Music fest helps heal Baguio folk

Inquirer Northern Luzon
Music fest helps heal Baguio folk
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:10:00 12/08/2009

Filed Under: Disasters (general), Music, Flood

TROPICAL depression Pepeng’s howling winds and heavy downpour had drowned the hymns and chants of the Catholic faithful at the Baguio Cathedral in October. But during starry and moon-lit nights recently, the cathedral reverberated with both sacred and secular classical music.

Classics from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Rachmaninoff, Christmas hymns, the Hallelujah Chorus and Filipino lullabies and serenades echoed from the Cathedral’s altar during four nights since Nov. 24.

These renditions from world acclaimed performers were treats from the Second Baguio Cathedral International Music Festival, which, organizers say, sought to help heal the typhoon-battered spirits of Baguio residents.

“Music heals and inspires,” says creative director John Glenn Gaerlan. “After the devastation that the typhoons have brought to our city and other places, there is no better way to thank the Lord than through music.”

The festival opened on Nov. 24 with an evening of tenor renditions from Abdul Candao, who had performed in Austria, Canada and Metro Manila. His songs from C. Gluck, V. Bellini, R. Strauss, F. Lehar and the Philippines’ Ernani Cuenco were accompanied by internationally renowned pianist, Mary Anne Espina.

Baguio residents, during the second night, were treated with two concerts. The first was an organ music concert by composer Alejandro Consolacion II, who performed masterpieces from Johann Sebastian Bach, Cesar Franck, Eugene Gigout and Jehan Alain. He also played some of his compositions.

As an organist, Consolacion was invited to perform for Queen Sofia of Spain when she visited Manila in 2001. He regularly performs as a pianist, organist, accompanist and conductor for small and large crowds here and abroad.

Reliving the Renaissance

The second was a chorale concert led by choir master Jose Soliman Jr. The concert featured the Maryknoll Sanctuary Choir, Baguio City National High School Young Minstrels and members of the Festival Choir.

They performed the six-voice Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass), one of the most popular Masses during the Renaissance period.

When they sang Handel’s Coronation Anthems, the Baguio Cathedral audience retraced the celebratory and festive mood during the 1727 coronation in England of King George II and Queen Caroline.

Before he died in 1727, King George I commissioned George Frederic Handel, who was just naturalized as a British citizen, to write the music for the coronation later that year. Handel came out with four hymns, based on texts of the Bible’s Old Testament: Zadok the Priest, Let Thy Hand be Strengthened, The King Shall Rejoice and My Heart is Inditing.

As the resident performing group of the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary, the Maryknoll choir is known for performing “the rhythm and songs of the earth.”

Under the baton of conductor Rosalinda Jamorabon, the Young Minstrels of the Baguio City National High School has been listed in the hall of fame in the Baguio Country Club Choral Competitions and the Aweng Paskuwa Annual Christmas Competitions.

The high school choir was also awarded third place in 2005 during the National Competitions for Young Artists at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

A night of romance

The third night was a special treat of pure violin and piano. Classical music fan Cecile Afable, a local weekly editor, was waxing romantic when violinist Gina Medina and pianist Espina opened the night with Beethoven’s Romance in F Major.

The duo also performed pieces by Fritz Kreisler and Johannes Brahms. They also did Philippine Serenade by Angel Peña, “May Lihim ang Gabi (The Night Has Secrets)” by Cuenco and the folk song, “Paruparong Bukid.”

The fourth night of the music festival was held at the University of Baguio gymnasium, where the Bungkos Palay Performing Arts Foundation of the Science City of Muñoz (Nueva Ecija) presented the Filipino dance “tinikling,” among others.

In 2008, Bungkos Palay performed during Singapore’s annual Chingay Parade of Dreams, which attracted 200,000 spectators.

Big bonus

The well-attended finale of the music festival at the Baguio Cathedral on Nov. 28 was a big bonus. It opened with piano renditions by Baguio-born, and now United States-based, Augusto Cuesta from masterpieces of Rachmaninoff, known for his Romantic-era piano concerts.

Cuesta’s renditions were accompanied by the Manila Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jerome Hoberman, an accomplished and internationally acclaimed American music director.

Cuesta’s numbers were followed by treats from the Manila Symphony Orchestra, which performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op 125, Choral.

The later part of Beethoven’s ninth symphony integrated the Maryknoll Sanctuary Choir and the UB Voices, filling the cathedral with their rendition of “Ode to Joy,” whose familiar “joyful, joyful we adore Thee …” lyrics kept the audience awake at past 10 p.m. that Saturday.

Reinforcing the two choirs were three world renowned soloists—Janet Sabas Aracama, Camille Lopez Molina and Noel Azcona.

Drawn together by music

Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon, Fr. Benedict Castañeda of the Baguio Cathedral and Gaerlan conceptualized the festival in 2006.

Drawn together for their love of music, the three then began to talk about staging a festival for secular and sacred music. This materialized in 2008 during which they invited internationally acclaimed artists and local performers.

Through the first music festival in December 2008, the three also sought to raise funds for the repair of the cathedral’s pipe organ. The organ was first brought to Baguio in the early 1900s by Fr. Raphael Desmedt, a Belgian missionary.

The pipe organ has yet to be fully repaired so part of the proceeds from this year’s music festival will go to this project. The rest will go to funds to help survivors of the recent typhoon and landslides that hit the city.