Kabayaos in the house: A musical celebration

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By John Anthony Estolloso and Miguel Antonio Davao

While it has been more than a decade that saw the heyday of the Kabayao Quintet in Iloilo City, their musical reputation and prowess still retained the excitement of witnessing them perform on stage. For Ilonggo classical music enthusiasts harking back to memories of nuanced performances and standing ovations, it was a treat to experience once again a musical family playing together – and staying together.

The evening of the Fourth of July saw Diversion 21’s Ann Margaret Hall packed to the rafters with aficionados who, if not necessarily to indulge into the obscura of the genre, then at most to pay tribute to an exceptionally talented musical family that has become emblematic of what Filipino musicality can accomplish and can contribute to the canon.

With Mrs. Corazon Pineda-Kabayao on the piano and the revered Gilopez leading Sicilienne, Farida, and Gilberto Kabayao on the violins, the quintet exuded a nostalgic and wistful glance at a generation of musicians that have done so much in propagating the appreciation and performance of classical music in so many different settings and situations.

Opening the evening’s programme was Sonatensatz, Johannes Brahms’ tail-end contribution to a rather peculiar musical piece entitled the F-A-E Sonata, composed by him, Robert Schumann, and Albert Dietrich. F-A-E here stands for Frei Aber Einsam (Free but lonely); this was the personal motto of the piece’s dedicatee, Joseph Joachim, as well as the basis for the sonata’s cryptographic musical reference – the notes fa (F), la (A), and mi (E).

This angsty piece was followed by a rather lugubrious arrangement for violins and piano of Mendelssohn’s First Trio in D Minor, at least, two of its movements. Most striking from the performance was the piece’s hauntingly beautiful romanticism, heard in the flowing second movement: it is as if it attempts to regale a story of a past love, perhaps even a first love.

In the curious interlude that followed when Mrs. Pineda-Kabayao had to wrestle with an impromptu asthma attack, one can but marvel at the intensity and endurance with which the grand old lady maintained her poise and phrasing. Unfazed to the last note, she returned to the piano and proceeded to plow through the rest of the concert with nary a blurry staccato or a choppy arpeggio. One might even go as far to say that in the absence of an accompanying orchestra, Mrs. Pineda-Kabayao’s performance would have been more than enough to carry the musicality of the entire evening.

As if to match the intensity of his wife’s virtuosity, Mr. Gilopez Kabayao’s solo performance of Wieniawski’s Scherzo Tarantelle was a sharp echo of years spent on the concert stage. That he first performed the composition as a teenager in Carnegie Hall many decades ago only further emphasized the homely ease with which it was rendered that evening. Conversely, his opening of Massenet’s meditation from Thaïs sounded a tad abrasive in the first few bars, but it did not diminish the poignant pull of the music. Sitting with a delicate and almost fragile demeanor that marked his 93 years as a musician, Mr. Kabayao played with an uncommon eloquence that younger musicians can but aspire to achieve – that is, if they live up to his age and prestige.

Stealing the limelight of the evening was Jimmy Tagala, Jr., Mr. Kabayao’s protégé on the violin. His frenetic interpretations of two of Paganini’s caprices, paired with a modicum of stoic impersonality, highlighted an unquestioned mastery of technique and phrasing that did justice to his mentor’s talents. But Paganini is Paganini: the very name evokes fireworks on the violin and it sufficed to give credence to the technical skill of the performer, as if to call forth the supernatural side of the legendary composer himself.

More of interest to these critics would be Mr. Tagala’s performance of his teacher’s Bahay Kubo Variations. Redolent of the impish tune sung ad nauseaum in kindergartens and elementary schools, the arrangement elevated the otherwise simple melody to a virtuosic exhibition piece showcasing the possibilities with which folk tunes can be interpreted – and Mr. Tagala was in his element to showcase this musical paraphrasing.

Playing mostly in unison or in two-part arrangements, the Kabayao children were in top form that evening.  Gluck’s Melodie, Saint-Saëns’ The Swan, and Elgar’s Salut d’Amour were relative concert staples though Ginastera’s rhapsodic Pampaena was a welcome contemporary deviation from the evening’s repertoire. Mr. Kabayao’s arrangement of well-loved Filipino selections – Mutya ng Pasig and Bayan Ko – drew appreciative, subdued sighs from the audience.

The well-received renditions manifested the Filipinos’ deep love for the melodic and the lyrical, as we love to sing and belt out familiar tunes. To hear the immortal pieces by Nicanor Abelardo and Constancio de Guzmán on the violin elicited hums and sometimes whispered recitations of the lyrics from the audience. Mutya ng Pasig was a curious version of the glorious vocal masterpiece: the arpeggios and double-stops did not cover up the original beauty of the piece, as frequent as they were. The arrangement of Bayan Ko oozed with enough lyrical passion without losing the nationalistic fervor hidden beneath the absent words and the uplifting melody.

Closing the evening was a selection of hymns: the choice of finale was evocative of the family’s religiosity; that even in the most secular of settings, there is an invocation of the Almighty and the acknowledgment of the Divine. It was a fitting end to a musical soiree.

Far may have been the evening from the usual glamor and spectacle of performance, one cannot deny that the Kabayao Quintet has maintained its reputation for musical showmanship: to reverberate the lines of Rosalinda Orosa from Philippine Star, the group was, as always, ‘incomparable not only for… solidifying family togetherness but also for its technical skill, musicality, musicianship and moving eloquence.’

While the writers of this critique may nitpick the technical details of the evening, they cannot deviate from acknowledging that when the Kabayaos are in the house, an appreciative crowd is sure to gather and applaud.

[Mr. Estolloso is the Subject Area Coordinator for Social Studies in one of the private schools of the city. Mr. Davao is an accomplished violinist who has performed with notable orchestras and ensembles in and outside the country. The photos are from Mr. Jake Tirol Cocjin’s FB page and are used with his permission.]