A radiant evening with the Kabayao Family Quintet
Violinist Gilopez Kabayao may be considered a visionary in the local classical music community. Whereas other artists have devoted their time and effort to broadening their careers here and abroad, Kabayao, with his wife pianist Corazon Pineda-Kabayao, has made it his advocacy to introduce Filipino audiences, particularly students, to an appreciation of classical music. For the past 50 years, he has been conducting musical outreach tours throughout the country performing to varied audiences, often in venues that are unsuited to music making — open-air quadrangles, movie houses, classrooms, and even cockpits. It was through these lecture-recitals that his name is known throughout the country; indeed many old-timers now would most surely remember seeing a performance by the Kabayaos at least once in their lives.
Age might have taken a toll on Kabayao, limiting his appearances on the concert stage. But it has not diminished the sincerity of his music-making, as evidenced in a recent outing with the Kabayao Family Quintet, the opening performance for the 20th anniversary of the Filipino Artists Series of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Together with his wife Corazon and their children Sicilienne, Farida and Gilberto, the Kabayaos offered an evening of intimate music that seemed to bring their audience with them into the comforts of the Kabayao home. Such was the quintet’s rapt concentration that time almost stood still inside the CCP Little Theater. It was only when Corazon Kabayao announced that it was already late in the evening that the audience realized that more than two hours had already passed. Indeed, the family that plays together, stays together and when the Kabayaos play, their audience stays with them, enraptured by their performance.
What is unusual about the Kabayao Family Quintet is that it is an ensemble of four violins and a piano. Such an ensemble is literally unheard of, and the Kabayaos make do with transcriptions for material for their concerts. The FAS concert was no different. Apart from the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Jeffrey Ching, performed with aplomb and conviction by Gilopez and Corazon Kabayao, the rest of the program was composed of transcriptions and arrangements to suit their unique ensemble.
The transcriptions by Corazon Kabayao match the ensemble because she knows the strengths of each member of the group. Her three transcriptions for four violins — Danza de la Gitana by Halffter-Heifetz, Hellmesberger’s Romance, and Kabalevsky’s Rondo — received their premieres in this concert. In these short pieces for solo violin, the sound of the solo instrument was shared by the four violins to create a more colorful and massed sound. Compare these with the performance of the Bach Double Violin Concerto that opened the concert where the solos were played two violins to a part, and the discrepancy in sound and technique was more obvious.
Corazon Kabayao admitted that her children are at different levels of violin playing; indeed, when playing in unison, you hear just that. But in her transcriptions, the different voices were evenly balanced; such was the fluency and intelligence of her transcriptions.
The Mendelssohn Trio in D minor, Op. 49 that ended the concert was also a special arrangement for four violins. You wouldn’t notice the absence of the cello in this piece, so skillfully has it been arranged for the ensemble. Gilopez and Sicilienne took on the deeper voicing originally intended for the cello, showing their strength as violinists, with Farida and Gilberto bestowing beautiful playing on the parts for the violin. But you wouldn’t notice whether the violins were playing the violin or cello parts, so clever was the arrangement.
While the violins might have taken center stage in this concert, it was Corazon Kabayao’s secure playing on the piano that served as the center of the quintet’s performance. In the Bach concerto, you heard the orchestral accompaniment reduced for the piano with much clarity. In the Mendelssohn trio, the piano took equal billing with the violins.
What I wish to hear in the future is Corazon Kabayao playing solo. I would love to hear her Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. Surely, the Kabayao family will enjoy letting their family’s heart be heard on her own.
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Forthcoming concerts under the CCP’s Filipino Artists Series feature pianist Peter Porticos (Aug. 29), violinist Denise Huang (Sept. 26), and mezzo Clarissa Ocampo (Nov. 28). All performances are at the CCP Little Theater at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, call the CCP Box Office at 832-3704 or TicketWorld at 891-9999.
