Fifth.

 

Years ago the PPO essayed Mahler's Eight Symphony, the so-called Symphony of a Thousand. (The work features five female vocal soloists, and as the rather hefty sopranos and altos set upon the stage I immediately dubbed them the porkchop singers. My bad.)

The then musical director and conductor, Ruggierro Barbieri, had some of the wind instruments play from the balconies. As the trumpets blared above I remember closing my eyes and letting the dense, beautiful music wash all over me. I was in bliss. It certainly was a night to remember. It was Barbieri's farewell performance, and as tribute to its maestro, the PPO beautifully played the intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavallera Rusticana as encore.

 

Well, last night's Fifth Symphony once again proves how well PPO responds to Olivier Ochanine's baton. I suspect the PPO wholly likes their current musical director, it's so obvious from most of their performances under him. (I say most because I still cringe whenever I remember the PPO's performance of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings a fews months back. God, what a shapeless mess). The Fifth Symphony's dynamics as well as the dynamics that Ochanine intended to bring to the fore were discernible. The PPO received a well-deserved applause that night.

 

When the fourth movement was about to play I perked my ears up. Here was one of Mahler's most popular works. I had goosebumps at the start of the movement. I was a bit dismayed, however, by the playing of the lone harp. From the programme notes of David Jerome Johnson, the fourth movement is essentially a work for string orchestra and harp. While the harp is not featured as soloist, it calibrates the melody of the strings and saves it from possible monotony. Oh, doesn't it just tide the work over? Doesn't it mark the movement's internal tempo, a diffident heartbeat? Am I making sense here? I'm not sure. But I have a number of recordings of the fourth movement--it is after all a famous adagio work--and so I know: the harp just didn't sing that night. It was plucked, and plucked, oh so disjointedly. Sorry, PPO harpist, but there it goes. Your notes just didn't seem related.

 

That said, PPO, I look forward to your next season, although I'm a bit nonplussed you're performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which I've always thought is more properly performed with a chamber, not a philharmonic, orchestra. Okay, eschew nonplussed. I'm intrigued.

gabriel allan paguirigan's, the ppo's liszt no. 2

Attended the PPO's final performance for its 30th Season last night. On the programme were Mozart's Overture to Cosi Fan Tutte, Liszt's Second Piano Concerto, and Mahler's Fifth Symphony. My notes:

I came in late for the very first time in all my PPO-attending years. I missed the Mozart and the Lupang Hinirang, which I regret. It is always such a thrill to hear the national anthem played live by a full orchestra. By the time I slid onto my seat, the piano concerto was already under way.

 

The soloist was the winner for this year's NAMCYA, Mr. Gabriel Allan Paguirigan of the UP College of Music.

 

For performances by newcomers , one does not approach the music hall expectating the musicality of veteran pianists, especially those who have performed with the PPO of late such as Licad, Gulyak, Tiu, Sunico, Cruz, etc. One does not think of rarities such as Evgeny Kissin, who in 1984 at twelve years old wowed audiences with a mature-and by that I mean deeply nuanced-and now legendary playing of the two Choly pin piano concertos.

 

Mr. Paguirigan tackled the technical passages of the concerto with confidence, although the PPO sounded under-rehearsed in some parts. Perhaps the members were bogged down by the thought that they were accompanying a student pianist, I'm not sure. One would have expected a contrast in playing in this situation: the duet of a seasoned musician and an inexperienced colleague. Certainly Mr. Paguirigan has not that many concertos performances under his belt, but the PPO has accompanied a lot of pianists. With the Liszt that night, both soloist and orchestra sounded young.  

today i want to be a kiwi

Congratulations to an inspiring people. Because love is what it's all about.

the great miracle of evolution

At the end we are left with the reflection that human consciousness is the great miracle of evolution, and all the rest (sight, sound, taste, hearing, smell, touch) are simply a toolbox that consciousness has supplied for itself.

