The much-anticipated celebration of love culminated early for the Lasallian Youth Orchestra (LYO) with Forte 2024: Resonance in Romance last February 8 at the DLSU Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Translating romance into music, the University orchestra’s chosen theme brought with it classical pieces that elicited an atmosphere of warm and graceful passion.
This year’s recital also served as a fundraising concert for LYO’s quest to compete in the International Youth Music Festival II in Slovakia later this year.
Standout soloists
Forte 2024 began with solo performances that ranged from soft melodies to allegro pieces that excited the audience. With a piano accompaniment by Michelo Dipasupil, violin soloists Marie Entao and Joaquin de Guzman enthralled the audience with Praeludium and Allegro in the Style of Pugnani by Fritz Kreisler and Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 by Pablo de Sarasate, respectively.
Soft melodies soon followed with showpieces by pianist John Uy and cellist Christian Galang. Uy demonstrated his ability to play an étude with his performance of Franz Liszt’s Un sospiro, while Galang treated the audience to the melancholic music of Antonio Molina’s Hating-Gabi. Afterward, violinist Juan Arceo, with John Uy at the piano, enlivened the chapel with the distinct Latin sound of La vida breve: Danse Espagnole by Manuel de Falla. Final performances by pianist Anceline Imson, who played Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No.2 by Frédéric Chopin, and bassist Aaron Jardenil with his rendition of Jaco Pastorius’ Portrait of Tracy ended the first act of the concert with a somber and serene musical atmosphere.
Blissful melodies
Johan Halvorsen’s Passacaglia, performed as a violin and viola duet, marked the beginning of the concert’s group recitals, with Joaquin de Guzman and Lance Morrison Tulagan, exhibiting the piece’s exciting yet intimate to-and-fro. The pair was then joined by violinist Theodore Alfred Suarez and Galang with his cello to serenade the audience as a string quartet. They filled the halls with Carlos Gardel’s dramatic and sensual tango Por una Cabeza.
Another string quartet performance followed suit, as violinists Anne Therese Ongjoco and Marc Dylan Lipit joined Tulagan and Galang in playing the Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda, a vibrant tune that amused the audience. Then, violinists Entao and Guzman once again took the stage to join violist George Mauricio and cellist Ray Andrew Cerbo and performed the last quartet piece, Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K. 136, 1st movement. The strings section of LYO then charmed the audience with the melodious Serenade for Strings, Op. 7’s first movement, composed by Josef Suk.
The distinguishable, clear tone of the flutes followed when Jon Benedict Llamado and Jamie Leigh Casacop executed Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto in C, accompanied by LYO’s own symphony of violinists, a violist, and a pianist. To conclude the group recitals, members played renditions of contemporary love songs I’ll Be Seeing You and Put Your Head On My Shoulder, arranged by Julian Lage and Ramon Traquilino Calo, respectively. The contemporary tunes proved to be the crowd favorites, evident in the thunderous applause that greeted the renditions.
Of harmonic love
The concert climaxed with performances from all the playing members, exhibiting in full the musical abilities of the ensemble. Member Luis Angelo Gonzales led the orchestra in playing video game series Kingdom Hearts’ opening theme Dearly Beloved, the piece for which was also arranged by Gonzales. Next was a rendition of Laufey’s Let You Break My Heart, arranged by Galang, that blended elements of jazz and classical music to portray soulful longing.
Dance of the Mirlitons from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker served as the penultimate piece of the concert, led by Maestro German M. De Ramos Jr., which perfectly showcased the orchestra’s expertise and synergy within the organization. To conclude, the full orchestra played a medley of songs by Filipino composers. Mga Awit ng Pag-Ibig included Constancio de Guzman’s Maalaala Mo Kaya, Leopoldo Silos’ Dahil sa Isang Bulaklak, and Ernani Cuenco’s Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal.
With such a varied selection of music, the musicians left the audience with a sense of wonder and awe from their skillful interpretation of romance. Enrique Lejano, LYO Division Manager for Marketing, shared the decision-making process behind the final roster of performances. “For the solo and group recital pieces, dozens of members from LYO auditioned [the] pieces that they [wished] to perform on concert day,” he shared.
The concert’s selected pieces turned out to be a compendium of the artists’ favored classical works that best represented what romance was for them “Forte is an opportunity for LYO’s members to express themselves through their art. And there is no emotion more expressed in the world than the feeling of love,” Lejano said.
The LYO’s Forte 2024: Resonance in Romance is an exhibition of individual skill that is only enhanced through the collaboration between playing and managing members alike. The concert showcases music’s ability to bring people together, and Forte 2024 is a clear exemplification of that, bounding the artists of LYO to each other and the mesmerized Lasallian audience.
EDITOR’S NOTE: February 29, 2024
Anne Therese Ongjoco’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of the article. It also inaccurately credited German M. De Ramos Jr. instead of Luis Angelo Gonzales for conducting the piece titled Dearly Beloved. The publication apologizes for these errors.
