Pianist Noriko Ogawa, PPO deliver explosive season opener

Pianist Noriko Ogawa and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

The brave souls who were not cowed by an earthquake scare earlier in the afternoon and yet still trooped over to the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra’s 37th concert season opener were rewarded with a memorable performance of that evening’s guest artist, Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa.

Ogawa’s confident take on Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 went beyond the energetic, bravura pounding of the keys. The clarity she gave each note highlighted the concerto’s sharp contours and sudden turns without making the piece a blurry, pyrotechnic mess. With her and the PPO under the baton of music director/principal director Yoshikazu Fukumura working in faultless tandem, never did it cross my mind that pianist and orchestra would engage on a frantic chase with this piece.

Pianist Noriko Ogawa

Thankfully, this didn’t matter with her encore which was a concise, 5 minute, solo piano version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue that further showed her impeccable weaving and shaping of this popular tune heard without an orchestra accompanying her.

Conductor Yoshikazu Fukumura and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

Ogawa’s spectacular performance somehow threatened to make the second half of the concert featuring Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70, B. 141 a bit anticlimactic. But Fukumura masterfully brought out the flavors, contrasts, and the tragic overtones in this piece making this symphony worthy of being programmed. The subdued end to the first and second movements in this symphony gave an eerie feel which was in direct contrast to how explosive the Prokofiev concerto ended.

I can’t help but commend horn player Atusko Tashiro, whose presence always gives me confidence, security and peace of mind, which she proved once again during the second movement.

Aside from a slightly tentative opening piece of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527 and piano tuning issues that rankled keen listeners during the Prokofiev, it was still a promising start to the season considering that there had been doubts on whether the concert would still happen considering the earthquake and evacuations that happened hours before.