Aries Caces interviewed by Tom Frinta Sunday 14th March 2010
 

TF: Congratulations for being chosen as the resident conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. It has been a month since you took over that position. What experiences would you like share with us?

AC: I am very grateful and honoured to be the resident conductor of the country's national orchestra. I have been enjoying rehearsing with them, and more importantly, "hanging out" with them (laughter)! We know each other very well, as I have worked with them several times as a soloist as well as a conductor in the past. Besides, they are my peers, colleagues and friends.

TF: What projects do you have with them?

AC: As part of the outreach program of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, we performed in 2 different cities (Panabo and Tagum) in Davao Del Norte, Mindanao last month. On March 18th, I will conduct the orchestra in its 7th season concert with the great Filipino violinist Joseph Esmilla as soloist, and 2 days later, the orchestra will play in an open air park in Makati City. It has been a very busy time for us lately.

TF: Wonderful! What are your objectives as conductor of the PPO?

AC: To promote classical music, Philippine classical music, and Filipino classical musicians. The concerts in Mindanao were very fulfilling as the people showed interest and love for classical music in that part of the Philippines. By the way, we played an all-classical program, that included Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, among others.

TF: Aside from conducting the PPO, are you able to do other things in Manila?

AC: I gave piano master classes at the University of the Philippines College of Music and St. Scholastica's College of Music last month. Next week, I will hold another master class for the Piano Teachers' Guild of the Philippines. Aside from these, I will play a Liederabend with soprano Minette Padilla on the August 19th and 24th at the Paco Park and UST Museum, respectively.

TF: Thank you for your time, Aries! The way I see things, your career is ready to fire its next stage booster rocket engine to ever more challenging horizons.

AC: Thank you, too, Tom! Alles Gute!

 

Philstar comments on PPO concert Wednesday 24th March 2010
 

All the orchestral works played by the PPO last March 18 were thoroughly familiar. Yet Aries Caces, setting aside his pianistic skills and wielding the baton, made them sound vividly fresh and vastly different from other renditions. This observation applied to Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy.

As soon as Caces ascended the podium at the CCP theater, he immediately engaged audience attention, his body language exuding high energy, zest and boundless spirit. He would crouch, bend forward, extend and briskly wave his arms to stir the orchestra toward crushing fortissimos or keep his fluttery fingers down to indicate feathery pianissimos.

Beethoven based this Overture on Goethe’s play portraying the Count of Egmont’s fierce resistance against the Duke of Alba’s despotic oppression. Solid, firm, assertive tones made for a grand majestic opening, the loftiness of the music conveyed throughout with meticulous care.

In the Romeo and Juliet selection, the orchestra reflected the composer’s melodic spontaneity, his feeling for large, intense climaxes — e.g. the clashes between the Montague and Capulets delineated by the brasses and percussions — the subtleties and nuances in the quivering, haunting melodies of the Romeo-Juliet love theme, the subdued string dolefully signalling the lovers’ tragic death. Indeed as a master of orchestration, Tchaikovsky was at his descriptive best, this interpreted by Caces with moving expressiveness and magnificent eloquence.

Prokofiev is known for his great dramatic power, sensitively projected emotions and moods. There was an unmistakable stamp of authority in Caces’ rendition of the composer’s Symphony, conveying sweep and vigor in the modulations and turns of phrases through brasses and percussions, the strings bringing the profusion of melodic lines into incandescent life.

The rapturous applause led to one of the most familiar of Brahms’ Hungarian dances, its beautiful melodies so breezily etched in dramatically contrasting rhythms that the piece was an invitation for the audience to rise and whirl about.

The young virtuoso Joseph Esmilla opened the first movement of Sibelius Violin Concerto in the softest, almost inaudible strains, then startled and amazed as he unravelled the mysteries of the diabolically challenging and tortuous yet fascinating cadenza. The ensemble stayed in the background while Esmilla rendered lyrical passages, stupendous bravura dominating in the intense, stirring conclusion.

For encore, Esmilla played “Tango No. 3” (whose composer escaped me), again giving listeners reason to marvel at his delicate artistry and technical expertise in the unaccompanied piece.

The riveting concert, the PPO’s first under Caces as its resident conductor, and Esmilla’s second after a 17-year absence, was extremely gratifying, inevitably demonstrating the superior qualities of both baton wielder and soloist.