The BMW Cultural Concert Series Trio Con Brio

Trio con Brio

Featuring:

Joseph Esmilla, violin

Rudolf Golez, piano

Victor Coo, cello

Programme:

Paul Schoenfield Café Music

Felix Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (1^st movement)

Astor Piazzolla

     Concierto Para Trio*

     Soledad*

     La Muerte del Angel

*arranged by Albert Tiu

I very much regret not seeing Trio Con Brio when they had their critically acclaimed concert last year. This trio, composed of violinist Joseph Esmilla, pianist Rudolf Golez and cellist Victor Coo, is probably the most celebrated trio in the country today. Each member of this trio is a capable soloist and a heavyweight in the classical music scene in here. Although Victor Coo is based abroad, he frequently visits the country and does a number of performances whenever he is here. I still couldn’t find an explanation as to why I still haven’t seen Victor perform yet. No wonder that I scrambled to find where the BMW Prestige Motors Showroom was when I got an invite from Martin Lopez, Executive Director of the FilFest Foundation to see this trio perform there. I didn’t want to repeat the mistake that I did when I missed their concert last year.

I asked Rudolf about their prepared programme a few days before the music soiree and he seemed enthusiastic about the Paul Schoenfield piece entitled Café Music. He told me that it’s a contemporary piece with jazz elements. Knowing how diverse jazz music is, I had no idea what to expect with this one. Imagine my surprise when I heard ragtime, Charleston and early 20^th century jazz music in the piece since I’ve been listening to this type of music a lot in recent weeks. This piece was introduced to the trio by Coo and it was indeed a pleasant sounding one compared to the atonal and dissonant works coming from most contemporary composers. The Charleston part in the Allegro first movement almost tempted me to stand up and dance but I had to behave knowing that there were many distinguished guests during this invitation only event. The Andante Moderato second movement on the other hand was so exquisite that it made me wish that cognac was also served during this event. Alas, champagne was the only alcohol served that night.

The next piece that the trio performed was the first movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49. This was originally the last piece in the programme but I actually preferred it to be the second since it would’ve been quite anticlimactic if they stuck to the original order. It’s a piece from the Romantic era and although I am really drawn to that period, the previous Schoenfield piece made such an impression on me that I wanted to relive that moment again. No offense to Mendelssohn and lovers of his music but that’s how I felt during this time.

The trio ended their programme with three pieces by Astor Piazzolla. The first two pieces, Concierto para Trio and Soledad, arranged for a trio by pianist Albert Tiu sounded like music from Piazzolla’s operetta Maria de Buenos Aires. These two along with the third Piazzolla piece La Muerte del Angel were positively received by the audience during the trio’s previous concert last year and these have since become their signature pieces. For their encore, the trio played Tubig at Langis by George Canseco arranged by National Artist Lucio San Pedro. But the audience wanted more so they performed another Piazzolla piece called Oblivion. I was seated near the back and didn’t have the best view but I didn’t mind at all since just being there was more than enough for me.

I’ve never been to a BMW Cultural Concert Series before since the previous performance venues were inaccessible to me. Finally, the location for this concert wasn’t as far south and I was able to witness this intimate performance. I was also very pleased to see Mr. Yaniv Revach, the Deputy Chief of Mission and he was able to introduce me to the new Israeli Ambassador Menashe Bar-On along and his wife Madame Eti. Also present during the concert was phenomenal violinist Diomedes Saraza Jr. and I told him that I was also eagerly anticipating his upcoming concert.

RAd, Israeli Ambassador Menashe Bar-On with wife Madame Eti,
Rudolf Golez, Joseph Esmilla and Yaniv Revach