Mixed array/ Book launch

My review of “Voices at the CCP” should have included the duet O Suave fancuilla from Puccini’s opera La Boheme rendered by tenor Nolyn Cabahug and soprano Camille Lopez Molina. It was a concert highlight, with the singers exquisitely melding their resonant voices which very slowly diminished in volume as they exited. The pressure — or tyranny — of the deadline caused the omission.

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Eugene F. Castillo, music director and principal conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, is of a literary bent. Invariably coming up with imaginative titles for PPO concerts, he named the most recent one “Mixed Array”. True to his innovativeness, he included two contemporary American works — John Corigliano’s Promenade Overture and Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2 — combining these with Joaquin Rodrigo’s Fantasia para un Gentilhombre (Fantasy for a Gentleman) which featured Sixto “Butch” Roxas as guitar soloist.

The inventive Corigliano opened his overture with an almost empty stage; only a few percussionists and trumpeteers were present. As the music started, a piccolo player gingerly made her entrance, followed successively by other wind and brass players, cellists and violinists — all performing on their instruments while taking their seats. The tuba player rushed in to join the ensemble, increasing the already massive volume which had kept steadily growing.

The first and third sections exuded a conspicuously martial air — one envisioned soldiers marching briskly. The middle section was gently lyrical, the melodies flowing. Maestro Castillo marshaled his forces with a sure, vigorous hand in the outer sections to contrast these with the languorous, lambent inner section.

The orchestra was considerably reduced to a small contingent of violins and cellos and a few wind instruments for Rodrigo’s Fantasia as leading, brilliant guitarist Roxas performed. The work was richly evocative of the Spanish spirit, flavored by a somewhat martial ambiance followed by diverse rhythms of various dances. Roxas conveyed nimble, often virtuosic, finger work and sensitive nuances which drew lusty applause, the guitarist responding with an encore.

Although Ives absorbed influences from Brahms, Wagner, Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner and even Dvorak — as the program notes aver —  and noticeably incorporated American songs, his symphony, rather than being an incongruous patchwork, tightly integrated and seamlessly interwove them, thus surfacing with an original piece.

The long lyrical lines, especially of the third movement, Adagio Cantabile — enlivened and enhanced by the luminous, sonorous glowing solo by principal cellist Renato Lucas — ended in vigorous, robust, thunderous tuttis.

The composition was occasionally tedious and repetitive but on the whole, with Castillo’s baton stressing the sweeping, climactic tuttis, it startled the audience and compelled attention.

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The family of the late Sarah K. Joaquin, led by her son Tony, will launch her memoirs “Of Laughter and Tears” on Friday, March 14, at the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati.

Sister-in-law of National Artist Nick Joaquin, Sarah taught English, Spanish and acting at the FEU where she was drama director for many years. With National Artists Bert and Daisy Avellana, she was a founding member of the Barangay Theater Guild, and appeared with the original cast in Nick Joaquin’s “Portrait of the Artist as Filipino” in the Intramuros ruins of the late fifties. The memoirs recount her education at the CEU and the UP, her career and marriage to jazz pianist and Clover Theater band leader Ping Joaquin and her retirement in Virginia, USA.

In Washington DC, at age 87, Sarah directed the zarzuela Ang Kiri (The Coquette) starring noted soprano Evelyn Mandac. Her book, finished shortly before her death at 92 in 2002, mentions her encounters with Benigno Aquino, Recto, Palma, Arsenio Lacson, F. Buencamino, Gerardo de Leon and, of course, Nick Joaquin, among others.