Pianist Cecile Licad’s very rare talent goes way beyond virtuosity

Prefatory remarks

In 2003, after a concert by the Asian Youth Orchestra at the CCP main theater, I went backstage to congratulate violin soloist Leila Leifowitz. There and then, out of nowhere, Cecile Licad emerged and told Leila, within everyone’s hearing, "Miss Orosa discovered me."

I did foist Cecile upon the public when she was only 11. Indeed, I had already written a series of feature articles on her before she gave a recital at the CCP main theater, looking as though she had stumbled on the stage in her First Communion dress.

I continued writing on her before and after she had gone to Curtis to study, with her parents dropping by the house every now and then to give me printed materials on Cecile. Long after she won the Leventritt Award at age 19 – Gary Graffman, Van Cliburn, Malcolm Frager were among previous winners – I kept chronicling her travails and triumphs abroad.

When Mrs. Rosario Buencamino Licad wrote a book titled My Daughter Cecile (1994), a copy of which my sister Leonor bought for me, Mrs. Licad expressed her appreciation by writing this dedication, "To my dear Rosalinda, We shall always remember what you did for Cecile. Thank you. R.B. Licad".

More than 30 years have passed since I first wrote on Cecile, and I am still reviewing her performances!

After she won the Leventritt Award, Harold Schonberg, NY Times music critic, who heard her play in the Tanglewood Music Festival (just outside Boston), commented: "Hers is a major talent, and this 19-year old girl will be no stranger to the concert halls of the world in the near future." Seymour Lipkin, Cecile’s first mentor in Curtis, sent her this cable: "I know you will be a great success."

These foregoing intimations of greatness, among many, have been subsequently fulfilled. Cecile now appears with the most prestigious orchestras and conductors – Ormandy, Previn, Mehta, Ozawa, Rostropovich, Abbado, Marinner, to mention a few.

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That Cecile is doubtless a major pianist in the international circuit was proven by her recital at the Philamlife auditorium last Thursday. She poured her mind, heart, soul, sentiment – as well as artistry and sensitivity – into her playing, infusing her individuality and personality into each piece, thus creating it as her own.

The opening Fantasy in C Minor by Mozart, technically advanced for his time, had a richness of nuances, from the magical pianissimos to the sparkling brio passages, the constant shifting in dynamics lending charming drama to the piece.

Chopin’s twelve Etudes are exercises addressing digital problems; for instance, it aims to increase left hand dexterity, to make arpeggios, double octaves and runs smooth and even, to infuse power to chords, to render touch delicate, tones resonant, accents energetic, phrasing eloquent. Often one piece targets a combination of several technical aspects. But the glory of these Etudes is that rising from mere studies, they turn into exquisite music, into sheer poetic interludes, with Cecile interpreting each superbly. Masterfully, like a grand adventure. Whenever a melody encompassed an etude – one of them sounded like a nocturne – the pianist would make it sing predominantly. Etudes 10 and 11 evoked the raging elements with its fiery chords and sweeping runs, the imperturbable Cecile boggling the mind with her rendition.

In this regard, the word "virtuosity" is often over-used, and as such it has become at times something of a cliché. What the imperturbable Cecile demonstrated in the Etudes was way beyond virtuosity; she amazed the audience not merely with awesome finger dexterity and tremendous power, but also with a combination of bristling temperament, eclat and emotional exuberance.

Cecile’s interpretation of Chabrier’s Impromptu exuded verve, spontaneity, and brilliant wit characteristic of the composer.

A biographer describes Rachmaninoff as a "sad and lonely man whose intense melancholy and perpetual feeling of desolation echo and re-echo in his music." Indeed, his Sonata in B Flat Minor sounded heavy and lugubrious. There was a sense of fatalism in the massive, ponderous chords, the masterfully structured piece balanced, however, by its lyricism. Again, Cecile gloriously proved more than a match to the immensely challenging, expansive and densely textured work.

Cecile having effortlessly reconquered Manila’s music lovers, their thunderous, deafening applause and standing ovation brought on three encores from the pianist who, surprisingly, betrayed no signs of exhaustion after so demanding and strenuous a program. She played a fanciful, whimsical, clever and witty composition by Gottchalk, with her body swaying to the fast, quirky tempo. This was followed by F. Buencamino’s florid Maligayang Bati and a relatively unknown work by a French composer, which work Cecile described as "calm and quiet". Delicately etched by her, it drastically contrasted with the earlier Strum und Drang that had generally characterized the extraordinary recital.

Manila audiences earnestly look forward to Cecile’s re-conquering and re-captivating them again – soon.