How MSJO won gold—and a case for Filipino musicality
With all the whooping and hugging and shaking hands to celebrate the gold prize victory at the 13th Bratislava International Youth Music Festival—well deserved at that—I had a chance to see the full concert competition among the various orchestras coming from other parts of Europe, the United States and as far as Australia.
The concert hall had very good acoustics so it wasn’t difficult splitting the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Here are my observations on why the Manila Symphony Junior Orchestra (MSJO) handily won the coveted gold prize.
They were truly a cut above the competition. An orchestra with a “high school” designation carries often—and mistakenly—the stereotype of instruments lacking proper tuning, or, in some cases, the squeaking, off-kilter, blackboard screech that befalls many a high school band.
There were sadly a few of the competing orchestras that committed such sound infractions that immediately deducted winning points.
MSJO had none of the missteps. The music they played had a maturity so vastly above the rest. There were complex divergences between the strings which could have merited a renegade squeal, but the orchestra stayed the course masterfully.
There were many moments when the orchestra dialed their volume down to a whisper and then, slowly but surely, swelling up again. I failed to hear any modulation from the other orchestras.
Characteristically Filipino
The choice of repertoire impacts the decision to award the best. The competing orchestras had some good choices, but in a few instances I noted what I call “mental music,” a melange of jagged notes that earmark the west’s existential anguish.
For the MSJO, they remained in the realm of the romantic, lush and sweeping music that immediately enthralled audience and judges alike.
Our Filipino composers were sentimental in their compositions, and the universality of affectionate and sweet tones, so characteristically Filipino, so exquisitely performed by our youthful orchestra, brought the audience to standing ovations.
I’ve witnessed many an orchestra performance in the west where the musicians for the most part are steadfastly attached to their seats but play the most divine interludes. The emotional and energetic play of hands and body in a few cases belong solely to the conductors. Think Seiji Ozawa.
The MSJO bucks the staidness of stiff western-style decorum. It may seem a bit annoying for the western concert viewer to see the orchestra in various degrees of swaying to their playing.
From a distance, one sees the orchestra as one body writhing in sensuality and harmony with the pieces played. The musicians not only play excellently but their bodies have become captives to, extensions of, their playing.
I try to demur from wildly raising our flag or lustily singing our anthem in moments like this when national pride goes to the forefront given the moment. But this time I fail to hide my sentiment given what I have just witnessed. MSJO has proven how musically gifted we are as a people, something inborn in our DNA.
Hooray for Filipino music! I burst with pride, thanks to the MSJO.
