Lee: Poetic and dramatic / Yap's enchanting musical

The 28-year old Korean pianist Jinsang Lee, in his concert at Philamlife Theater, conveyed startlingly profound understanding and feeling for romantic music. The two opening numbers in Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” — of indisputable originality — were utterly gentle, delicate, subdued, Lee’s fingers scarcely touching the keyboard. The often heard Hunting Song, Duetto, and Spinning Song were intensely spirited as were the remaining two, the stark contrast pointing up Lee’s remarkably diverse dynamics.

His technical skill grew increasingly impressive, his sensibility and subtlety more eloquent in the Chopin Mazurkas, three of the total 56 interpreted. Through their exotic harmonies and melodic intervals, Lee conveyed joyous, sweet, dreamy, morbid moods. In the three Nocturnes Lee evoked nostalgia, dark musings, yearning, loneliness. Nocturnes are said to be the most “Chopinesque” of Chopin’s piano works, and Lee captured their very essence.

The pianist played no compositions of “fire and brimstone,” none of bombast. But certain of Mendelssohn’s Songs, Ferdinand Hiller’s romantic Sonata and the finale, Chopin’s Variations Brillantes in B Flat Major, had the most nimble runs and thunderous chords, both at considerable speed requiring masterful technique.

In the romantic program of exciting new interest, Lee fascinatingly shifted from poetic to dramatic, eliciting the keenest audience appreciation. To the lusty applause he responded with one of several in the ballet “Chopiniana,” and the Chopin-Liszt transcription of “Maiden’s Wish.”

Eminent concertist Ingrid S. Santamaria, who placed leis on the pianist’s shoulders, had served offstage, as hospitable fairy godmother to him.

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At the Manila Polo Club Lounge, the Music Admiration Society’s “An Enchanting Evening of Music” on the theme love and despair, with concept and direction by Society president Eduardo H. Yap, was marvelously colorful, professional and tightly woven together, with each number flowing into the next in seamless, swift pacing.

Further, soprano Joy Abalon, tenors Lemuel de la Cruz and Sherwin Sozon, and baritone Christopher Yu turned the presentation into an auditory and visual delight. Actually, the program was a “repeat” but Broadway songs and arias were added along with theatrical touches which rendered the singing more dramatic. Indeed, Yap’s choice of the numbers, and the operatic lore in his brief remarks exhibited surprisingly wide musical background.

Abalon renderd arias from two Puccini operas; she and De la Cruz interpreted duets from La Boheme, La Traviata and “The Merry Widow.” “Stranger in Paradise” featured Sozon and Abalon.

A show-stopper was De la Cruz’s interpretation of Il Lamento di Federico from Cilea’s L’Arlesiana, his powerful voice intensely gripping in Federico’s lament and remorse, or deeply moving in long, exquisite pianissimo lines. The tenor was reportedly ill but his magnificent performance proved the spirit prevailing over physical pain.

Likewise arresting was Abalon’s portrayal of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute, her delivery exhibiting tremendous dramatic power and mastery in the rapid flurry of staccatos in the top register. What terrific vocal soliloquy! In Velez’s Sa Kabukiran, Abalon’s elegant finery contradicted rustic simplicity.

Sozon had his share of ardent attention in the Italian, Chinese and Neapolitan songs and in the duet and trio, his voice firm, forceful and controlled. But in Vesti la Giubba from Pagliacci, he seemed rather wanting in passion, in the heart-wrenching fury of a deceived husband driven later to killing his shameless wife.

Young Christopher Yu, compellingly zestful and spirited in “This Is the Moment,” electrified the audience. The concert ended with the glorious ensemble singing of “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” and “Phantom of the Opera” with Yu as an amusing rather than terrifying phantom. Pianist Jude Areopagita and violinist Merjohn Lagaya admirably enriched the songs. The rousing applause calls for still another “repeat.”