An evening of romantic chamber music for violin and piano

CHAMBER music was alive and kicking with the staging of Espressivo: An Evening of Romantic Sonatas last Sunday, June 21, featuring violinist Adrian Nicolas Ong and pianist Jenna Salliman at the IBG-KAL Theatre in UP Diliman, Quezon City. The concert was presented by the Filipino String Teacher’s Association, with Lyric Piano and Organ Corporation as a major sponsor.

Chamber music for violin and piano remains a favorite among the country’s music lovers, as it is one of the most expressive and dynamic combinations in music.

Of course, such expressiveness is largely determined by the performers’ caliber as soloists, which ensures a sterling collaborative fusion of musical skills that ensures an arresting performance. Both performers have impressive credentials that speak highly of their soloist caliber. Salliman and Ong are two of the country’s outstanding young musicians who have received many accolades as performers in Manila and abroad. They continue to pursue higher learning in their respective fields, even as they continue to perform. In addition to her piano studies, pianist Salliman earned a bachelor’s degree in statistics in the US, which she earned while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in piano performance, also in the US. (She attended Philippine Science High School.)

The evening’s program was a sumptuous feast for listening. The duo performance was preceded by pianist Salliman’s performance of the first movement, Molto moderato, of Schubert’s last piano sonata B-flat major, D.960. Here, the pianist invoked a hymn-like quietude with her fingers to bring out the song’s tenderness. She won first prize in the Schubert Club piano tilt in Minnesota in April 2022.

In Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, the audience listened intently as the performers tightly held a dynamic musical conversation that conveyed the inherent expressiveness of the four-movement piece. The dialogue was wholesome, built on even, mutual, and equal partnership, as both instruments played the themes with captivating verve and zest, so to speak.

First came the buoyant Allegro followed by a tender second movement, Adagio molto espressivo, that moved into a playful Scherzo in the third movement, and the genteel Rondo that capped the piece.

A brief brownout near the end of the of the last movement did not threaten the joyous, absorbing musical conversation between the pianist and violinist to complete their playing. Electrical power came back to gloriously light a magnificent performance.

After the interval, the duo performed two more warhorse pieces: Henryk Wieniawski’s Fantasia on Themes from Faust, Op. 20 and Faure’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A major, Op. 13.

Prof. Mary Anne Espina, violinist Nicolas Ong’s former mentor Dr, Gina Medina- Perez, violinist Nicolas Ong, and Prof. Anthony Say

Here the duo mesmerized the audience with their superb playing of the five-section Wieniawski piece. Both violin and piano surged through these sections with virtuosic verve. Notable was the violinist’s execution of the cadenza in the opening section that gave way to the tender sections that followed. Ong surged through the entire piece with virtuosic might, tackling those runs, double stops, and arpeggios, balanced with expressive singing tones in the lyrical section.

Prof. Mary Anne Espina, pianist Jenna Salliman, Salliman’s former teacher Prof. Anthony Say, and Prof. Gina Medina

Pianist Salliman provided tight rapport at the piano, playing with equal vigor, providing both the rhythmic and harmonic drive, especially in the bravura passages.

In the final piece, the absorbing dialogue between the piano and violin was marvelously evidet in the four-movement Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A major, Op. 13 by the French composer Gabriel Faure. The tandem breezed through the entire movement with elan and verve!

In the first movement, Salliman played brilliantly the opening theme that Ong later joined. This was followed by a forlorn second movement that resolved in a bright, glorious tone. Here, Salliman etched that barcarolle rhythm, as Ong played a pensive melody on top. The third movement was a playful scherzo expressed in rapid motifs that both violinist and pianist played with precision, including the trio, done in a singing manner. The duo capped the work in a fast-paced, lively and agitated final movement. The tandem played lilting melodies that ended with a display of virtuosity from the violinist as he bounced lightly his bow off the string, known as spiccato.