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| Arturo Molina conducts the Manila Symphony Orchestra |
Featuring:
Regina
Buenaventura, violin
Manila
Symphony Orchestra
Arturo
Molina, conductor
Programme:
Paul
Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Samuel
Barber Violin Concerto, Op. 14
Zoltán
Kodály Háry János Suite
After
many months, the Manila Symphony Orchestra’s 2012 Concert season resumed for me
when I watched the second night of their Magic,
Fantasy and Ambition themed concert at the Philam Life Auditorium. During
this evening, the orchestra, under the baton of Arturo Molina performed
pieces by Paul Dukas, Samuel Barber and Zoltán Kodály. The concert also
featured violinist Regina Buenaventura who is back in the country while she is
taking a summer break from her studies in the US .
The Magic of the concert was represented by
Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This piece was made immensely popular by
the Disney animated film Fantasia and it was really a challenge for me not to
conjure images of the film in my head while the performance was going on. But
my focus paid off as I was able to gain a new insight regarding the piece since
I got to focus on the musicians, especially the bassoonists. I wouldn’t hold it
against any member of the audience if they envisioned Mickey Mouse, the brooms
and the sorcerer while the orchestra was playing since the music did tell the
story that was brought to life by the film.
Next
to be performed was Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto which represented the theme
Ambition. Violinist Regina
Buenaventura told me weeks earlier that she was actually practicing Sibelius but
had to go back to practicing Barber since this piece suited the theme of the
evening more. It had been two years since I last saw Regina
perform and I wasn’t completely satisfied by that performance owing to the poor
acoustics of the performance venue. This time around, with the superior
acoustics of the Philam Life Auditorium, I was finally able to hear and
appreciate the nice, clear and expressive tone of Regina ’s
violin. Throughout the first two movements of the piece, she deftly played with
finesse and an effortlessly sublime vibrato. And during the notoriously
difficult third movement (which I think was where the ambition theme came from),
she showed no signs of strain which made me believe that she’s one of the most
relaxed violinists out there. Regina
doesn’t dazzle audiences with fireworks or overt showmanship, but she
mesmerizes instead with her elegance and restraint.
The
last piece of the concert, the Háry János Suite by Zoltán Kodály represented
the Fantasy theme. Like many members
of the audience that night, it was my first time to see this piece performed
live. I’ve listened to a recording prior to the performance and I took note of
the cimbalom, an instrument used in this piece which is popular in Hungary
but almost unheard of in this part of the world. For practical reasons, a
keyboard simulating the sound of the cimbalom was used instead. I personally
don’t like it when this happens since the mechanical sound that the keyboard generates
doesn’t fit with organic, live orchestral sound. But I did enjoy the folk tunes
that were featured in this suite. I think that if I’d known better the story of
the opera where this suite was taken from, I would’ve appreciated this piece a
lot more.
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| Concertmaster Gina Medina, violinist Regina Buenaventura and conductor Arturo Molina |
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