Russian romanticist/Rodel-Cocoy concert

In the CCP concert for the benefit of our soldiers, comely soprano Joanna Go, a British Columbia U. graduate, rendered three Mozart songs: Allelujah, an aria from The Magic Flute and another from Don Giovanni. Her phrasing and inflection, which infused color to the songs, were part of her meticulous attention to stylistic matters. Her top notes were solid, firm, and long sustained. The talented singer elicited warm applause.

Russian pianist Katya Grineva — young, slim, tall and attractive, with long blonde tresses — instantly identified herself as a romanticist by her choice of works and interpretation. Except for Ravel, De Falla, Granados and Astor Piazzolla, the composers were romantic.

Schubert’s songs are of love, nature, religious devotion and death. Grineva played Schubert-Liszt’s Swan Song with an extended, finely graded pianissimo which conveyed exquisite lyricism. The same pianissimo characterized the ensuing Ave Maria, also by Schubert-Liszt, its appealing melody lingering in the memory, a typical effect of Schubert’s songs. The dynamics were still pervasively soft in Schumann-Liszt’s Dedication (Widmung). It must have been the pianist’s limpid, flowing tones that earned the description “liquid, dream-like” from the NY Times and “lyrical, exquisitely refined” from the Buffalo News.

Chopin’s waltzes, when viewed from the wider range of his works, are mostly trivial, surprisingly emanating from the vastly innovative, revolutionary pianoforte genius. But Grineva captured the charm of the Waltzes (C Sharp Minor and E Minor), her nimble fingers reflecting Chopin’s unique, distinctive rubato rhythms.

The nocturnes have been regarded as Chopin’s expression of yearning for a lost love, and the listener felt the sensitivity and poetic nuances of the E Flat Major and C Sharp Minor interpretations.

As for the contemporary pieces, in Granados’ Playera, Grineva evinced stately grace. Incidentally, Ravel’s Bolero, originally written for the orchestra, has been transcribed for the piano, two pianos, the jazz band and even for the harmonica! Ravel’s remarkable feat consists of a single theme and a single rhythmic pattern. The volume starts with hardly audible pianissimos, slowly and steadily increasing until it reaches tremendous fortissimos. Owing to Grineva’s lack of power, her progression did not lead to a towering climax. In De Falla’s evocative and highly descriptive “Fire Dance”, with its strong, fast-changing rhythms, Grineva’s gradations in dynamics did not achieve the required daunting climax either. The two tangos by Piazzolla, which employ a variety of techniques — clusters, pizzicatos, glissandos — were stylistically played. But because of Grineva’s same limitations, the tangos like the Fire Dance and the Bolero, seemed wanting in dramatic contrasts, in fire and sparkle which would have excited and electrified listeners.

It was indeed in the romantic works that Grineva, conveying artistry and keen musicianship, gratified. Many present gave her a standing ovation, to which she graciously responded with another Chopin piece and Debussy’s Claire de Lune. No less than former President Fidel V. Ramos handed her the standard bouquet.

Former First Lady Ming Ramos, principal fund-raisers — Manoling Morato and Offie Bakker — and AFP Chief Gen. Alexander B. Yano gave brief but meaningful remarks.

On Friday, Nov. 28, the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra under Rodel Colmenar, and singer Cocoy Laurel, the total artist, will perform at the Dasmariñas Village Park under the auspices of the DV Association headed by President Backie Celdran.

The invitation has this enticement: “Playing and singing your favorite classical, contemporary, and Christmas songs right in the comfort of your own village.”

Although I am a DV resident, I won’t be able to attend the significant concert, to my deepest regret, having committed myself to the Puccini Concert also on Nov. 28 at the Mandarin Ballroom.