Cayabyab's first violin concerto marks PPO's 40th year 

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of its music director Olivier Ochanine, celebrates the PPO’s 40th anniversary by performing the latest composition of Maestro Ryan Cayabyab, simply called “Violin Concerto No. 1.”

 

The PPO concert last Friday (Jan. 25) also serves as an advance 200th birthday celebration for Wilhelm Richard Wagner, born on May 22, 1913 in Leipzig, Germany, and a belated 176th birthday festivities for Wagner’s wife, Cosima, who was born on Dec. 24, 1837, in Lucerne, Switzerland. Cosima was the daughter of composer Franz Liszt.
 

As a homage to the Wagner couple, the PPO will play “Siegfried Idyll,” composed by Richard to mark the 33rd birthday of Cosima as his “ultimate expression of love and devotion” to her. The 20-minute symphonic poem “Siegfried Idyll” was first performed Dec. 25, 1870 and was named after the Wagners’ only son Sigfried.

 

In an interview, Ochanine said the title of Cayabyab’s latest work, “Violin Concercto No. 1,” may seem to indicate that the internationally famous and gifted Filipino composer intends to write more violin concertos.

 

Ochanine initially described the three-movement “Violin Concerto No. 1” as ‘unique” where he can “hear in the work” both the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev and the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach at the same time, among others composers. “But, it is a very characteristic piece if you think of Ryan Cayabyab's personality. I think it fits him perfectly.”

 

“It has humor. Cayabyab fans will definitely be hearing a very different style to his composition here. This is not the melodious Cayabyab, but the inventive and experimental Cayabyab,” said Ochanine, who is also the also the PPO’s principal conductor.

 

“'Violin Concerto No. 1' is challenging for both the soloist and sections of the orchestra. It has some quite intense moments that lead to virtuosic passages for violin solo,” said Ochanine, whose initial three-year contract with the PPO was to expire April 2013, but was extended for another 12 months to enable him to tour the group in the US in the coming months.

 

Cayabyab, in a separate interview, said “it is difficult to describe” his new work and impishly warned his followers “not to expect anything” that closely resembles his well-known tonal and pop compositions.

 

“The new piece is me. It is my personality, my character. I must tell you that I did not have a hard time writing it. It went by so fast. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted the new piece to have a lot of layers on top of each other, playing together,” he said.

 

Cayabyab said Dino Decena, the solo violinist for “Violin Concerto No. 1,” told him that during the initial stage of the PPO rehearsals, the orchestra members were asking around whether it was a “Cayabyab original composition.” The maestro said: “The PPO members found the new composition very weird. I don’t know why. It was funny,” then he burst into loud laughter.

 

“The bass and cello parts are virtuoso parts. The audience has to watch for those parts,” he said. “It would feel like gazing at an object inside a glass casing. . .then another glass covers the first casing. I wanted to ensure that the new concerto will not be boring, thus the final product sounds like this.”

 

Cayabyab said he started composing August last year and submitted to the PPO the final, complete score the following September. “But during the writing process, I may smile now, my wife and kids were complaining vehemently that they had enough of hearing it day in and day out. It was constantly playing in the house. And if one listens to a piece repeatedly, it loses its tonality. Binging bingi na sila.”

   

On Friday, Cayabyab will have the rare honor of having his pioneering works performed simultaneously at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ major venues.

 

While his very first violin concerto is rendered by the PPO at the Main Theater of the CCP, the Original Pilipino Musical “Katy,” featuring his compositions and libretto by Jose Javier Reyes, is being performed by Isay Alvarez, Dulce, Aicelle Santos, Gian Magdangal, Tirso Cruz III, Epy Quizon, Lou Veloso, Tricia Amper Jimenez, CJ Mangahis, Yedda Lambuhon, Leana Tabunar, and Allen Immanuel Ryce Salazar.

 

Directed by Nestor Torre, "Katy" is being re-staged to commemorate the landmark production’s 25th anniversary, and runs until Jan. 27.

 

After the Wagner and Cayabyab numbers, the “Happy 40th, PPO!” concert ends with the performance of Robert Alexander Schumann’s 30-minute “First Symphony in Bb Major op. 38, The Spring.”

 

The premiere of the “Spring” symphony took place in Leipzig on March 31, 1841, with composer Felix Mendelssohn conducting the famed Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

 

The concert was extraordinarily well received and afforded Schumann the chance to step out from beneath the long shadow cast by the Beethoven symphonies. Schumann’s next three symphonies were composed over a period of less than nine years after the successful debut of the “Spring.” -- KDM, GMA News 

 

The PPO will have a concert on Feb. 22, with guest artists Korean soprano Hyunah Yu and Filipino tenor Arthur Espiritu. For inquiries, ticket prices, and subscriptions, please call the CCP Box Office at 832-3704 or Ticketworld at 891-9999.

All photos courtesy of CCP-PPO