 --from Roger Ebert's review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

rest in peace, roger ebert

Roger Ebert, 70. 

I am one of thousands of avid and grateful readers who will miss you.

That said, bravo to the man who has made popular film review an art form. 

get well soon, ebert

This saddens me. I love Roger Ebert's writing.

holiday trove

A late post. My holiday treat to myself: Music.

1. EMI set: Handel 100 (6 discs containing 100 various operatic, oratorical, orchestral, instrumental, and vocal works by Georg Frederick Handel)

2. EMI set: Opera Best 100 (6 discs)

3. Jacqueline Du Pre Favourite Concertos (3 discs), including my favorite, the Dvorak Cello Concerto

4. Pierre Fournier Dvorak Cello Concerto (favorite ko talaga)

5. Alfred Brendel: The Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas and Concertos (12 discs)

6. DG Set: Martha Argerich Chamber and Piano Duo performances (6 discs), including the Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor and Tchaikovsky Piano Trio

7. Beethoven Complete Symphonies (6 discs)

8. The Art of Cecilia Bartoli

9. Magdalena Kožená: "Ah, Mio Cor'" Handel Arias

10.  Magdalena Kožená: Enchantment (2 discs)

11.Mark Padmore: As Steals the morn... Handel Arias and Scenes for Tenor

12. Handel Opera Arias and Duets: Sandrine Piau, Sara Mingardo, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano

13. Handel: Great Oratorio Duets: Carolyn Sampson, Robin Blaze, Nicholas Kraemer and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

14. Beethoven's 9th Symphony: Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev

15. Beethoven's 5th and 7th Symphonies: Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev

16. Gershwin: An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Andre Previn

17. Imogen Heap and Frou Frou: Icon

18.Sigur Ros: ( )

19. Judy Live at Carnegie Hall: 40th Anniversary Edition (2 discs)

All ordered from amazon and delivered to my sister's home in California. My sister brought them to me when she arrived with my darling niece October last year for their six-month vacation.

monday, march 11

Tonight on the bus home ate konduktor asked me, "Sir, estudyante?" This was at the Morayta-Espanya Junction, where the bright malls outside and the bus lighting inside make for very good lighting indeed. 

I am 35 years old, have always been thought to be in my late twenties, but never, never until tonight had anyone mistaken me for a college student. 

Ate, you made my day.

grieg tiu

I'm in for a treat tonight.

Surprise, surprise. The PPO performs the Grieg Piano Concerto tonight, with Albert Tiu as featured soloist. From past PPO blurbs I thought the programme would be limited to operatic, uhm, "Shakespearean" arias (Will the Soprano sing that famous Verdi Macbeth aria?). There was no mention of a concerto of any kind.

Last time I heard Tiu play, it was the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto.

(Whoa, I haven't blogged in a very long time. I'll be posting my thoughts on the Cayabyab Violin Concerto soon.)

brahms after tension

Had a stressful commute on the way to work—nasty drivers (why can't they obey traffic rules and be considerate to the other motorists?), passengers fighting with each other and with the drivers, the usual traffic at Espanya—and so I decided to listen to Brahms as soon as I got to the office.

Which probably isn't the way to relax. The man is not exactly easy listening.

I know of at least two people who has Brahms as their favorite composer: critic Alex Ross, and Condoleezza Rice (who needs no title). Asked about her passion for Brahms, Rice replied that his music was "passionate without being sentimental"—to which the cellist Yoyo Ma quipped, "Do you also think it's this irresolution in Brahms, the tension that is never resolved?" (Link to the Newsweek/Evan Thomas article here.)

I'm still debating whether I should attend the PPO's performance of his Second Symphony this coming Friday.

11/11/12

Haven't done this in a long time, listening to Artur Rubinstein play Chopin, alone in my room, dark with a lone candle burning.

so happy!

Photo grab from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, courtesy of the Agence France Presse

I know he's not my president. But I admire the man greatly. He's made me less cynical. He inspires me. Kudos to the Americans!