SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – Pianist Cecile Licad -- playing as soloist of the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra under Thomas O’Connor-- practically reprised her Moscow triumph when she played Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15 at the 820-seater Lensic Performing Arts Center in this city to a rousing standing ovation last January 27.

It is the same piano concerto that got the Filipino pianist her first standing ovation in Moscow in April last year with the Russian State Orchestra.

The following day (January 28), she figured in a solo recital and got the same standing ovation from an audience earlier entranced by her Brahms concerto.

One of the few Filipinos in a predominantly American audience was Dr. Lara Halili, a certified Licad fan who filed a 6-day leave of absence from her hospital work to watch Cecile Licad.

“One of the rewards of leaving your work to watch a great Filipino pianist perform in a foreign land is that you are virtual witness to the fact that she is well-loved by audiences not just in her native country,” said Lara who couldn’t believe the awesome audience response.


Licad admitted to her Filipino fan the Brahms concerto is one of the toughest in the repertoire. “Playing that is like climbing a mountain but you are instantly rewarded because the music is so profound,” she told Lara who watched the Licad concerts for two successive nights.

Lara noted that she could literally hear a pin drop in the concerto’s second movement with a super attentive audience stifling their coughing for that rare Licad magic.

“It was a great night,” added Lara. “I was particularly moved to tears by the concerto’s second movement.”

Licad is headed for the Philippines next month before her Boston engagement to perform with Philippine Broadway star Lea Salonga and prima ballerina Lisa Macuja Elizalde with conductor Gerard Salonga and the Filharmonika orchestra on March 17, 2012 at the CCP main theater.

Meanwhile, the two latest CDs of Licad with celebrated German cellist Alban Gerhardt – Casals Encores and Faure cello Sonatas -- continue to receive rave notices.




British music Andrew Clements wrote that Alban Gerhardt's account of Fauré's two cello sonatas, both late works, repay careful listening. “Like the works themselves, his playing and that of the pianist Cecile Licad is full of subtleties, the half-tones and inflections that make the chamber music of Fauré's final decade so elusive and fragile. Nothing here is forced or made to conform; whether it's the urgent outpourings of the first movement of the D minor Sonata Op 109 or the utterly different slow movement of the G minor Op 117, the pacing seems perfectly natural, the colouring distinctive.”

Another British music critic, Jeoffrey Norris, wrote : “A gorgeous performance of the well-known Élégie comes as the first of the five ‘encores’ on this magnificent disc devoted for the most part to Fauré’s two cello sonatas, the D minor, composed in 1917, and the G minor from 1921. The passion and sorrowful rapture that Alban Gerhardt and Cecile Licad bring to the Élégie are complemented by the yearning ardour of a Romance, the virtuoso flutter and bustle of Papillon, the lyrical sweep of the Sérénade and the delicate lilt of the Sicilienne, which is also familiar in orchestral guise.

“This disc follows on from various other, highly distinguished recordings that Gerhardt has made for Hyperion of repertoire ranging from Alkan to Schnittke and Shostakovich, from Chopin to Prokofiev and Reger, and, most recently, of encores made famous by Pablo Casals (CDA67831), on which Gerhardt also teamed up with Licad. They make a particularly fine duo here, working emotionally in unison, sensing the music’s contours with like mind, breathing as one.”

(Cecile Licad performs with Philippine Broadway star Lea Salonga and Filipino prima ballerina Lisa Macuja Elizalde on Saturday, March 17, 2012 at the CCP main theater. Licad will have two solo performances in the provinces on March 22 at the Holy Angel University in Angeles City and Cebu City. Her Pampanga and Cebu program: Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61; Three Mazurkas op.56;. Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante in E-flat major, Op. 22 and Liszt’s .Miserere du "Trovatore" de Verdi – Paraphrase de Concert and Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata Call (02) 7484152 or 09065104270)

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Here and There

DISTINGUISHED GERMAN PIANIST AT PHILAMLIFE THEATER FEBRUARY 23



Noted German pianist Rolf Dieter Arens -- Rector of the Hochschule für Musik “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, Germany -- will be heard in a special recital on Thursday, February 23, 8 p.m. at the Philamlife Theater at UN Avenue, Ermita, Manila. Since 2000, he was Chairman of the International FRANZ LISTZ Piano Competition Weimar and Artistic Director of the Liszt-Festival. In August last year, he received the Liszt-Preis at the Liszt – Festival in Grottammare (Italy).

The Philamlife recital program includes Bach’s Italian Concerto in F major BWV 971, MOZARTSonata F major KV 280 and Fantasy D minor KV 397, BEETHOVEN’s Sonata C-sharp minor Op.27/2 “Moonlight Sonata”, LISZT’s Ballade No.2 B minor “Funerailles”, Prelude after J.S.Bach‘s cantata "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen ,Zagen", Etude F minor "La leggierezza" (Lightness) S.144, La lugubre Gondola, S.200 Nr.2 (The lugubrious gondola), and of Années de pèlerinage S. 163 "Troisième année ."

After the Philamlife concert, Prof. Arens will do masterclasses at the UST Conservatory of Music courtesy of The Goethe-Institut together with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Prof. Arens’s February 23 recital is sponsored by Bösendorfer, the German Club, Hapag-Lloyd and Mr. Alfredo Ching. Tickets at : 500 PHP and students 100 PHP.

For inquiries, please call 440.1021 or 0917.507.7343.

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine