An Evening of Piano Concertos with Rene Dalandan

Rene Dalandan with FILharmoniKA

Featuring:

Rene Dalandan., piano

FILHarmoniKA

Gerard Salonga, conductor

Programme:

Franz Liszt Les Préludes

Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050

Franz Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S.124

Aram Khachaturian Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op.38

A pianist performing two piano concertos in one concert is already more than enough for me. But Rene Dalandan decided to push things further by performing three piano concertos accompanied by FILharmoniKA conducted by Gerard Salonga during his recent concert with held at the Philam Life Auditorium. A little over a month ago this concert, I was able to talk to Gerard Salonga and he told me about this concert but I had no idea at that time who Rene Dalandan was. But I was able to see him when he watched Reynaldo Reyes’ concert a couple of days before he had his own. There had been times when there’s a drought of piano performances but now, piano concerts are back with a vengeance and I just wish that I’d be able to keep up with all of them.

The main draw of this concert for me was Khachaturian’s piano concerto which is one of the composer’s three concertos that I’ve been waiting to see performed live. But this piece was slated to be performed last which meant that I had to sit through the rest of the prepared programme before getting to this part. The concert started with orchestra playing Les Préludes by Franz Liszt which was quite fitting since the music world is celebrating the 200^th birth anniversary of this composer. But while this piece was being played, I was already prepping myself for the piano concertos. And this also made me realize that it had been many months since I last saw a live performance of FILharmoniKA.

Finally the piano concerto portion of the concert started with Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Many know that Baroque music is not really my cup of tea but I still decided to listen closely and I was able to take note of the interesting set up with violinist Rechelle Alcances and flutist Benjamin Velasco Jr. who both had major parts in this piece. It is really odd that despite my previous aversion towards Baroque music, I am starting to appreciate it more and more with every performance of music from that era. Although the major catch is that I prefer to have the keyboard part performed on an actual harpsichord instead. Again, my thought during this performance was that it would’ve been a lot nicer if Dalandan played the piece on a harpsichord instead.

Rene Dalandan

The second piano concerto performed was the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S.124 by Franz Liszt which is still in line with the celebrations surrounding his birth. I still remember the last time I saw a live performance of this piece which was just a couple of months before this and I wondered how many more times I would hear this again before the year ends. Seriously though, this was the time when I started enjoying the concert. I felt that Dalandan performed this concerto with flair and was in total command which gave the piece the character that I was looking for whenever this is performed.

Finally my most awaited part of the concert came on the second half which was the performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op.38 by Aram Khachaturian. Ever since I first heard a recording of this piece, I’ve always wanted to see it performed live and now the chance finally came. This was truly the highlight of the evening as Dalandan managed to exceed my expectations. All I could say about is that any subsequent performance of this concerto had to measure up to Dalandan's rendition or else I’d be disappointed.

Rene Dalandan with guests

His encore was a heartfelt rendition Franz Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 in D flat major, S. 172 that he played as a tribute to his mentor Aida Sanz Gonzalez who passed away just weeks prior to the concert. I had to note that I saw Rene Dalandan a week later when he watched Noli Me Tangere, the Musical along with Cris Villonco’s family. It is such a small world after all. But I do hope that the audience for classical music concerts and musicals get larger.