As a new employee, I did not have vacation leave credits that would have allowed me to go home for Christmas. Worse, as a new employee, my starting salary could not even afford me to buy a plane ticket home.😭
But I was realistic. As an accountant, I knew that my cash inflow was just enough for my daily transportation, meals, and occasional movies, and I understood it all. I was just happy I was working. In Makati, no less! 😎
That December, I told my parents I could not be with them during Christmas, although my mom could have found a way to send me a plane ticket. It would be the first time ever for me to be away, so I just had to accept it. I reminded myself that Christmas Day was just 24 hours, and so was New Year's Day. But I was lucky I lived at an uncle's home in Tambô, Parañaque, for free, and even luckier that he had a cook and a houseboy who watched over his house when he was away. So, I wouldn't be really alone.
A week before Christmas Day, I read in the news that Cecile Licad would be playing at the Concert at the Park, a program held at Luneta Park that featured free musical and theatrical performances. Everyone who played the piano knew who she was! The Cecile Licad! At Luneta Park! For free!😄
When I was a kid, my mother wanted me and my brother to learn how to play the piano. She was a big fan of Van Cliburn and she wanted her boys to play too. I was about 10; my brother five. She found us a piano teacher in our hometown, Mrs. Paz Certicio, and told us we were scheduled to take lessons on weekends during the school break. After his first try, my brother gave up. He told my mom he'd rather play a ukelele. I, not wanting to disappoint her, continued. My piano lessons were in the afternoons, at two and for 30 minutes. But at 2PM, a sleepy hour, those 30 minutes felt like a day! 😢
It was only when school resumed after the summer break that I appreciated the lessons! I suddenly found Music, a school subject I hated, very easy! I could read notes, tell whole notes from half notes, and even read sharps and flats effortlessly! After a few months, I was playing Beethoven's Für Elise! And after a year, I could play (with two hands) Pandango Sa Ilaw (Tempo di Valse) and Sarung Banggi without looking at the music sheet! Fascinated, I could not even explain how I was able to memorize the entire sheet and knew exactly what white key, black key, or a group of keys to press simultaneously to make it sound melodious when played in a sequence. I loved it! 😎
Unfortunately, I had to stop taking piano lessons after two years because Mrs. Certicio moved her lessons to after-class schedules. But over the years, when I watch piano concerts on TV, I would envy those virtuousos who effortlessly played those difficult pieces that were full of sharps and flats, and finger-twisting chords that I could only dream of playing, and when I read the news about our famous pianists in the Philippines like Cecile Licad and Rowena Arrieta, and their successes abroad, I was also impressed and proud! I felt I was still a pianist, but without practice!😄
Then Christmas Day came.😌
In the afternoon of December 25, 1987, a Friday, I took two jeepney rides: first, from Tambô to Baclaran; then, from Baclaran to UN Avenue. I then walked towards Luneta Park and looked for the venue. When I got there, the long benches at the front were already taken. It turned out I was not the only one excited to watch the special performance. I looked for a seat a few rows back, and waited for Ms. Nikki Coseteng, that day's emcee who was seated at the right side of the stage, to start the program. If I remember right, it was the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra that accompanied her in the concierto.
After she was introduced, we welcomed her, not only with an excited audience's applause, but more like a homecoming palakpakan. Cecile then took her seat at the grand piano. Her audience did not care about the noise around the venue, or that the music could drift away with the Manila Bay breezes. She could just play Chopsticks and I would still give her a standing ovation.😆
Tchaikovsky's Piano Concierto No. 1 is a very familiar piece of classical music. The first bars always got your attention; very theatrical and was always used in some dramas. And Cecile had to play (pun intended!) for more than 30 minutes what Tchaikovsky had brilliantly composed in 1875!
As I was at the back, I had to crane my neck! Her hands were jumping up and down the ivory keys, and running from left to right and back again, her audience was mesmerized! I was enthralled!
After the first movement, it finally sank in. I told myself this was the highlight of my Christmas! Licad! Tchaikovsky! Philharmonic! What a Christmas gift! But more than a Christmas treat, it was an experience and a dream come true!😊
In between movements, my eyes wandered around and I recognized her former husband, cellist Antonio Meneses, bespectacled and sitting at the left side of the audience on an empty bench with a baby on his lap. I thought the baby must be their son, Otavio. I guessed her family spent their Christmas holidays in Manila.🌲
After the final thunderous notes of the concierto with Cecile raising both of her hands in the air, finally releasing the grand piano from her enslavement, I could still hear the music ringing in my ears which was now mixed with an even louder applause. We were all standing!🙏
I could no longer remember if there was an encore, but there could have been one, or even maybe two. All I could remember was a certain realization: the coming together, in one moment, of things fascinating to me.
I would have wanted to compare this moment to a rare planetary alignment where my fortune aligned with Mars, Venus and Jupiter in the night sky. This moment, however, was more of a confluence: I, seated in front of Cecile Licad as she played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concierto No. 1, which was the concierto Van Cliburn played that won him the 1958 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, and he, being my mother's favorite pianist from whom she got an idea to send me to take piano lessons.♫🎶
And when I told my mother about it the next time I came home, she could not believe it herself!😀
Looking back, I realized I was not meant to come home for the holidays that year because there was a special gift awaiting for me on Christmas Day in Manila. We should not wonder how the universe conspires to grant our wishes, or how things happen the way they do. Maybe, when you wish and you are deserving, it will come true for you too!😍
Salamat guid, Cecile Licad, Tchaikovsky, Mrs. Certicio, and my Mother!😃
(Cecile Licad playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concierto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Sir Georg Solti conducting)
#CecileLicad #Tchaikovsky #PianoConciertoNo1 #LunetaPark #music #pianist #classicalmusic #thankyou #salamat
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