Ooh, la la! Those Frenchmen!

French spring in Manila in January?

No, but it might as well have been when the Cultural Center of the Philippines in cooperation with the Ambassade de France aux Philippines presented Maestro Dominique Fanal, music director of the Sinfonietta de Paris, who conducted the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert that featured works by Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud and Maurice Ravel.

Billed as Concert for Two Pianos, a title that applied to the highlight of the program, the presentation in its entirety bubbled cheerfully like champagne.

Maestro Fanal popped the opening number with a resounding forte to serve a la mode to the overture to Berlioz’ opera comique, Beatrice et Benedict. The guest conductor and the PPO romped through the contrasting themes of the piece in a bouncy banter of wits between Shakespeare’s comic protagonists in Much Ado About Nothing, making much musical ado of the overture that reflects the boisterous spirit of the opera.

Cloyingly sweet as crème de menthe are the tunes of the ballet music from Gounod’s Faust, or should this music be compared to something Germanic like Liebsfrausmilch? What can the listener find against music filled with romantic even exotic melodies in abundance from "Les Nubiennes" to the "Variations de Cleopatre" to the "Dance de Phryne"? The dance of "Les Troyens" was delivered in a faster tempo than is generally heard in recordings but who would quibble when it was delivered with an air of authority deserves to be carried off by Mephistopheles to the Ninth Circle of the Inferno.

The centerpiece of the concert was Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor with Cristine Coyiuto and Raul Sunico applying their magical touch on the keyboards. Complementing one another, one with the clarity of white like Chateauneuf de Pape, the other with the crimson of Merlot, these artists invested their account with Gallic charm with Maestro Fanal and the PPO lending full support. Dissonances are tempered with lyricism, lighthearted humor runs through the score, the effect is Mozartian in its frivolous moments such that the total effect cannot be anything less that absolutely charming, and all these the pianists and the orchestra served in full measure.

The high spirits continued with Milhaud’s Le Boeuf sur le Toit but the French element acquired a fiery Latin American temper in its rhythms. Popular and as heady as rum and Coca Cola, the polytonal piece employs a melody that is repeated again and again as in a rondo but the humor is carried further to the point of the ironic, the satirical and the absurd as the title implies. Maestro Fanal and the ensemble could do no less than remain faithful to the spirit of Jean Cocteau who influenced the composer in his creation of this work.

The final number of the concert was Ravel’s Bolero, that familiar piece with its interminable repetition of the same theme and the monotonous if not hypnotic rhythm on the side drum. What keeps the listener mesmerized is the ever changing instrumental colors as the melodic material is passed on from one instrument or set of instruments to another, the whole work a relentless crescendo building up to a climax marked by a sudden shift in tonality and a thunderous fortississimo coda.

Ever downed a huge pitcher of Madrid sangria? The effect is the same. If you staggered out of the CCP Main Theater blissfully intoxicated, blame Maestro Fanal and the PPO. They have only worked their wonders.

French spring in Manila concert hall in January? Why not?

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