MANILA, Philippines - After wrapping up three well-received outreach engagements with the Philippine Youth Symphonic Band (PYSB) and the Pundaquit Virtuosi, Cecile Licad will conclude her Manila engagements on Friday, March 28, with a special engagement with the Philippine Philharmonic under the baton of Oscar Yatco.

In this Cultural Center of the Philippines? return engagement under the auspices of the Buencamino Music Foundation, Licad will observe her 40th anniversary as orchestral soloist while also celebrating the 130th birthday of her granduncle, the eminent composer Francisco Buencamino Sr.

Licad?s initial engagements with the Philippine Youth Symphonic Band and the Pundaquit Virtuosi was rapport at first sight-reading.

She was all praise for the youthful musicians in the first sectional rehearsal.

?Cecile got the kids to respond to her,? said PYSB board member Irene Araneta. ?Her encouraging gesture actually made the parents of the young musicians cry.?

Admiration

Watching the youthful ensemble debut with Licad at the Miriam College auditorium, one was filled with admiration as the sounds of Mozart, Vivaldi and Haydn filled the hall.

The program opened with the allegro section from Mozart?s Serenade No. 13, popularly known as ?Eine Kleine Nachmusik.?

The ensemble had a solid sound, and was amazingly cohesive for the most part.

A drone of whispers cut through the auditorium when a 7-year-old boy named Julian Duque emerged as the soloist in the ?Spring? section of Vivaldi?s ?Four Seasons? concerto.

Out of his instrument came a frail but confident sound. At the end of the piece, he got thunderous applause.

That a well-trained ensemble could actually sound as one without a conductor was proven in Mozart?s Serenade for Winds in B Flat Major. For the first time, I heard Mozart?s Overture to ?The Marriage of Figaro? played by a few instrumentalists, but I didn?t miss its full orchestral version.

With Haydn?s Symphony No. 45 in F Sharp Minor (?Farewell Symphony?) under Renato Lucas, the ensemble was at its best. Lucas was in good control and the youthful musicians responded with verve. It was a fitting curtain-raiser for Licad.

Beethoven?s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B Flat Major, Op. 19, with Licad as soloist complemented the first part of the program. She provided all the right contrasts of the piece and made sure she didn?t overwhelm the young musicians.

Beethoven?s youthfulness was all over the piece, and yet there was fire, an exciting element of surprise, and Licad?s indescribable artistry and technique that didn?t draw attention to themselves. Lucas was in his element, and the hall exploded with bravos after the last measure.

Licad obliged with two encores after the ecstatically received Beethoven concerto. But upon seeing me, she said, ?I will play one more encore for Pablo,? and gave her third encore, Chopin?s ?Revolutionary Etude.? The successful concert was mounted by Casa San Miguel Foundation and PYSB in partnership with Bantay Bata 163.

Here?s hoping patrons and corporate sponsors would pitch in to help these young musicians, who also performed to help abused children.

Powerhouse player

What is in store for music-lovers on March 28 at the CCP Main Theater?

Instead of Tchaikovsky?s First Concerto, Licad will play Rachmaninoff?s Piano Concerto No. 2, the same piece that drew raves in her latest engagement with the Seattle Symphony under conductor Gerard Schwarz.

An American critic said: ?The concert world is full of deceptive appearances, but few more striking than that of pianist Cecile Licad?who looks delicate, and plays like a powerhouse. The Philippine-born Licad has sometimes drawn criticism for those powerhouse tendencies; the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, however, fits her like a glove (even if there?s occasionally an iron fist in that glove). Licad played the popular concerto with extraordinary clarity and power, settling into the performance after some discreet seesawing with conductor Gerard Schwarz over the tempo. The surging romanticism of the score was evident in every line of her performance, and the audience made their delight clear with a lengthy standing ovation.?

Licad will reprise this concerto in Germany on April 4, the same piece she played many years back in the same country with Russian conductor Andrei Boreyko.

Call 0918-3473027 for tickets.