MSO IV: Robert Rÿker

Robert Rÿker and the Manila Symphony Orchestra

Featuring:
Manila Symphony Orchestra

Robert Rÿker, conductor

Programme:
Claude Debussy Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun

Igor Stravinsky Petrouchka

Richard Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Op. 28

Alfred Reed El Camino Real

Guest conductor Robert Rÿker already got his audience at the palm of his hands even before the Manila Symphony Orchestra played a single note from their prepared programme on the second of their two night concert with him. Rÿker won the audience over thanks to his charm and ability to sell the pieces through his brief introduction before playing them. It was unconventional as conductors rarely speak at classical music performances but it worked wonders for me.

Fast becoming a frequent visitor to the country, Rÿker, the music director of the Tokyo Sinfonia,  chose four pieces by composers of different nationalities: Claude Debussy who is French, Igor Stravinsky who is Russian, Richard Strauss who is German and lastly, Alfred Reed who is an American. Each of these composers’ works, told a different story and their music took the audience to different worlds while they remained seated at the Philam Life Auditorium.

Before he started with Claude Debussy’s Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun, Rÿker explained the concept of French music language by noting the floating quality of the spoken French. And he mentioned that it is this quality that Debussy tried to recreate with his music especially this Prelude with the popular flute passages. I never thought of this before so I am glad that Rÿker pointed it out. Igor Stravinsky’s Petrouchka on the other hand, is very different from the Debussy. It had more intense emotions portrayed in the music like anger. And it also had a very movement in The Shrovetide Fair that had so many layers and elements that pushed the orchestra to their limits. Honestly, the only thing missing in this performance was the actual ballet.

Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks probably was the most conventional piece in the entire concert. And again, Rÿker provided some back story regarding this piece and it was at this moment that he might have taken over the persona of a prankster since he was really in a good mood that night. But the piece that I looked forward to most that evening was Alfred Reed’s El Camino Real or the Royal Road. For the second time now, Rÿker has introduced his orchestration of a Reed piece that was originally intended for a concert band. And this one was a definite crowd pleaser with its Spanish rhythms. Like what I’ve said, this was my second time to hear a piece by Reed, the first being Hamlet, A Symphonic Suite after Shakespeare which he also orchestrated from a concert band arrangement. And it’s already pretty obvious that Rÿker has a certain affinity for Reed’s works when he told the story of how he met the composer himself before and proposed making orchestral arrangements of his works.

Conductor Robert Rÿker

For an encore, Rÿker performed another piece by Reed which was the very entertaining Danza Caribe. He introduced the piece by saying that if one felt like dancing, he or she could just stand up and do just that. No one really danced but the members of the audience as well as the orchestra were all smiles throughout this Caribbean inspired piece. I won’t be surprised if I read an announcement of Robert Rÿker flying here again to be the guest conductor of an orchestra. I guess that when that time comes, it would just be a matter of which Reed composition he would introduce to the Philippine audience.