Virtuoso-in-the-making / Lecture-demo/Awardees

The first solo concert of 16-year old violinist Jimmy Tagala Jr. nearly overwhelmed me. The personable young man, after only four years of training – the latter two of these under violin virtuoso Gilopez Kabayao – showed a maturity way beyond his years. Further, he displayed, besides inherent musicality, the keenest musical intelligence and a musicianship which, doubtless, was nurtured by Kabayao to a considerable degree.

Jimmy’s tones were refined, sonorous and as rich as his violin allowed them to be in Beethoven’s Concerto in D Major. The composer’s only violin concerto, it takes its place among music literature’s top violin concertos. It is particularly suited to the instrument, with musicologists pointing to its “sensitive balancing of the timbres and volumes of solo instrument and orchestra.”

Jimmy demonstrated a firm grasp of the concerto’s form and content. The daunting cadenzas of the first and third movements were brilliantly rendered, the technique secure, assured, effortless.

Kabayao authoritatively wielded the baton over the UST Symphony Orchestra, the robust, cohesive strings, interacting with the spirited, dependable woodwinds and surprisingly disciplined and vibrant brasses. Kabayao’s interplay with the soloist was of the closest. A violinist himself, and possessing total conversance with the concerto through previous renditions of it, Kabayao uncannily anticipated Jimmy’s every note, matching his nuanced phrases with utmost sensitivity.

Jimmy might be described as a virtuoso-in-the-making, Khatchaturian’s Concerto in D Minor being undeniably virtuosic, offering diverse opportunities for displaying virtuosity. It opens at a brisk, furious pace that demands a strong innate rhythmic sense and nimble fingers. The second movement, piercingly lyrical, is followed by a third movement of dizzying speed and sweeping vigor. Jimmy breezed through the complex devices unfazed, combining amazing dexterity with instinctive expression.

Eminent pianist Corazon Pineda Kabayao substituted for the orchestra in this concerto. A superb assisting artist, she played the equally challenging piano part with admirable panache. She and Jimmy made for a dazzling partnership.

The richly deserved standing ovation from the full house at the Philamlife auditorium enticed Jimmy to play Paganini’s virtuosic Caprice No. 10 and the Bahay Kubo Variations, an arrangement by Gilopez bristling with tricky technical devices.

Jimmy’s debut is a marvelous augury of his future, and Kabayao’s excellent tutoring has been largely responsible for his protégé’s incredible progress. To add to Jimmy’s good fortune, he enjoys the full support of Adventist U. president Dr. Robin Saban and Music Department chair Heidi Cerna. Further, the entire Kabayao family is heartily rooting for him and bolstering his morale.

On Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m., Russell Brandon will give a lecture-demonstration on J.S. Bach. Brandon, noted musicologist, trained in piano under Chopin Laureate Z. Grybowski. He taught for 20 years at the Royal Welsh College of Music, and for 12 years at Wales U.

Since 1995, he has been conducting master classes and giving lecture-recitals in SSC, UP and UST. He has annotated concerts of pianist Rudolf Golez, and serves as coach of the Clarion Chamber Ensemble, the country’s only professional chamber group founded and headed by flutist David Johnson. Brandon is the Listener’s Guide at the ensemble’s concerts.

His lecture-demonstration at the A. Molina Hall will include Bach’s Preludes and Fugues in C, E Flat, A, A Flat and B Majors and Minors.

Odon Sabarre, first Filipino dance scholar to Russia, will receive today an award as one of 18 Outstanding Samareños of 2007 from KASALE, an organization founded by Samareños in Leyte, and headed by Commissioner Aurelio Menzon. Other awardees include The STAR’s widely-read Entertainment editor Ricky Lo and ABS-CBN TV host Boy Abunda.