HappeningPH Special Feature!

A Night of Elegy and Celebration

by Lawrence Andrew G Basallote

Like many Filipinos, I’ve never had the fortuitous opportunity to watch an orchestra performance. From time to time, I enjoy listening to compositions of Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, and other legends of classical music. But I could only imagine how it would be like to watch an orchestra live.

On August 9, I was invited by a good friend and senior to the third concert of the Manila Symphony Orchestra in their Season 99 Concert Series, in collaboration with the Brazilian embassy. Conductor was Mr. Marlon Chen, playing music by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Jeffrey Ching, with Fabio Zanon on guitar, Fabio Presgrave on cello, and Stefanie Quintin-Avila as the soprano. It was a night to remember.

The concert started with Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 7: I. Preludio (Ponteio). It was not only an auditory masterpiece but a visual one as well. I was hypnotized watching dozens of bows move in a very synchronized manner like swords raised as the king walks under them. And as the music goes softer and softer, layer by layer of instruments are put down and placed on laps like ripples in a calm pond. Then, when the music can no longer get any softer, the drums thunder and the all the instruments come alive all over again. It was a performance one cannot experience just listening on their phones.

Jeffrey Ching’s Concerto da Camera for Guitar, Cello, Soprano, and Strings was a surreal experience for a first-timer watching an orchestra like me. If I had to pick a soundtrack for my anxiety, it would be the first movement of this piece. It’s as if the composer was determined to create whatever noise or sound the instrument could do like strumming the cello like an electric guitar or bowing the guitar. Members of the orchestra did not only play their instruments but also whispered, clapped, stomped, thumped their instruments, and by the end of the first movement, two of the members of the orchestra stood up and untuned the guitar and the cello. It was like every instrument was trying to cry louder than the other, yet there was order in this chaos. Truly what depression and grief would sound like.

The second movement of Ching’s concerto was a stark contrast to the first. It was very sad and soulful with Ms. Quintin-Avila’s powerful voice at the center. After the depression and anger of the first movement, the second movement was the acceptance and farewell to the deceased.

Fabio Zanon started the second part of the concert with my favorite piece of the night, Radamés Gnatalli’s Concerto No. 4 for Guitar and String Orchestra. It reminded me of Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. The first movement was upbeat and whimsical, as if I was being taken on a tour around a fantasy village. Then, the second movement, I was riding a boat in a river while I was being serenaded. And in the third movement, I was taken dancing to the strums of Zanon’s guitar. But what really reminded me of Saint-Saëns was how the guitar and the string orchestra had fierce back-and-forths as if they were trying to one-up each other and be the main character of the piece.

On the other hand, Fabio Presgrave’s performance—Astor Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango for Cello and String Orchestra—felt like a dance all throughout with Presgrave’s cello leading the string orchestra to fly to the skies. But halfway through the performance, the string orchestra caught up to the cello and they danced as equals until the big crescendo at the end.

Before the last performance, the orchestra played Jeffrey Ching’s Lamento as a tribute to his departed friends in the music world. Like the Concerto da Camera, the Lamento was full of anxiety and depression but turned up a notch because it was a full orchestra performing it. The main highlights of this piece for me were the wind instruments, particularly the flute and french horn, which rise above the orchestra with notes that sounded flat.

For their last performance, the orchestra played Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Ária and Dança from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 (For Orchestra). A fitting piece to end the night after the heavy and depressing Lamento, Ária and Dança is full of vibrance and celebration. Each instrument in the orchestra seemingly tried to play louder than the others, yet everything was held under control by the magnificent conductor.

Music truly transcends borders and cultures. Even if the pieces take inspiration from Brazilian music and culture, it’s still easy to relate with the emotions that each piece is trying to convey. Watching a live orchestra lets us experience music not only through our ears but also through our entire body. While listening, you can’t help but sit at the edge of your seat, or maybe your palms start sweating, or your feet may even silently dance to the rhythm. These are experiences only the orchestra can bring.

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