Rudolf Golez electrifies

Fast-rising young pianist Rudolf Golez paid tribute to Chopin on the composer’s 200th birth anniversary by rendering a formidable all-Chopin program — the first concertist to do so.

By some inexplicable circumstance, publicity was scant, thus resulting in a rather limited attendance at Philamlife theater. This, however, did not deter Golez from startling, astonishing and often electrifying his listeners as he interpreted Chopin, the most original composer who incomparably exploited the full resources of the piano as no other composer before or after him did, while garnering the title “poet of the piano”.

Golez began with Twelve Etudes, each created to solve a particular problem of piano technique and to widen its range. No 1 in C Major was replete with arpeggios; No. 12 in C Minor, the “Revolutionary Etude”, was meant to make the left fingers — the weakness of most pianists — nimble, pliant and fleet. The rest of the Etudes likewise tackled specific difficulties presented by octaves, chords, thirds, scales, and runs covering the entire keyboard.

The incurable romantic that Chopin was, he laced each etude — the French word literally means study — with an exquisite melody, making the studies compositions of varying moods and emotions.

Golez matched their technical and subjective demands excellently, with utmost clarity and beauty of tone ever in the swiftest runs and chords as also in the most complex, labyrinthine passages.

Emotional depth was required throughout the program, with “idiosyncrasies” — meaning swings — from depression, doubt, despair to happiness and ecstasy via harmonies and rhythmic changes and rubatos.

The Andante spianato and the Grand Polonaise, played with a vibrancy that gave out sparks, reflected lofty feeling.

Essentially programmatic, the Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, like Chopin’s other three ballades, had a unified structure and typically exquisite melodic lines. It built to a powerful, dramatic climax which Golez masterfully depicted along with the infinitely diverse dynamics.

The Mazurkas, of Polish origin, “more intimate and evanescent” than the Polonaises abounded, intensely Slavic, they had arresting harmonic progressions and intervals, their tones singing, their rhythms vigorous.

Once described as “the perfect music for the full flood of love”, the Barcarolle in F Sharp Major invited cloying sentimentality. Yet Golez meticulously avoided that, his sensitive nuances deeply poignant.

Prefatory remarks were often humorous and amusing. For the Tarantelle, Golez pointed out that when the spider (tarantula) bites, its victim spins faster and faster until he collapses or dies. Golez added that he chose Tarantelle as finale for its “fireworks”. These, in his hands, bristled, the sounds whirling. Indeed, like several other selections, the finale was for the virtuoso, and Golez proved beyond doubt he was one.

He had captured and encompassed Chopin’s spirit and soul — his very essence — with such eloquent grace and impeccable skill, while unraveling the composer’s deepest secrets, that thunderous applause and lusty shouts of approval ensued. For encores, Golez played a Mozart Rondo and another familiar bravura piece by Chopin.

IA workshop/seminar

The Intramuros Administration headed by Bambi Harper, held a seminar/workshop entitled “Intramuros Today and Tomorrow”.

The participants were religious institutions, business establishments, academic institutions, government agencies, NGOs, cultural associations, and concerned individuals and professionals. The activity served as a pre-planning consultation among stakeholders to update the data base on Intramuros, to articulate concerns and to discuss how infrastructures might be improved for more effective delivery of services within this heritage site with the assistance of strategic resource persons.

PAL Chorale Concert

The GSIS Museum will present a free concert of the PAL Chorale under Choirmaster Leo Peter Gonzalez on March 11 at 6 p.m.

Composed of PAL employees, the choir sings for officials and colleagues, street children and cancer patients. It has performed with Jed Madella, Bituin Escalante and Ramon Acoymo.

Gonzalez honed his skills under conductors of the Madrigal Singers.