FilFest's 'Tutti Celli': Celestial vs. Mundane

Celestial music is usually expected from a master cellist, and Renato Lucas did create that when he opened FilFest’s “Tutti Celli” concert at the Insular Life auditorium in Alabang with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue from Suite No. 5.

Four cellists led by Lucas then interpreted Harmegeddon, the first number from Metallica, its selections expressly composed for the cello. Lucas played the initial melodic passages, then joined the three in strong, pulsating thrusts that produced robust, “earthly” sounds.

Nothing Else Matters, One, Fade to Black were rendered by a cello quartet, with Lucas explaining their meaning or substance to the audience. In “One”, the composer had thoughts of suicide which he later rejected, leading many listeners to write him later that they, too, had given up taking their lives after hearing his work.

The final number, “Master of Puppets”, an anti-war piece, had long, lugubrious lines played together by eight cellists under the direction of Lucas, lines evocative of death and destruction.

All the Metallica pieces produced a totally new dimension of cello-playing, with the brisk plucking of strings, the sparkling staccatos, a glissando, the pizzicatos — all these in atonalities providing a considerable, indeed, a devastating impact, not previously experienced, on the listeners.

Handel’s Passacaglia was reminiscent of Bach in its fluid style, creating luminous, ethereal sounds once more.

Musicologists, among them David Ewen, describe Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos as a composer of so many different veins, of so many different forms, and for so many different combinations of instruments. He has been Romantic, impressionistic and decidedly modern.

Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras, with its atonalities, propulsive rhythms, syncopations and varied harmonic devices, is “decidedly modern”. Further, it calls to mind the jungle, musicologists aver, which is vividly Brazilian.

Another musicologist, Nicolas Slominsky, points out that Villa-Lobos is pragmatic. “Every piece he writes has a story; his music is almost anarchistic in its disregard of the performer’s limitations. When Villa-Lobos needs a certain sonority, he expects the player to produce it. Yet Villa-Lobos’ music is not unplayable; it is merely difficult in an untraditional way.”

The eight cellists under Conductor Lucas did not find the composer’s music “unplayable”; they interpreted its aural and rhythmic complexities brilliantly. Instead of celestial music, the pounding sounds — particularly the same single note the cellists repeatedly played with tremendous vigor and force — were not of heaven but of this earth, generating considerable auditory excitement. Again, it was a unique dimension that greeted the ear.

The eight performers were Giancarlo Gonzales, Gerry Graham Gonzales, Herrick Ortiz, Joseph Magsakay, Michael Buenaventura, Nehemiah Lipana, Arnold Josue and Guiseppe Andre Diestro. They must surely aspire to achieve the technical virtuosity and consummate artistry of the legendary Pablo Casals, with inspiration and example provided by Lucas.

Already, they are extremely fine cellists whose varying degrees of excellence will be long remembered. Their classic encore under Lucas returned to the celestial realm.

The event celebrated the 100th anniversary of Insular Life, and was in memory of the eminent cellist Vicente Lopez, Jr., granduncle of “emcee” Martin Lopez who announced that FilFest, headed by the enterprising music lover and avid patron Vicky F. Zubiri, will be staging “Tutti Tango” on Oct. 23 with the music of Astor Piazzola, and the dances of choreographer Myrna Beltran to be executed by Reagan Cornelio, Christine Crame Santillan, Jun Saagundo, and Beltran. Pundaquit Chamber Players — violinist Alfonso Bolipata, pianist Jordan Petalver, accordionist Jonathan Coo and clarinetist Jayson Rivera will accompany them.

On Nov. 14, “Tutti Opera”, with arias from Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen and others, will feature Rachelle Gerodias, Camille Lopez, Jenny Uy, Jon Joven, Maricris Joaquin, Ana Feleo, Joy Tamayo, Meliza Reyes, Lena MacKenzie, Mar Jeannele Roldan and Joel Alinsunurin.