Reynaldo Reyes, Beethoven Piano Sonatas Concert III

Pianist Reynaldo Reyes

Featuring:

Reynaldo Reyes, piano

Programme:

Ludwig van Beethoven

     Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

     Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major, Op. 26 no. 12

     Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2 no. 3

Reynaldo Reyes, a US based pianist, had the third and the last of his concert series featuring piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven held at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. I missed the first concert of the series but I was able to catch the second one which was postponed from its original date due to bad weather.

Before this concert, I had to make use of the spare time that I had since I participated at the CCP tour for the media that happened right before lunch time. Finally, the hour of the concert arrived and I was quite dismayed by the low audience turnout. During the tour around the CCP building, the resident companies called for support from the government and private institutions for the arts and yet it wasn’t reflected by the attendance for this concert.

I felt really bad since I did find Reyes’ performance here a lot better compared to the second concert he had. The pieces he played on this night were not really familiar to me but I do find Beethoven’s latter sonatas really interesting, and Reyes opened with the Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 which is an example of the latter work. Despite having a page turner for the entire concert, it didn’t bother me as much. The other pieces that were played were the Sonata No. 12 in A flat Major, Op. 26 no. 12 which is the piece that has the popular funeral march movement in it. And the last piece that made up the second half of the concert was Sonata No. 3 in C Major, Op. 2 no. 3. For his encore, he played the Bagatelle No. 4 in B minor, Op. 126 by Beethoven once again like he did during the second concert.

The night felt a bit short since the concert ended early and the attendance did bother me a bit. Despite the night’s shortcomings, I welcomed the chance for me to watch live performances of piano pieces that I’m not really familiar with and then wonder if I am capable of playing them. I was able to watch two out of three concerts Reynaldo Reyes had and I found it disheartening to see the law of diminishing returns in effect especially during the last concert. I was told that the first concert had a good audience turnout and I felt bad that this didn’t carry over to the succeeding performances.

But Reynaldo Reyes isn’t done playing yet since he still had another performance scheduled a few days after this concert. More about that in a later blog post.