“What is time without love? What is love without time? What is pleasure without pain? What is sunshine without rain? What’s the moon without the sun? To take its place when night is one. What’s hello without goodbye?
“Now my love’s without love. You are my love for all time. Though we’ve run out of moments to save our love in time.”
National Artist for Music, Ryan Cayabyab, opens Love Letters, welcoming audiences to a night of timeless romance.
The achingly beautiful lyrics to Nonoy Zuñiga’s ballad, Love Without Time, written by Willy Cruz, were what National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab initially shared with the audience on the second night of his “MaestroClass” with “Love Letters,” a Valentine’s concert at the state-of-the-art 780-seat Proscenium Theater at Rockwell last February 13 and 14.
For the second time, Cayabyab, or Mr. C, engaged anew the audience in an intimate conversation that he started his concert with, as the house lights remained at full glow in the full-house theater.
Ryan Cayabyab performs beloved compositions, alongside classics by George Canseco, Jose Mari Chan, and Willy Cruz
He opened with the songs of Jose Mari Chan—Love at Thirty Thousand Feet and Big Beautiful Country, both familiar jingles.
“Love Letters” was a take on the songs of Jose Mari Chan, George Canseco, and Willy Cruz, a concert of love songs written by three very important Filipino songwriters whose songs were most popular during the last quarter of the 20th century. Interestingly, all the last names of the songwriters start with the letter C—Canseco, Chan, and Cruz—along with Mr. C, Cayabyab.
“Last time, I spoke about song forms,” Mr. C reminded his audience. “The very first song forms I talked about was strophic. All the verses are the same melody, but different stories. Most of the songs of Joe Mari are refrain form.
“Why am I lecturing? This is ‘MaestroClass.’ Tonight, I will talk about the binary song form. There are basically two of them—the verse refrain and the verse chorus. They are very popular song forms.
“Refrain is probably one of Joe Mari Chan’s very first songs that he has written. The verse refrain is like a long intro and the refrain is like, everybody knows that song. It’s like a long intro.”
Mr. C opened the lecture with lyrics from Balut Penoy, to give an example of a verse refrain. Then he gave another example with Buhat, where he asked the audience to join him in the refrain.
This is different from the verse-verse chorus, used by a lot of contemporary composers, where everybody sings the chorus. He played the familiar intro of Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika, popularized by Hajji Alejandro. Another example of a verse-verse chorus is the love song Araw Gabi, which Mr. C penned for his better half.
That was his “MaestroClass” lecture for the night. “It is the time and season to celebrate love, especially through love songs,” Mr. C told his audience. “Especially love songs written by these three distinguished Filipino songwriters.
“I’m very honored to live and breathe the same air as this distinguished gentlemen. I worked longest with Joe Mari Chan. I did many of his arrangements of songs as far back as 1974. I even arranged Love at Thirty Thousand Feet, which sounds like a salsa.
“I worked with George, but he was omnipresent, because I did most of the arrangements sung by Basil (Valdez), and the youngest, Willy Cruz, we worked a lot together because we were in the same recording company.
“It’s time to celebrate. The way you feel, whether it be sadness, joy, pain, and, of course, l-o-v-e, which is the inspiration for most songs. There is really nothing quite like a love song that speaks of that magical moment when you see someone in the crowd who takes your breath away, and the whole world stops.”
Alcasid performs with ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ winners JM dela Cerna and Marielle Montellano
“It’s so difficult to bring all these artists together,” added Mr. C. “I was very, very happy that Celeste said yes, Basil said yes, and Ogie, and we have two young singers. Ang saya.”
A beautiful medley of Let’s Stop and Talk A While, Tell Me Your Name, Please Be Careful with My Heart, and Here and Now with Tawag ng Tanghalan duets champions JM de la Cerna and Marielle Montellano started the music unraveling for “MaestroClass.”
Ogie Alcasid serenades the crowd with heartfelt OPM classics
Then balladeer Ogie Alcasid entered the frame to introduce the winning duo, but playfully requested Mr. C to introduce him. “Nainggit ako at parang gusto ko din kumanta ng Joe Mari Chan na kanta,” said Alcasid. “Since you’re all very beautiful here tonight, I am a beautiful boy, I’d like to sing a beautiful song.” Then, he sang Beautiful Girl.
“Nag-uumapaw ang mga matatanda,” Alcasid teased his audience, obviously composed of mostly senior citizens. He rendered a George Canseco original, Kapantay ay Langit.
‘Nag-uumapaw ang mga matatanda,’ Alcasid teased his audience, obviously composed of mostly senior citizens, before singing Canseco’s ‘Kapantay ay Langit’
Strong rapport between Celeste Legaspi and National Artist Ryan Cayabyab
Celeste Legaspi, who claimed her name also starts with a letter C, gave the audience the familiar Mamang Sorbetero, whose original English lyrics (Mr. Songwriter) were penned by Chan. The Tagalog version was written by Gryk Ortaleza.
Celeste Legaspi enchants with her signature elegance and expressive voice
Legaspi boldly asked Mr. C to alter the set list. “Change the set,” she said, after which it was transformed into a La Scala or Carnegie Hall backdrop. “Change the lights. Now I need a mike stand. Then I need to drink. Are we ready?”
Celeste Legaspi jokingly asked for a backdrop change, which she got.
Then the audience heard the operatic version of Ang Pipit, Celeste Legaspi version.
Long before Spotify or YouTube came to the fore, George Canseco was one of the prominent songwriters, said Mr. C., and Basil Valdez became the voice behind many of Canseco’s greatest hits. “Legend,” as Valdez was referred to by Mr. C.
Valdez sang Ngayon at Kailanman and Kastilyong Buhangin, two of his hits penned by Canseco. Mr. C also rendered two ballads from Chan, Minsan Pa and Afraid for Love (To Fade); two from Canseco, Kung Ako’y Iiwan Mo and Hanggang sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan; and two from Cruz, Kumusta Ka and Let the Pain Remain.
OPM icon Basil Valdez delivers a moving performance of enduring love songs
Valdez gave the audience Salamin ng Buhay and considered himself “so blessed” to have recorded 20 songs of Canseco. Valdez also recorded 16 songs of Cayabyab. The latter has been his music director for the past 48 years, and they have both been in the music industry for 55 years.
The only song Canseco and Cayabyab collaborated on was Maria, the poetic version of Hail Mary, and Valdez shared the song with the audience.
“I’m just in awe to share the stage with Basil, Celeste, and Mr. C,” said Alcasid, who admitted he is not a millennial but Gen X, born in 1967. He obviously provided most of the laughs in the spiels. “There are so many Cs tonight, we should include me, AlCasid,” he teased. He got to sing his own originals, songs that he wrote, like Kailangan Kita, Mahal Kita Walang Iba, and Nandito Ako.
The “king” and the “joker” exited the stage anew, which gave the “queen” Legaspi the chance to dedicate a song to her mom, Vitaliana Kalugdan Legaspi, and she belted out Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal, penned by another C, Ernani Cuenco.
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With Rowell Santiago at the helm, “MaestroClass” will next explore that music of Burt Bacharach in May.
“I will continue doing the Maestro thing,” Mr. C earlier said. “I hope it will leave a lasting impression on how a concert can be enjoyed prismatically—not just in the performance, in the production values, in the stories about the songs, and the personal takes of the individual artist, but also in learning new things about music and how it works.”
