Standing ovation for Tagala in NAMCYA winners' concert / Not-to-be-missed recitals

The concert of the three NAMCYA first-prize winners at the CCP main theater drew a vast number of young music lovers presumably aspiring for awards NAMCYA has encouragingly dangled before contestants these last 39 years.

As Thursday’s concert progressed, the quality of the performances correspondingly rose.

Jeline Oliva conveyed fluency and high competence in Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor; Gabriel Allan Paguirigan was obviously a virtuoso-in-the-making in Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto in G Minor Op 22; Jimmy Tagala decidedly proved to be a virtuoso in Tchaikowsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major Op 25.

Joline has yet to learn basic amenities in stage behavior. After her entrance, she kept staring at the audience, standing still as a statue without nary a gracious bow. Her playing was assured, her cadenzas impressive, but she still has to infuse her rendition with more sparkle and brio. With more spirit.

Paguirigan startled listeners in Saint-Saens’ long piano introduction, displaying considerable verve and force, maintaining throughout audaciously powerful chords, smooth and swift runs, the concerto’s musical form and content gratifyingly transparent.

However, he could have displayed subtle tonal gradations. He seemed overly dependent on his exciting vigor and vitality, and not enough on artistically nuanced expressivity. Nevertheless, his over-all performance proved him a virtuoso-in-the-making.

Tagala, closely following in the footsteps of his mentor, the long-acclaimed virtuoso Gilopez Kabayao, exhibited immense technical dexterity which the diabolically challenging score required. He established a balance between prodigious skill and eloquent lyricism in the composer’s beautiful melodies. The violinist’s sweep in the cantilena and brief canzonetta, his rapturous dynamics is mind-blowing cadenzas, his magnetic exuberance in the finale — all these were awesome.

Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra music director-conductor Olivier Ochanine began the program with Borodin’s “in the Steppes of Central Asia,” rendering it as a most colorfully descriptive piece through tonal richness, rousing fortissimos, strikingly contrasting rhythms and arresting pauses.

As for his orchestral assistance to the soloists, as shown by his baton-wielding in many past concerts, Ochanine dramatically revealed a masterful grasp of the diverse styles and strictures of form demanded by the Violin Concertos of Wieniawski and Tchaikovsky and the Piano Concerto of Saint-Saens.

At concert’s end, the three soloists appeared together onstage after Tagala had received a thunderous demonstration. The (partial) standing ovation was clearly meant for him.

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• The CCP’s Special Concert Series will include two not-to-be-missed events: the engagements of soprano Katrina Saporsantos and of cellist Antoni Josef Inacay, on Aug. 29 and Sept. 26, respectively at the CCP Little Theater at 7:30 p.m.

• Herewith are the printed program notes on them: Soprano Saporsantos was already very active in the classical music scene even as a UP student. Highlights of her professional engagements then included performances at the International Bamboo Organ Festival, the San Agustin International Festival, the 17th Pundaquit Music Festival and several stints as orchestral soloist.

• At the Manhattan School of Music where she completed her Professional Studies Certificate and her Master of Music Degree in Classical Voice Performance, she performed in Griffelkin, an opera by the great American composer Lucas Foss, as well as in several opera scenes concerts. She was first prize winner of Manhattan School of Music’s 2008 Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Voice Competition.

• Antoni Josef Inacay’s cello performances have taken him to various Asian countries in 2001-2 with the Asian Youth Orchestra while still pursuing his cello degree at St. Scholastica College. Upon graduating, he had already established a busy performing career, active as a chamber musician and principal cellist of the Manila Symphony Orchestra while enrolled at the Boston Conservatory, Inacay was a member of the Boston Conservatory Honors Quartet and participated in several music festivals.

• A third not-to-be-missed event is the recital of former piano prodigy Lorenzo B. Medal at the Cory Aquino Hall of St. Scholastica’s College on Aug. 16 at 7 p.m. I first heard Lorenzo perform when he was only 14, and even then I already thought him another virtuoso in-the-making.