PPO, conductor Noam Zur, pianist Rudolf Golez in concert: a test of the Met's acoustics

Conductor Noam Zur and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra 

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra audience had a taste of what's to come at the latest season concert held at the Metropolitan Theater, which will be the orchestra's home for the meantime once the Cultural Center of the Philippines main building shuts its doors in 2023 for a much needed major rehabilitation.

The evening highlighted a program that spanned the globe: two overtures, one by an Italian composer and the other by a Filipino; a jazz flavored American classic that featured a Pilipino pianist; and a programmatic work by a Russian composer, orchestrated by a Frenchman, that paid tribute to a Ukrainian landmark. All of this was conducted by Noam Zur, an Israeli-German who is the 3rd to take to the podium among the five shortlisted to become the next PPO Music Director/Principal Conductor.

With such a promising global program and the allure of a concert at the newly renovated Metropolitan Theater, hopes were high for this evening. Alas, said hopes were dashed by the theater's inadequacies in the acoustics department. Despite the seamless rapport between Zur and the PPO as far as the eye can see, the sound that emanated from the stage left a lot to be desired.

Because of this, Gioacchino Rossini's Overture to Barber of Seville came off as hollow and vacuous instead of being light and playful. This also resulted into a less than ideal introduction to many of Nicanor Abelardo's Cinderella Overture as it was a struggle to decipher the work's shape and form.

In George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, featuring Rudolf Golez on the piano, both the orchestra and the soloist exhibited confidence and harmony with each other. But once again, despite the efforts of everyone onstage, the inferior acoustics was like an uncooperative collaborator muffling the dynamics, muting the nuances, and drying up the jazzy accents. Even with Golez's encore, Frédéric Chopin's Etude Op. 10, No. 5 in G flat major, "Black Key Étude", the fluttering notes' subtle nuances were lost.

The full effect of the Met's handicap was evident with the performance of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Even with a full army of strings, the overall sound was not full and vibrant. With the lower strings hardly audible, there was a notable lack of depth and roundness. The piece is meant to be a musical experience of viewing an exhibit with majority of the movements representing a piece of artwork. But it felt like each artwork was just a print reproduction losing the stroke textures and other finer details that can only be seen in the originals.

The encore, which was a repeat of La Grande Porte de Kiew, shed a light onthe ongoing invasion of the Russian forces in Ukraine. It also served as a reminder of how music has played a role in difficult moments in world history.

The wonderfully curated program offered a glimpse to Zur's sensitivity and outlook towards the music which incidentally gave the concert more meaning and significance. Program notes also included information on how Zur chose to perform revised versions of the Rossini and Mussorgsky pieces that are actually closer to these composers' intention based on original and more authoritative manuscripts. This is why it was such a pity that the Met's subpar acoustics made a disservice to Zur, Golez, and the entire Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.

A desperately needed acoustic shell should be in place by January 2023, or else face the risk that the anticipation for the remaining half of this season falls flat and dull as the Met's current acoustics.

A bit of music trivia to lighten things up, the PPO performed Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition way back in the January 2011 season concert. Robert Ryker, who conducted that time, had a pre-concert lecture where he explained the various parts of this work. Assisting Ryker at this lecture was no other than Rudolf Golez, who played excerpts of the piece on the piano using Mussorgsky's original score. So it was quite fitting that both Rudolf Golez and Pictures at an Exhibition found their way back to the PPO stage at the latest concert.