An auspicious debut for Eugene Castillo

Eugene Castillo has wielded the baton over the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra on past occasions, but his performance last Friday at the CCP main theater was his official debut, a most auspicious one, as the PPO’s new principal conductor — music director. The significant event became even more so, opening as it did PPO’s 21st season and coinciding with the CCP’s 35th anniversary.

With highly impressive credentials from the US, Castillo struck a fine balance between contemporary and classic (romantic) music, conveying firm command of the ensemble and authoritative grasp of both idioms. Apparently, he is determined to re-mold public musical taste as might be deducted from modern works (announced in the printed program) which he intends to interpret in succeeding concerts with the 63-member PPO.

Angel Peña’s Hindu-inspired Trinity: A Symphonic Cycle featured dramatic contrasts in rhythm, dynamics and orchestral textures to depict activity in "Creation," physical and spiritual serenity in "Preservation" and upheaval in "Dissolution". The unending contrasts, ebb and rise sustained attention throughout the imaginatively descriptive work, both composer and conductor garnering long, lusty applause onstage. (During intermission, Peña relayed to me his extreme gratification over Castillo’s reading of the score.)

Here, Adagio for Strings is the most frequently played of Barber’s compositions, and Castillo confessed to the audience he had interpreted it for the first time years ago. (I hope I heard him right.) I might define the "Adagio" as an etude for string dynamics. Taut, tense, cohesive, the strings delineated a gamut of volumes – from filigree, feathery pianissimos to gently ascending fortissimos while beautiful melodic lines smoothly and continuously flowed. The rendition, superbly controlled, was exquisite.

In Barber’s much less lyrical, seemingly aleatory Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Camille Lopez’s voice soared magnificently though James Agree’s nostalgic lyrics of childhood memories were not always clear.

To Castillo’s immense credit, he chose Brahm’s Symphony No. 4 in E Minor which musicologists regard not only vastly superior to his other three, but also a major work in all symphonic literature. Its movements are uncommon by conventional standards: three allegros in four movements, the last, allegro energetico e passionato, being a passacaglia (a theme with variations in triple time).

Castillo’s manner of creating intense musical momentum, with the melody surfacing in movement after movement, was riveting. The opening by the trombones of the last allegro, followed by long flute passages (by Enrique Barcelo) augured remarkably for the brasses and woodwinds which, with the other sections, presaged the towering climax. How eloquently etched was the brilliant orchestration!

Curtain calls, thunderous applause and cheers underscored Castillo’s auspicious debut.