Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra

The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) has three top 10 hits in My OPM Top 10. One of them went all the way to #1.

2017 - Girl Crazy Ouverture (#10)

2017 - Danzon No. 2 (#2)

2017 - El Conga del Fuego Nuevo (#1)

This week, Arturo Marquez's 'Danzon No. 2' slips to #8.  They played these three songs during their concert last April 21, 2017 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Here's  a version of Danzon No. 2.  It already has 201,034 views.



Here's a version of El Conga del Fuego Nueva.  It already has 1,066,355 views.

Our Cool Parterre Vice-Presidential Box at the CCP!

I got an early birthday gift last week as I got to watch the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra at the Vice-Presidential Box of the CCP. Move over VP Leni!

I only discovered that night that there were Parterre Boxes actually facing the stage! I always thought nasa gilid lang sila.

In my fantasy world, I've always dreamt of watching the opera from the parterre boxes a la Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman) and Keira Knightley (Anna Karenina). My wish has finally been granted thanks to a kind CCP staffer - di lang nga opera - but an orchestra is close enough - choosy pa ba?

Beside our box is the Presidential Box and it seats 12 people. That's where we want to sit in the next PPO concert! LOL

By the way, these seats cost around 25-50K during the Wicked and Les Miserables run, but they're worth it, if you have that extra cash!

Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra: A Little Night Music of Mozart, Mendehlsson and Elgar

I still can't get over the fact that we had great seats last Friday night.

I've been a regular guest at most PPO shows for years but I've never had seats this plush where I can lay my head back and see every single member of the orchestra very clearly.

My favorite part is watching the cymbals guy and the big drum guy play!

A Night of Trombones, Czech and Danish Music at the CCP

 

With world-renowned trombonist, Takahiro Ono!

With the PPO conductor, Olivier Ochanine!

 

This is the first concert of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra for 2012 but I think the fifth for this season. I actually missed all the other shows because of my busy schedule but I was very happy to attend this one.   For the first time, I decided to get a ticket in the balcony because Lea Salonga said that the music would sound better there since the music rises, especially in the CCP.  And was she right on the money!! Thanks Lea for that suggestion!

 

The PPO (Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra) first played Antonin Dvorak's Czech Suite and it was very beautiful!  Then Takahiro Ono, a trombonist, came on, and he did a wonderful version of Rimsky-Korsakov's Trombone Concerto.  It was actually the first time I heard a trombonist do a solo and it was quite cute, especially his encore, which he did with four other trombonists which I presume are from the PPO.  The encore sounded kinda jazzy to me and it reminded me of the music Charlie Chaplin would use in his silent films.

 

Then Maestro Oli introduced us to Carl Nielsen's The Inextinguishable where he gave us a background about the work.  Frankly, I didn't know Denmark had some good composers so thanks to his leadership, I have finally heard a Danish symphony - and the PPO performed really well.  It was so beautiful to hear all those notes because from our vantage point, you could really appreciate the music better compared to the other concerts where I sat in the orchestra area.  It was robust and clear and cohesive.

Pity that I might miss the next two PPO concerts since my calendar is almost full.  Sigh.....anyway, there's always the next season in September!

Incidentally, the installations of Roberto Chabet were also in the lobbies of the different floors of the CCP theater. Interesting work - very masculine and very clean.

Denmark's Carl Nielsen and "Inextinguishable"

I normally would not associate Denmark with great classical music but listening to one of their foremost composers, Carl Nielsen, here with his work, Inextinguishable, is really quite a treat. Our very own Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra is doing this piece for their concert this Friday evening. It does sound quite heavenly, don't you think?