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| Pianist Carlos Ibay |
Featuring:
Carlos Ibay, piano
Programme:
Franz
Liszt
Liebesträume No. 3, S.541
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D flat
major, S.244/6
Andrew
Lloyd Weber, T.S. Eliot and Trevor Nunn
Memory from Cats
Andrew
Lloyd Weber and Charles Hart
Music of the Night from Phantom of the
Opera
Isaac
Albéniz
Tango in D, Op. 165, No. 2
Frédéric
Chopin
Barcarolle in F
sharp major, Op. 60
Salvatore
d'Esposito and Tito Manlio
Anema e core
Ernesto
de Curtis
Non ti scordar di me
Pianist
and tenor Carlos Ibay kicked off his Triumphant
Spirit concert tour with a performance coinciding with the launch of the papal
stamps at The Block in SM City North EDSA. Blinded due to complications stemming
from his premature birth at only six months, the US-based Ibay provided inspiration aside
from the music that managed to stop an impressive number of shoppers on their
tracks inside the busy mall.
The
concert lineup he prepared for that afternoon was a mix of standard piano
repertoire along with some show tunes and arias. He introduced each piece before playing,
providing a brief background and even showing some of his humor in the process.
But even without his annotations, the audience would’ve noted the contrast
between the two pieces by Franz Liszt in which he opened the program: the
lyrical Liebesträume No. 3, S.541,
and the virtuosic (and very flashy) Hungarian
Rhapsody No. 6 in D flat major, S.244/6.
Ibay
then changed genres and went for a couple of show tunes by Andrew Lloyd Weber.
The audience was totally taken by surprise as they heard an operatic tenor
voice coming out from Ibay during the opening lines of Memory from Cats. He
then followed it up with Music of the
Night from the Phantom of the Opera.
Since
this performance was in line with the release of the papal stamps and Pope
Francis’ visit to the country, Ibay dedicated the next piece Isaac Albéniz’ Tango in D, Op. 165, No. 2 to his
eminence. Albéniz hailed from Spain ,
but the current pope is fond of tango which originated in his home country, Argentina .
When he performed Frédéric Chopin’s Barcarolle in F
sharp major, Op. 60, I feared that the audience might felt it
too long or too “classical” and inaccessible. But he allayed my fears when he
prepped the audience by telling them to imagine being on a boat ride as he
played this piece.
Ibay
acknowledged a couple in the audience who were celebrating their 50th
golden wedding anniversary and dedicated his next song, Anima e core (With All My
Heart and Soul) by Salvatore d'Esposito and Tito Manlio to them. He then
paid homage to the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti by ending his performance with
Non ti scordar di me (Never Forget About Me) by Ernesto de
Curtis.
The
audience gave a standing ovation and didn’t let Ibay leave the stage just yet.
For his first encore, he performed Francisco Santiago’s Pakiusap which was his first performance of this song in public since
he has only heard it only three days prior. To thank the very appreciative
audience, he also gave another encore which was a notched up version of Chopsticks (The Celebrated Chop Waltz by Arthur de Lulli) that was interspersed with snippets of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, S.244/2 which
I think was the version originally arranged by Liberace.
A classical music performance at a mall atrium always makes me a bit uneasy since the surrounding noise could easily distract me and it entails me to concentrate a lot harder. And the use of microphones to amplify the sound means that a lot of the nuances will be lost. The members of the audience during that afternoon didn't nitpick about all these and were nonetheless very pleased with the whole of Ibay's performance especially with the song numbers.
After
the performance, I had the pleasure of joining Carlos Ibay, along his parents Carmencita and Roman, and organizers from SM and SinagTala Management for Filipino Performing Arts for dinner
over at Mary Grace. I learned there that when Chuckie, as he is fondly called, first heard Chopin back
when he was still around seven or eight years old, he wouldn’t want to listen
to anything else since he thought that every other music aside from Chopin’s
was trash. I was also able to practice with him my Italian while helping
ourselves with pizza, pasta and of course, the famous ensaymada. I found out
that he learns new music by listening to it although I failed to ask him how he
manages to figure out which keys/notes are to be played with which hand and how
he tackles whenever one hand needs to cross over the other. I still find it
hard to imagine myself in his situation in which sight is completely out of the
equation when learning/playing with music. He said that he was encouraged by
his former teacher to conduct masterclasses here in the country. And that I
would need to prepare my Chopin since I would be one of the first takers of his
masterclass here.
There
are still quite a lot of things I want to learn about Carlos Ibay. Thank goodness
that there are still chances for me, and for everyone else for that matter, to
catch his performances as the Triumphant
Spirit concert tour resumes on January 19, 2015, 8:00 PM at T.E.A.T.R.I.N.O.
in Promenade, Greenhills. The tour continues on January 21, 2015 , 4:00 PM
at the Samsung Hall SM Aura Premier and will finally wrap up with a performance
on January 29, 2015 , 7:00 PM at the FEU Auditorium. For those
wanting more information regarding these remaining performance dates can call
or text 0918-XINTALA (0918-9468252).
