An orchestra hard to match / Chamber ensemble, UP Band

The Sept. 21 concert at the CCP theater was extremely gratifying for a personal reason: the PPO interpreted my favorite Mozart Symphony (No. 4 in G Minor) and my favorite Tchaikovsky Symphony (No. 5 in E Minor, a close rival of the Patethique).

The opening Overture to Colas Breugnon was by Dmitri Kabalevsky who, like most Russian composers, created music reflecting his country’s political or sociological ideologies. However, the Overture is the introduction to an unusual love triangle replete with robust rhythms, expansive harmonies infused with folksy melodies. PPO Conductor Olivier Ochanine faithfully and eloquently delineated all these, the orchestra ending in a fiercely rousing climax.

Sibelius’ Swan of Tuonela was suggestive rather than directly descriptive. Wood and brasswinds, a harp and a few strings were used with the English horn depicting the sacred swan. The tone poem was interpreted in widely diverse gradations of pianissimo which Ochanine superbly sustained from start to finish, thus deepening the mystery surrounding the swan.

Unlike Beethoven’s symphonies which land themselves to philosophic interpretations outside music, Mozart’s symphonies are enjoyed for their own instrinsic musical value.

The first movement of Mozart’s in G Minor is “pellucid” material; its lyricism is so ecstatically beautiful that it seems to overshadow the rest of the movements which, however, when integrated with the first, produce a truly marvelous composition. It has been described as “the work in which classicism and romanticism meet and where once and for all we see a perfect equilibrium between the two.”

Drawing on all the technical and artistic resources of the strings, the baton wielder achieved the results demanded by the symphony: an utmost refinement of tone, a delicacy of sentiment or feeling which, I dare say, would have delighted Mozart himself.

Almost two decades ago, I wrote an article wherein I expressed the wish for all our orchestras to play together as one big ensemble. As though in answer to my wish, the finale, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony was played by the unprecedented Festival Orchestra — conceived and organized by CCP President and artistic director Raul Sunico — consisting of the best instrumentalists from the FILharmonika under Gerard Salonga, the MSO under Arthur Molina, the PREDIS Chamber Orchestra under Jeffrey Solares, the UST Orchestra under Herminigildo Ranera, the Angono Chamber Orchestra under Agripino Diestro, the UP Symphony Orchestra under Edna Marcil Martinez, and not the least, the PPO, with Ochanine wielding the baton over the Festival Orchestra.

Momentarily, I thought I was listening to the New York Philharmonic, not only for quantity of the instrumentalists but also for the quality of sound they were producing — full-bodied, cohesive, resonant, sonorous.

Ochanine was in fine fettle. His conducting, clear and perceptive, was suffused with tremendous dynamism which convayed passion, flair and gusto.

The first movement blended melancholy with gaiety; the second, which began with the horn playing a somber melody, led to a spirited waltz in the third; the fourth, with its pounding rhythms and magnificent orchestration, ended in grand, majestic, sweeping tutti passages that roused the audience beyond measure. A lusty bravo to Ochanine and the Festival Orchestra whose level of performance will not be readily reached by any of the individual ensembles, not even by the PPO. But the standard it has set is most inspiring and worthy of emulation.

The influenza virus caused me to miss the Festival Orchestra’s final concert last Sept. 25 as well as the Sunday performance of the Japanese violin and cello players who form the Manila Chamber Music Ensemble headed by violinist Arimitsu. The invitation came from Shimakawa Hiroko of the Japanese Embassy.

I also missed listening to the Barracks Symphony which featured the UP Symphonic Band headed by highly talented composer-conductor Erwin Fajardo. The Barracks consists of UP College of Music Scholars who depart from the regular repertoire of a symphonic band.