PPO II: Musical Landscapes

Conductor Olivier Ochanine

Featuring:

Ariel Sta. Ana, clarinet

Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

Olivier Ochanine, conductor

Programme:

Silverstre Revueltas Sensemayá

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622

Angel Peña Igorot Rhapsody

Ottorino Respighi Feste Romane

The epic evenings with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra went on a journey through various Musical Landscapes during the second concert of its 29^th Season that was held at the Cultural Centerof the Philippines. For this concert, principal conductor and music director Olivier Ochanine chose very interesting and highly textured pieces in terms of timbre, color and rhythm. And the orchestra's principal clarinetist, Ariel Sta. Ana was featured as well as the soloist in one of the pieces. Despite having an opening of a play and a ballet happening at the same time and just within the CCP Complex, coupled with the finals week of many students, a respectable sized audience still managed to turn out for this concert. Only a few were on hand for the pre-concert lecture held at the lobby by associate conductor Herminigildo Ranera but right after that, more people started arriving.

The first piece of the evening was Sensemayá by Mexican Silvestre Revueltas. And the programme notes said that it was based on a poem about a ritual chant sung while killing a snake. But the music didn’t evoke any of that in me since I associate this piece more with the crime film Sin City which was based on the comicbook series of the same name. I first heard the piece in the film’s soundtrack, so instead of some snake getting killed, I thought of the Yellow Bastard (who is a character in the film) instead. I’ve been a huge comicbook fan for years and it was rather strange for me to realize that I heard this music first through a movie adaptation of a comicbook than a recording or a concert performance. I am not sure if anyone else in the audience felt the same way as I did when this piece was played. My only complaint was that I was seated right on the first row so I wasn’t able to see the various percussion instruments used in this piece. And it wouldn't be the last time that I would wish that I was seated somewhere else.

But I didn’t complain at all regarding my seat during the next piece which was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 with Ariel Sta. Ana as the featured soloist. I’ve owned a clarinet for some years now yet I haven’t learned anything decent on the instrument at all. I was hoping that seeing the Sta. Ana perform this concerto would somehow inspire me to learn the instrument seriously. I had to admit that this piece was very different from the previous one that it almost seemed jarring. The Revueltas piece was rhythmically complicated while the Mozart piece was a prime example of the Classical era which was clean, structured and devoid of any surprises commonly found in latter eras. I really wanted to be inspired by this concerto but it only made me realize that it was already too late for me to be really good at the clarinet and play this piece in the future. Sta. Ana's fingers were deft and the breathing was effortless while mine is usually pathetic and laborious. Don’t get me wrong since I will not throw away my clarinet in frustration but I already admitted that I will never go far with the instrument. This realization will not in any way hinder my enjoyment of watching clarinet performances in the future. And I didn’t have to wait that long since Sta. Ana and the orchestra played Milonga del ángel by Argentinean Astor Piazzolla for an encore. This piece, a soft yet sultry tango, was more to my liking and more fitting to the evening’s theme than the Mozart piece.

After the interval, I was prepared to hear the opening passages of Feste Romane by Ottorino Respighi but I heard something else. For a moment, I panicked since I wondered if what I studied and listened to before in preparation for this evening was not really Feste Romane but one of the other two pieces from the Roman Trilogy. A quick look at the programme made me calm down since it was actually the Igorot Rhapsody by Angel Peña that was being played. I still don’t know how spaced out I was in order to forget that this was also included in the lineup all along. Nonetheless, it’s always amazing to hear a local composition with native tunes played by an orchestra. For the second time, I wished that I was seated somewhere else since I really wanted to see the percussionists since it was their instruments that gave the piece its native sound.

After this, I was absolutely sure that Feste Romane was going to be played next. And hearing the familiar opening with the trumpets blaring confirmed everything and all that's left for me to do was to me relax and savor the music and let the orchestra do the hard work. Just before the concert, I was told by a PPO violinist that this piece and also the Revueltas were the difficult ones for that night. I was only able to see the mandolin player partially and I wasn't able to see at all the organ, piano and other percussion instruments that were used in this piece. I feel that Feste Romane, evoking scenes from ancient Rome (a gladiator fight, a procession towards a church, a harvest and a drunken revelry) is pastoral music on steroids. Pastoral music and I don’t go well together but this music with more edge and bite to it appealed to me. The orchestra looked spent and tired after the piece and from where I was sitting, I could see sweat dripping from Ochanine. Jokingly, Ochanine said that the orchestra didn’t seem so tired yet which meant that they had some energy left for an encore. They played Huapango by Jose Pablo Moncayo who is also Mexican, just like Revueltas. In this piece, Ochanine was very animated and was almost dancing while conducting and it made me wonder why one music columnist keeps on calling him frail.

The concert had a very diverse and nationalistic program with tunes reflecting the various composers' countries of origin. So I felt that the Mozart clarinet concerto no matter how well it was played, was too bland compared to the rest of the pieces, including the encores. Still, some members of the audience might have felt the other way around, that it was only the Mozart piece that held their interest and that they weren't able to connect with the other pieces. As for me, whether I connect with the pieces or not, I always think that watching classical music concerts is an evening well spent. And I'm looking forward to more nights like this one.