Ingrid Santamaria and Reynaldo Reyes played at F. Santiago Hall Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsodie — 24 Variations on a Theme by Paganini and Concerto No. 2 in C Minor last July 19; they will play Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5 in E Flat Major (Emperor) and Schumann’s Concerto in A Minor on July 28, and Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3 in D Minor and Tschaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor on August 2 in the same venue.
Incredibly enough, they rendered all these six concertos in a single night at the Manila Polo Club last July 8 as part of their 14th Romantic Music Journey. The concert for a select audience was in honor of former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, an avid art patron in her time, who was marking her 78th birthday.
Listeners must have gone home with passages of the concertos ringing in their ear. (A medley of melodies and harmonies are still ringing in mine!) Strictly speaking, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsodie is not a concerto, but might be regarded as one for convenience.
Annotator Rey said Ingrid as soloist was playing without a score while he, as orchestra, was using one because no orchestra renders a concerto without a score. In this regard, Ingrid enjoys an edge, having memorized the concertos through the years while Rey, himself a concert pianist who, having likewise memorized the scores for soloist, has had to shift gears and learn the orchestral arrangements (transcriptions) for the journey.
The 24 Variations were played in a crisp, brisk manner, particularly the opening staccato passages. The work’s appeal lay in its irresistibly exquisite melodies and intense expressive power.
Rachmaninoff’s concertos suited his uncommonly wide finger span, for which reason most pianists should not essay them. But there is hardly any ranking pianist who has not played the Second Concerto; indeed, it has never disappeared from the concert programs of the world, and Rachmaninoff’s other works of the same period do not match it. Ingrid showed the tremendous energy demanded, with Rey complementing it.
The Emperor’s first long movement carries a beautiful theme and the adagio leads to a lively rondo and finally, to a glorious climax. The soloist had a chance to prove her virtuosity in the grandiloquent first and third movements.
The opening allegro in Schumann’s Concerto is opulent in melody and, treated in the composer’s characteristic fashion, reaches rhapsodic heights sustained by the cadenza. The Intermezzo, restrained and meditative, and the finale’s diverse rhythms enhance the Concerto’s supreme romanticism. Although Schumann is not as great as Beethoven, he is justifiably dubbed by musicologists as the “voice of romanticism” for his harmonic, rhythmic and melodic beauty.
Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto is another pinnacle in his creations — “a broadening of his musical conscience, an enrichment of harmonic material, a delineation of features and thematical combinations not found in the Second Concerto, with the striving for strict thematic unity resulting in a close filigree-like web of notes.” Further, musicologists believe the name “piano symphony” is even more applicable to the Third Concerto.
Tschaikovsky’s B Flat Minor is likewise material for the virtuoso. (Van Cliburn played it here in 1973 as Mme. Marcos’ visiting artist.) Tightly integrated, it is infused with “barbaric splendor, opulent color, gusto, manliness and high spirits, the cadenza being extremely challenging and flamboyant.” Its spontaneity is combined with disciplined technique.
Formidable and forbidding as the six concertos were, Ingrid in addition played Buencamino’s “Mayon” and Rey Santiago’s “Souvenir de Pilipinas”. Throughout, soloist Ingrid displayed stamina and power, astonishing memory, tonal clarity and ineffable richness of hues, considerable skill for the most complex configurations, and fidelity to style. As “orchestra”, Rey was admirable. Their unprecedented feat and tour de force placed them alongside our leading pianists today.