The small maestro, Fabien Tehericsen, wields a big stick

The printed program indicated at once music of singular breadth and magnitude, ranging as it did from Debussy’s impressionistic Afternoon of a Faun, to Beethoven’s classic-romantic Symphony No. 9 (the programmatic Pastoral) to Poulenc’s major religious work Stabat Mater and finally, to Bernstein’s symphonic jazz, the Broadway musical Westside Story.

The above fare of awesomely diverse styles would be Maestro Fabien Tehericsen’s prodigious contribution to French Spring in Manila 2003.

When the small conductor ascended the CCP podium last Sunday, he was to wield, figuratively, a very big stick over the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra, the same ensemble that had been featured in the first French Spring five years ago.

Prelude to L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune (to be turned subsequently into a ballet) conveyed a tantalizing palette of tonal colors – vague, hazy, blurred – characteristically shimmering pastel hues the listener "sees" in a Debussy composition.

Although the Maestro valiantly attempted to sustain interest in the initial movements of The Pastoral, these were rather languorous, indeed, almost bordering on the edge of tedium. But it was through no fault of the man with the stick because the passages are some of the most staid and uninspired ever penned, incredible as it might seem, by the titan Beethoven, despite the recurring melodious theme of the second movement and the aural depiction of meadows and a rippling brook.

But Maestro Tehericsen rose to the challenge of the last movement with its tremendous climaxes projecting the thunder and lightning of a gathering storm – thus drawing attention to his mighty and magnificent baton.

Galvanizing the musical forces needed by the 12-section Stabat Mater – a soprano, Rachelle Gerodias; a choir, a much-augmented Madrigal Singers to fill out the required five-part chorus, and an ensemble, the Manila Philharmonic – Maestro Tehericsen came up in the dauntingly complex work of starkly contrasting moods by Poulenc – arguably the foremost song composer of the 20th century – with a powerful, dramatic and exalted interpretation, awakening in the listener a strong, deeply religious fervor.

The petite, beguiling Gerodias was in superb form, her timber smooth and refined as silk, her volume masterfully controlled to produce exquisite pianissimos slowly developing into fortissimos that soared above the orchestra (playing tutti!) and the gloriously full-throated chorus.

The internationally-awarded choir was profoundly moving, compelling in its robustness, dramatically abrupt pauses and not any less in it’s a cappella rendition that pointed up its vocal excellence.

The orchestra, for its part, marvelously responded to the vigorous, acutely sensitive and authoritative cueing of the man whose conducting style, it was obvious, did not resort to tawdry exhibitionism.

The finale, Bernstein’s Westside Story was fittingly played with electrifying orchestral virtuosity. The dissonances, syncopations, frenetic rhythms, the sweep, verve and rousing bursts of sound from woodwinds, brasswinds and percussions – the Maestro had these down pat without shifting gears, as he fully captured the pulse, beat, drive and zing of Bernstein’s Big Apple.

It was amazing. Exhilarating. A tour de force.

Emerging exhausted from the long, formidable program, but smiling with disarming modesty, the slim, diminutive, frail-looking conductor shyly received a bouquet and a buss from Ambassador Renée Veyret, and a prolonged, rousing applause from the audience. Meanwhile, Gerodias received a bouquet from Counselor Franck Hebert.

As the youthful Rodel Colmenar – founder, trainer, music director-conductor of the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra – was called to the stage for his richly deserved share of recognition, performers and organizers took a bow once again for another triumphant Franco-Fil cultural collaboration.