Licad to reconnect with Chopin in Carnegie Hall concert

Cecile Licad with the PPO at the Carnegie Hall in 2016. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

When Cecile Licad plays Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28 on Dec. 5 at the Carnegie Hall in New York City, she will once more assert her distinguished link with the legendary Polish composer who died on Oct. 17, 1849 in Paris at the age of 39.

Licad is the first Filipina recipient of the Grand Prix du Disque Frederic Chopin for her interpretation of Chopin No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andre Previn.

The acclaimed pianist was last heard at the Carnegie Hall in 2016 with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra where she received a standing ovation.

Past performances at this famous concert venue included a recital in the late ‘80s where she was greeted backstage by Isaac Stern and Leonard Bernstein, who asked her, “When do we work together?”

The Licad-Bernstein tandem never happened as the legendary conductor died on Oct. 14, 1990 due to cardiac arrest.

Licad and the author pose beside a Christmas tree in Science City of Munoz, Nueva Ecija, during an outreach tour.

Before the Carnegie Hall engagement, Licad opened the Danbury Concert Association (DCA) 2024 series in Connecticut with a recital that yielded a standing ovation before the intermission. “Never tasted that in my life before the concert was over,” Licad said.

Kathryn Taylor Kloss of the DCA called it an incredible performance. “What a great gift to our audience. You are a total rock star. Such imagination and artistry.”

From age 11

Licad’s Chopin connection started at age 11 when she won a Manila Symphony Orchestra competition playing Chopin No. 2.

The same concerto was Licad’s debut with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta.

In her first recital in Poland some years back, Licad used a Paderewski (a noted Polish pianist and statesman) piano, after which the critics hailed her as “one of the best Chopin interpreters in 15 years.”

She was also invited to sit in the jury of the Chopin competition, but her manager unknowingly accepted a Hong Kong engagement which coincided with the competition proper.

When Licad first played Chopin’s Twelve Etudes Op. 25 in Washington, D.C. some years back, the Washington Post critic noted that throughout the evening, Licad’s “fierce intelligence illuminated the emotional core of Chopin.”

Poster of the Dec. 5 Licad recital at Carnegie Hall

But nothing beats the erudite words of Philadelphia Inquirer critic Daniel Webster in his review of one Licad recital: “We hear a different Chopin from what our elders heard. The music is more direct, edgy, and muscular. The poetry is there, but the urgency of it is even more clear-eyed, more intense. The subtle differences have emerged as all the elements of life have changed around the music.”

Licad played Chopin’s Funeral Sonata for her late friend, National Artist for Film Marilou Diaz-Abaya, in mind.

When she heard of my daughter’s death in 2021, she told me over the phone, “Pablo, I will play Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude with your daughter Kerima in mind.”

No secret

For Licad, there is really no secret to her Chopin touch. “I learn the score very well, not just my part but the orchestra part as well. Being with a chamber orchestra, you don’t just think about your music. But when I perform, I stop thinking and analyzing and play what I feel instinctively. I never plan anything—the phrasing is here; a harmonic chord is there. I think of it at the moment.”

Licad said artists need to withdraw from the public, be cloistered like a nun, to be able to reflect on their calling. “It is not an easy profession. You have to live life, but you also make sure your art is enriched by it. It takes some good imagination to learn music and to make it connect to life. I like to experiment with sounds so that the music composed hundreds of years back will sound like it’s part of what we hear every day. You have to make them sound fresh and not something that belongs to the museum.”

Licad’s most widely known Polish connection was through pianist Mieczysław Horszowski, who was one of her teachers in Curtis and with whom she shared the concert stage in one concert in Philadelphia. Horszowski was first taught piano by his mother, a pupil of Karol Mikkuli who was also a pupil of Chopin.

In the past, she was friends with another legendary Chopin interpreter, Martha Argerich.

Many years back in New York, Argerich told Licad, “You teach me how to play Chopin No. 2 and I will teach you how to play Chopin No. 1.”

Licad once hosted dinner for Argerich in her New York apartment. Argerich loved the Bicol pinangat cooked by a piano teacher from Iriga City. She referred to it as “the delicious Filipino grass.”

One of the world’s foremost concert pianists reflected, “I was involved with music at age 4. That means 59 years of learning and playing the piano.”

Licad is scheduled to do a national outreach concert in the Philippines after her Carnegie Hall engagement.

Licad’s complete program for Dec. 5 includes Scriabin’s Two Impromptus, Op. 12; Chopin’s 24 Preludes; Beach’s “Hermit Thrush at Eve,” Op. 92, No.1; Schelling’s Nocturne, “Ragusa” and Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso plus works by Joplin. For seats, visit: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Cart/Event-Seating.