All that FAS

The Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Filipino Artists Series has been a showcase of the best talents the Philippines has to offer. When it celebrated its 15th anniversary last July, it had already presented more than a hundred Filipino artists from the classical, jazz, pop and alternative genres.

The opening concert last July was an example of the successes the FAS has achieved these years. Featuring bass-baritone Jonathan Zaens, flutist Antonio Maigue, cellist Wilfredo Pasamba and pianist Mariel Illusorio, it was a smorgasbord of riches, a rare program of chamber music that was possible with the combination and expertise offered by the four artists.

Rene Dalandan’s concert, the second installment of this year’s FAS series, covered a broad program of piano music. The featured pieces by Haydn, Beethoven, Tupas, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev were intended to highlight not just the pianist’s range but also his dexterity and strength.

However, there was a sameness in playing, a percussive touch. Haydn’s Sonata No. 53 in e-minor, Hob. XVI/34 didn’t feel like Haydn in its rather indulgent approach, which might have been better in the Beethoven. Beethoven’s Sonata No. 18 in E-flat, Op. 31 No.3 was rather percussive, perhaps in preparation for the fierce performance of Benjamin Tupas’ Toccata. After the break, the selection of Rachmaninoff preludes was rather un-Rachmaninoff in approach, a bit too frenetic and heavy in touch. This was just perfect in the concert’s last piece, Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 in B-flat, Op. 83, the Soviet master’s aural depiction of World War II. Here was truly virtuosic playing.

The encore, Scriabin’s Nocturne for the Left Hand, was too fierce. Rather than the soft tone-painting that would fit an evening song, Dalandan was a bit forward. His other encore, Buencamino’s Mayon, Fantasia de Concerto, was a show-stopper, the perfect finale to an evening of strong piano playing.

Violinist Gina Medina, featured in the third FAS installment, presented a balanced program of challenging virtuoso and classic pieces for the violin and piano.

It was in the interval that Medina showed her mettle as an artist. In the solo passages of Chausson’s Poeme, Ravel’s Tzigane and Gilopez Kabayao’s transcription for solo piano of the children’s tune Bahay Kubo that she showed her strength. A command of melody and dexterous finger work showed that she is master of her instrument. Maybe the Tzigane lacked a more Gypsy feel or that the Poeme demanded the colors of an orchestra to show its true beauty, but she showed that she had these pieces in her hands.

Her partner, pianist J. Greg Zuniega, proved to be her equal, particularly in coaxing the myriad colors from the French violin pieces.

Surprisingly, one of the more interesting concerts recently was not an installment of the CCP’s Filipino Artist Series. Pianist Jonathan Arevalo Coo’s concert on the music of Frederic Chopin and National Artist for Music Lucrecia Kasilag, titled "A Journey to Chopin and Kasilag’s Piano World," proved to be a refreshing program of rare – Kasilag’s – and popular – Chopin’s – works for the piano.

Coo opened the first half of his concert with five selections by Kasilag, documenting Kasilag’s growth as a composer. The impressionistic April Morning (Fantasie Tone-Poem), based on the poem by Angela Manalang Gloria, which opened the concert, was a fragrant morceau reminiscent of a Debussy prelude. The remaining pieces, as the pianist explained, showed Kasilag’s continuing interest in the fifth interval. From Burlesque to Seredipity, the Rondeau and the massive Elegy on Mt. Pinatubo, Kasilag’s signature as a music theorist was evident in her continuing exploration of this musical interval.

Coo’s mini-lecture that prefaced each piece was helpful in pointing out to the laymen in his audience what exactly to look for in Kasilag’s music. However, his lectures slowed down the concert a bit. Written program notes would have speeded up things.

The second half of the concert was a stirring performance of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in b-minor, Op. 58. Coo admitted that when he played Chopin in a piano competition when he was 17, he was told by the judges that he was still too young to play Chopin. At best, his traversal of Chopin’s sonata was successful in parts rather than as a unified piece of music. The audience had a clear idea how exactly Chopin drew from his wealth of knowledge of the piano in writing down this piece, his last piano sonata.

The pianist is only 27. He still has time to subsume Chopin’s disparate ideas into the sonata this piece should be. It would be interesting to see how differently Coo would interpret this Chopin sonata as he gains the wisdom of years. It is something worth listening to.