Pianist Raffi Kasparian, MSO thrill FEU audience

Pianist Raffi Kasparian
with Marlon Chen and the Manila Symphony Orchestra

What I initially thought of as an afternoon of Gershwin and Rachmaninoff music courtesy of American pianist Raffi Kasparian and the Manila Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Marlon Chen turned out to be a refresher course to the orchestra for me.

Presented by SILAW, in cooperation with the Far Eastern University's President's Committee on Culture, the concert was held at the FEU Auditorium that has been recently reopened after the building that housed it underwent retrofitting. It has been almost a decade already since I last heard an orchestra performance there so this concert was a can't miss for me especially after the invite (as well as reminders and updates too) from PCC Director Martin Lopez.

Like I said above, I was just expecting the previously announced twin bill of George Gershwin and Rachmaninoff so I was pleasantly surprised to hear additional pieces starting from Ave Maria by Johann Sebastian Bach/Charles Gonoud performed right off the bat during the Invocation. This and the others that followed, along with the MSO Executive Director Jeffrey Solares' annotations, proved to be helpful in easing the mostly FEU students in the audience to the wonders of the orchestra and classical music.

The program proper started with Overture on Philippine Folk Songs by Bernard Green that gave the audience familiar tunes to latch on to while hearing an orchestra live probably for the first time for some of them. The appreciation was turned a notch higher with a theme and variations arrangement of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star that gave each instrument and section their respective spotlights. There were a handful who couldn't contain themselves and started to applaud when the piece reached its climax in a rousing orchestral tutti. And the fun didn't stop there as two Beatles songs, Let It Be and Hey Jude were performed that had most of the audience singing along.

Pianist Raffi Kasparian answers a question
during the post performance Q&A

The audience has already been primed by the time that Raffi Kasparian took to the stage. As an American, Kasparian wanted to showcase music from his homeland. And nothing else in the repertoire for the piano with orchestra could be more American than the jazzy Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin.

It was his wife, SILAW's Joyce, who chose the other piece which is the immensely popular Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Prior to this Joyce gave an introduction on SILAW and the foundation's sociocultural and educational activities in her hometown of Paoay, Ilocos Norte.

Back to the music, whatever worries I may have had for the audience not being able to appreciate the Rachmaninoff was already dispelled by the way this concert was programmed. They had a taste of a lengthy, one movement work by Gershwin and it looked like this was enough for them to be ready for a three movement piano concerto, and a Rachmaninoff at that.

It was during the Rachmaninoff when I got a bit bothered by how I hear the sound of the piano mostly from the speakers while I still hear the orchestra from the stage. The acoustics is now less dry compared to before but I wish that I could've heard the piano more without electronic amplification. The piano sounded too loud and drowned the orchestra especially at times when it took on the accompaniment role at some parts during the first two movements.

Overall, I was very pleased by how accessible the program was and how it eventually gave the newbie audience a great introduction to the orchestra. The concert could be considered a great success when audience members are left wanting more and eager to know the MSO's upcoming performances. And I am eager too for their upcoming season and also for the upcoming performances at the FEU Auditorium.