Swift, vivid Vivaldi from Yao, Suk orchestra

When was the last time you actually heard The Four Seasons played in local concert halls? The suite of four concertos, linked by the seasons for its theme, opens Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi’s collection of 12 concertos banded together as Opus 8, known as "Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione," or "The Contest of Harmony and Invention."

In the years we have been going to concerts in Metro Manila, we’ve only heard The Four Seasons played once. It was a performance by the Pundaquit Chamber Players, led by violinist Alfonso "Coke" Bolipata, at the Malate Catholic Church.

The performance by the Suk Chamber Orchestra, featuring Chinese violinist Jue Yao, at the CCP Little Theater (Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo) last Oct. 23, was our second. The Orchestra’s Manila debut marked the Czech Republic’s National Day celebration. With Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons at the heart of the concert, it was a welcome program of familiar music intended to delight a select audience of diplomats and music lovers.

At the end of a fiery reading of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, a breathless Yao declared that she was playing on a violin owned by the late Isaac Stern. She said the late maestro first played on this violin when he was 17 and that he kept it for the next 40 years. The first of her encores, the second movement to Vivaldi’s Winter Concerto, was dedicated to the maestro’s memory. When her Manila audience insisted for another encore, she concluded the concert’s first half with a frenzied reading of the finale to the Summer Concerto.

It was a touching tribute by a virtuoso violinist, a performance that would have pleased the American maestro. It had everything that a jaded concert goer would want in a performance of The Four Seasons. At close to 40 minutes of musicmaking, it took more than virtuosity to charm the audience with Vivaldi’s music. It had spirit, style and surprise.

Most music lovers would have discovered Vivaldi’s masterpiece either through the radio, LP records or, in this digital age, the compact disc. Considering that The Four Seasons is basic in every record collection, much less in every music lover’s stock of must-know music, some would consider it trite to hear this piece of music on-stage when it would be in everybody’s library.

What a recording cannot give its listener is the spontaneity of a live performance. Since a recording allows a performer to correct mistakes, something not possible in a concert. Yao’s performance might not have been note perfect – there were a couple of sour notes in the Autumn Concerto – but that did not detract from the performance’s vitality. It was swift, vivid and inventive. Whatever preconceived idea we might have had with The Four Seasons, Yao managed to sweep that away with playing that was of high caliber. Never mind the heavy stomping of the feet nor the rather dramatic breath intakes; they were vital to this performance.

The Suk Chamber Orchestra were Yao’s willing partners in the Vivaldi concertos. Concertmaster Martin Kos, cellist Tomas Strasil and harpsichordist Jaroslav Prikryl, as the continuo group, assisted Yao with flair, matching the violinist’s imagination with as much verve and color.

The concert was an evening of Czech music. The Vivaldi wasn’t a fluke in programming. The Opus 8 collection was dedicated to a certain Count Borzini of West Bohemia. The other pieces included F.X. Richter’s Adagio and Fugue in g minor for strings and continuo, Josef Suk’s Meditation on the Old Bohemian Choral "St. Wenceslas," Op. 35a and Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings in E, Op. 22.

While most of these pieces could be considered salon pieces, perfect for matinees or soirees, they display the charm of Czech musicmaking. Richter’s Adagio and Fugue is a Baroque classic in counterpoint, while Suk’s Meditation is a deeply personal contemplation on the religious. Dvorak’s Serenade was one of his first successes as a composer. Its youthful, lyrical quality became a hallmark of Dvorak’s masterpieces.

In all these pieces, the Suk Chamber Orchestra proved that it is one of the world’s leading chamber music ensembles, masterful in its playing and capable of plumbing the depths of emotion. Its technical command was peerless, able to shade its playing with light and dark. It was a treat for Manila’s concert going audience, who rarely benefit from gorgeous playing. We shall all be spoiled for only the best.