Superb Korean Soprano Yi / M. Cathedral, A. Tiu concerts

The concert of the petite, fetchingly attractive Korean soprano Yun-Kyoung Yi was appropriately titled “Bel Canto,” the singer having conveyed its true meaning “beautiful song” in the pure, smooth, flowing style of the Italian school of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Yi sang arias from Scarlatti and Mozart operas, and arias from Handel and Rossini operas, Alcina and Semirande, respectively, which were more technically challenging. Through all these and Gounod’s aria from Romeo and Juliet, Yi’s voice was pure, limpid, crystalline, acquiring immense power in the top register, a power that belied the soprano’s frail appearance.

Further, with superb control, she would shift effortlessly and smoothly from sustained pianissimos to tremendous fortissimos, and vice versa.

She ended with Delibes’ Les Filles de Cadix, Labradors’ El Vito and an aria from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, while fascinating the audience with the magnificent color and range of her voice, its intensely expressive and communicative quality delineating diverse emotions, from rapturous joy and passion to sadness and despair.

The listeners at the Philamlife auditorium, consisting mostly of voice students who were awed by her vibratos and her enormous talent, went wild, their raucous clamor filling the hall even more after the encores, Abelardo’s Mutya ng Pasig – this interpreted without a score – and the daunting aria Ah! fors’ e lui (The one of whom I dreamed) from Verdi’s Traviata. Ravishing in its vocal splendor, it was followed by the dazzling coloratura aria sempre libera (Ever free).

As Gilda, Yi sang Tutte Le Feste (on every festal morning) from Verdi’s Rigolleto, with baritone Noel Azcona as Rigoletto, their voices blending beautifully, their emotions eloquently and delicately expressed.

Later, Azcona interpreted an aria from Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” assuredly and most powerfully, his voice sonorous and resonant. Tenor Randy Gilongo sang Kuda Kuda from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, the timber sometimes sounding rather piercing. But the aria was vibrantly rendered, the top notes ringing, secure, soaring.

Baritone and tenor gave welcome interludes. Yi is one of the best sopranos I have heard here or abroad, and her performance deserved nothing less than superlatives.

The much sought-after assisting artist Najib Ismail, an outstanding concert pianist in his own right, never missed a note or a beat, capturing the essence and spirit of each song with the most sensitive nuances.

Welcome remarks were given by celebrated international concertist Raul Sunico, dean of the UST Conservatory which presented the concert, and by Fidel Calalang Jr., head of the UST Conducting Department and director of the UST Singers declared “Choir of the World” in South Wales, UK.

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On Dec. 3 at 7 p.m., the 4th Manila Cathedral-Basilica Festival Gala Concert will feature SE Asia’s biggest, 6,000-pipe organ. The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by the Austrian Ernest Hoetzl. A 150-voice choir will be under Amelita Guevara.

The concert will be a major closing activity of the 50th anniversary of the post-war Manila Cathedral which was dedicated in December of 1958. The concert will benefit the Cathedral’s restoration projects and typhoon victims. Its Foundation is organized by the Friends of the Manila Cathedral.

Concert soloists are soprano Camille Lopez Molina, tenor Dominique Morales and bass Jesus Emmanuel Baang, organists Ken Weber and Armando Salarza. The choir will consist of Coro de San Antonio, Coro Tomasino, St. Paul U. Manila Chorale, De La Salle U. Choral and the Comelec Chorale.

The program follows: Introduction and finale from A. Guilmant’s First Symphony in D Minor, Poulenc’s Concerto in G Minor, Bach’s Chorale Prelude In dulci jubilo, Handel’s Messiah and Christmas Carols.

Tomorrow 7 p.m. at the Miriam College auditorium, Singapore-based Albert Tiu, one of the country’s leading pianists, will play Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 with the MM Community Orchestra assisting under Conductor Josefino Toledo. The MMCO will render Borodin’s Overture to Prince Igor, Pajaro’s “The Life of Lam-ang” and Smetana’s Moldau. Tiu, a graduate of NY’s Juilliard School, gave his debut at Lincoln Center Tully Hall which was followed by several international awards.