“Interviews with, and diary entries of, musicians ranging from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Rubinstein and Bernstein, B. B. King, and Stevie Wonder suggest that part of communicating emotion involves technical, mechanical factors,and part of it involves something that remains mysterious.”                                                   

DANIEL J. LEVITIN
Author of “This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession"


       
Four pianos from different  manufacturers figured in the recent engagements of Cecile Licad in Manila and the provinces.
 
            The CCP piano she used for Chopin (notably for Andante Spianato and Polonaise Brilliante) and for Ravel’s The Swan (danced by Lisa Macuja Elizalde as The Dying Swan) was a   7-feet Yamaha  grand  that has seen better days.
 



            A stunning Steinway  ( a white grand with gargoyles and probably visually perfect for the Dying Swan) was used in Holy Angel University (HAU) in Angeles City. It could have been perfect for a 400-seater venue but its sound remained crystal clear even in a bigger hall  because of the excellent acoustics  of HAU Hall which seats more than 800, slighter bigger than Philamlife Theater.
 
            A  G-7 tropicalized Yamaha grand was used by Licad in Cebu which saw the pianist giving three encores from an audience that gave her a premature standing ovation only in the first part of the recital. At the end of the concert, the  euphoric voices of Cebu’s rich and famous shook the grand ballroom of Marco Polo Plaza Hotel , a sure sign that she was terribly missed after an absence of 12 years.
 
            Although this wasn’t a  Cebu Arts Council event (the presenters were  the  Sacred heart School Jesuits Alumni Association  together with Ateneo de Cebu and Ateneo de Manila alumni Association  with chief coordinator  Stanz Catalan and with big sponsorship from  Marco Polo Plaza GM Hans Hauri and Lara  Constantino, director for sales  and marketing), the loudest Brava! came from the art council’s indefatigable Petite Garcia and PDI’s Larry Leviste. Licad got several rounds of standing ovations (practically one for every encore number).
 
            This is not the Cebu audience I know from way back. As Arts Council officer, Architect Maxwell Espina , admitted – Cebu audiences don’t easily give its approval to  any performing artist. They listen, they evaluate and if you pass the artistic bar, they  heartily applaud and can even break  corporate decorum by shouting Brava to high heavens.
 


 
            But Licad gave her record-breaking encores in Kawit, Cavite where her most dramatic recital took place a week ago complete with burning venue after a  hair-raising interpretation of Liszt’s Dante sonata.
 
            If the CCP and Cebu had a Yamaha and Angeles City had a Steinway, Licad obviously gave her best using a  super-sensitive  Bosendorfer piano in Cavite.


 
            It turned out that a Bosendorfer  (named after Ignaz Bosendorfer who started piano manufacturing business in Vienna in 1828) had a connection with Franz Liszt who first tried this piano brand  on the same decade and found it  superb in terms of  durability, touch response, and sustained tone quality.
 
            For producing first-rate pianos, the Emperor of Austria gave  Ignaz Bösendorfer  the title “Imperial and Royal Piano Purveyor to the Court”  in 1830― the first piano maker to be granted this honor.
 
            In 1981,  Mrs. Marcos was fascinated by the sound of a  Bosendorfer that she ordered eight of these grandest of all grand pianos.  Presently, two are in  Malacanang, one is at the CCP, one at the old Met and another one at Coconut Palace.
 
Todate, you can  count with your fingers a select few owners of a Bosendorfer  (not more than ten according to our sources).
 
 The oldest known  Bosendorfer  piano is a Strauss model in perfect condition after 120 years!
 
What I am saying is that a good pianist deserves a good instrument and it is mandatory for any concert organizer to first find a good piano as a first pre-requisite for mounting a piano concert.
 
I think NCCA should invest on a good  touring piano because pianists can hardly  find a good piano in the provinces (that is one major reason we  cancelled the Samar concert of Licad).
 
The endless drama of transporting a piano from the city to the countryside (and even to the jungles) was illustrated in the Daneil Mason’s landmark novel, “The Piano Tuner”  the movie version of which is the latest project of German filmmaker  Werner Herzog.
 
            Another  music-related award-winning film, “The Piano”  directed by Jane Campion came to Manila and its delicate theme didn’t escape the censors. What  I liked about this film was the supposedly mute character  (played by Holly Hunter) whose attachment to the piano is  explored beautifully in the film. The sight of the piano being unloaded on a deserted beach is one of my favorite scenes.
            The sight of  upright pianos being transported by small boats  from island to island  around Negros and Ilolio  is exactly what Bacolod-based   piano teacher and piano dealer Cecile Asico does for a living – aside from  maintaining a music school in Bacolod.


            In the last 15 years of mounting Licad concerts,  I have transported  grand pianos from Manila to  Legaspi City (Albay),  from Manila to Tuguegarao City (Cagayan), from Manila to Paoay and Currimao, (Ilocos Norte) and from Manila to  Science City of Munoz (Nueva Ecija).  Last month, a Steinway and a Bosendorfer travelled from Manila to Pampanga and from Manila to Kawit, Cavite. In Cebu City, a 7-foot Yamaha grand was moved from Talisay,  Cebu to the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel by piano tuner Romy Urmenita.
            Why couldn’t we stick to one brand of piano in all those concerts?
 
I agree with  the observation that preferences between pianists for one piano manufacturer or the other are as personal as love, romance, and marriage. Indeed, a noble instrument can literally “win your heart” upon first playing it, as with love at first sight.
 
To illustrate,  what do   the late Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs have in common with  Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo  and Franz Liszt, among others?
 
They are all owners of  Bosendorfers, one of which  survived true-to-life  Dante’s inferno in Cavite City.
 
 (For inquiries on pianos used  by Cecile Licad in  recent outreach concerts in Angeles City, Kawit, Cavite and Cebu City, call (02) 7484152 or 09065104270)

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine