Playing with Russians, Winton Marsalis

Once again I give this space to my colleague, former editor, drinking and guffawing partner, Pablo A. Tariman.

At one of Cecile Licad's concerts in the provinces, I told the emcee to introduce him this way--Pablo CARUSO Tariman. The emcee thought that was his full name and introduced him as such. He was so flustered when he came onstage with his script, he stammered that Caruso wasn't his middle name but Arcilla.

So here then is the Neruda of music reportage in the Philippines--Pablo Tariman.


by Pablo A. Tariman


In 1992 when I travelled with Cecile Licad for the first time in Cebu, she was heard by a Polish poet and music critic named Christopher Jezewski. He told Mrs. (Rosario) Licad he heard a Chopin concerto on radio in Paris and told himself, “Only a Filipina pianist could play that Chopin the way it was beautifully molded.”

True enough, the announcer said it was the F Minor Concerto played by the London Philharmonic under Andre Previn with Licad as soloist.

On our second visit to Cebu in 1994, she played Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 for her finale number. For several seconds after the last notes had ended, the audience remained unmoving. I myself had so absorbed the piece one thought it would break the trance if one applauded.

The Chopin B Flat Minor Sonata is referred to as the Funeral March because of the third movement which is the most celebrated elegy in instrumental music. I froze after the last note as Licad’s interpretation was like confronting death itself, in a beautiful, if, dignified manner.

Later at the CCP, I heard Mrs. Marcos told Cecile, “After that Chopin sonata, I am not afraid to die anymore. Cecile, you are a sorcerer of an interpreter.”

The three-page finale of this sonata which is about sorrow giving way to torment was described by Schumann thus: “This great movement is perhaps the boldest page which has been written in the whole of music.”

Among those who raved over Licad’s B Flat Sonata was National Artist for Architecture Leandro V. Locsin who passed away two months after that concert.

Speaking of the Polish poet-critic one mentioned earlier, he actually wrote to ask if Licad can do a recital for the Polish Institute in Paris to honor the great Polish pianist Mieczsyslaw Horszowski who happened to be one of Licad’s teachers in Curtis.

In the same breath, he complained that it was hard to get Licad’s all-Chopin recording in France where he found one through the Internet.

He wrote to Licad thus: “Your Chopin is absolutely marvelous, it’s like listening to him resuscitated! You should record as much as possible of his works! Please, you must do it for humanity! It’s so terribly rare to hear such an interpretation, absolutely adequate to the message of the music.”

Meanwhile, music lovers all over the world share the Polish poet-critic’s frustrations in not being able to find Licad’s recordings. Her last Chopin recording contains Ballade for piano No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23; Nocturne for piano No. 4 in F major, Op. 15/1, Etudes (12) for piano, Op. 1 and Scherzo for piano No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31.

Said a music lover complaining to a record store by internet:”I love this recording by Licad as much as I loved her Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 recording almost 20 years ago. I agree with the first two reviewers that Licad's recordings must be made more available. I also would love to see her making more recordings, but she seems to be very picky and does not make records as much as other contemporary classical artists today.”

Still there is nothing like a live concert to judge Licad’s interpretation of Chopin.
When Licad first played Chopin’s Twelve Etudes Op. 25 in Washington D.C. some years back, the Washington Post critic paid tribute to Licad as a supreme interpreter of Chopin: “The complete Opus 5 set of etudes offered similar mix of lyricism (Nos. 1 and 2), muscularity (Nos. 10,11 and 12) and recreative spark (the gnarled and galumphing treatments of Nos. 4 and 5). Licad could certainly conjure Chopin’s performed salon side, as in her delicate and simply stated Op. 57 Berceuse. Throughout the evening, Licad’s fierce intelligence illuminated the emotional core of Chopin.”

But nothing beats the erudite words of Philadelphia Inquirer critic Daniel Webster in his review of Licad in February last year entitled “Chopin Evokes Substance of Style.”

Wrote Webster:”We hear a different Chopin from what our elders heard. The music is more direct, edgy, and muscular. The poetry is there, but the urgency of it is even more clear-eyed, more intense. The subtle differences have emerged as all the elements of life have changed around the music.Cecile Licad made that point in her recital Friday at the Philosophical Society.The pianist exemplifies the style. Her focus is the instrument. If Licad's listeners want to join her, they are welcome, and on Friday were assured glimpses of passion that colored her highly objective playing. She skirted excessive freedoms in the Scherzo No. 1, and rattled some thunder in its landscape. The Scherzo No. 4, just before the Liszt closer, replaced thunder with grandeur and some delicacies that caught the solidity of her approach. Her playing carries the weight of authority and the absence of doubt. This is the way it is, that last scherzo proclaimed. “

Licad recently played Chopin No. 2 with Syracuse Symphony Feb. 12-13 and earlier did a Mostly Chopin concert in San Antonio, Texas, and an all-Chopin recital in Ohio consisting of the 24 Preludes and four scherzos. In the Texas audience were Filipino music lovers, Dr. Omar Zantua and Ching Zantua-Allan and her son, Anthony and Dr. Monette Regalado.

Said Ching Zantua upon hearing Licad’s Chopin Scherzos and 24 Preludes: “The concert was spectacular and the pianist nearly ran out of encores. That was how well-received she was. It was an experience of a lifetime.”

Last week, Licad figured in a special fund-raising concert at the Philippine Center and drew raves not only for her Chopin but also for her Buencamino numbers.

Wrote Nelsie T. Parrado to the Philippine Center staff in New York: “ The music I heard last February 24 at your concert still reverberates in my consciousness. Indeed, you are a National treasure! The sound coming from the Steinway piano is something I have not heard from ordinary persons playing it.I do not usually listen to Chopin, but at the concert, I gained a lot insight on his music.”

After her Chopin recitals in Asia and the United States, Licad will play in a special series of concerts involving cinema and American masters with Winton Marsalis in Cannes and other destinations. She will also be soloist in Brahms No. 1 with the Russian State Orchestra at the Tchaikovsky Hall in April next year after her triumphant appearance in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with another Russian touring orchestra in Germany last year.

Licad is one of the leading Filipino artists highlighting the Chopin Manille 2010 Bicentennaire sponsored by the French Embassy, Alliance Francaise and the ROS Music Center with a solo recital on March 27 and a special performance with the Manila Symphony playing Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor on March 29.

Before her is the Philippine debut of French pianist Dana Ciocarlie on March 19, the March 24 all-Chopin recital of Raul Sunico and the closing recital of Cristine Coyiuto on April 8.Call 3573811, 7484152 or 0906-5104-270 for tickets.