What a proud moment for my family! My nephew CJ performed his junior recital at the UST Conservatory of Music. This was such an important moment that I did not want to miss so I took a day off at work to attend. And I'm extremely glad that I did because it was an incredible experience on so many levels.
The junior recital was held at Recital Hall 1 in Albertus Magnus Building. CJ played five pieces, although the first one consisted of two movements and last one was a full suite composed of four movements. This was his repertoire:
1. Sonata No. 2, Op. 29 1st and 2nd movements by Anton Diabelli (1781-1858)
2. A Fancy (P6) by John Dowland (1563-1626)
3. Fantasia, on Themes from La Traviata by Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909)
4. BWV 997, Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
5. Koyunbaba, Op. 19 by Carlo Domeniconi - Moderato, Cantabile, Mosso, and Presto
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| A piano from Germany in Recital Hall 1 |
It was such an incredible set of music that was played so beautifully. I have seen and heard CJ play solo before but that was many years ago, when he at the onset of his music journey. More recently, I had only seen and heard him play as part of the Sibol Guitar Octet. So I was truly impressed and amazed at how much growth CJ has shown over the years and how much better he has become at his craft. This being a junior recital meant that each piece had a relatively high degree of difficulty. As if that wasn't challenging enough, CJ performed everything without any sheet music. Wow!
My absolute favorite was his last piece, Koyunbaba by Italian composer Carlo Domenico. I have since discovered that Carlo Domenico is a contemporary classical musician whose compositions are influenced by music from many countries and cultures. Koyunbaba, as CJ explained, blends music from the East - specifically Turkey - and the West. I can understand why my nephew selected this suite to be his finale. Not only is it magical to listen to, it is very difficult play. This piece requires the guitar to be tuned in a unique way. In this interview of Carlo Domenico (as a modern classical guitarist, he's still alive), he explains that while the normal tuning works for the old harmonic system, it doesn't work as well for different tonal systems so he changes the tuning in many of his pieces to achieve a different sound. He even goes on to say that to meet the demands of his musical creations, "it is the player who has to change!" Apart from this, Koyunbaba requires the musician to perform various guitar techniques such as arpeggios, rasgueados, and slurs, and it requires a lot of stamina to perform. I don't know a lot of guitar tuning nor techniques but when you hear this piece, you just know it's absolutely special. This four-movement suite is entrancing and hypnotic, taking its listeners on a magnificent musical journey. And to see and hear CJ play it so expertly, expressively, and sublimely was so mesmerizing and awe-inspiring. I was - and still am! - really so impressed and mindblown that my nephew is able o play a piece such as this. And everything else on his repertoire that afternoon.
To celebrate this significant milestone in CJ's conservatory life, my family had an early dinner at Incanta Cave Bar and Restaurant. None of us had eaten there before but I had seen photos of it before and it looks really interesting and very photogenic.
Since we arrived there in the late afternoon and not during the busy lunch or dinner hours, we were able to get a table even without a reservation. It is called a cave bar for a reason as it is designed both inside and outside to resemble a cave, with the walls looking like they are made of rock. It is definitely great for photo ops, and I took a lot of pictures.
Incanta serves Japanese food, which we love. We ordered a lot of food, such as Samurai Roll, which is a roll with torched eel, crispy potato, and truffle kabayaki. I naturally had to order this because my nephews both really love eel and they kept ordering eel every chance we got when we were in Japan a few years ago.
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| Samurai Roll |
I also ordered the Matcha Mille Crepe, which is a match crepe cake with matcha buttercream and served with mango compote.
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| Matcha Mille Crepe |
It really was a superb day that started with fantastic music performed so deftly and confidently by my nephew for his junior recital and ended with a great meal at a really interesting place that we all got to experience for the first time together. I'm so proud of CJ and his talent, skill, discipline, and dedication. He told me before his recital that I should just listen and enjoy and not bother taking videos because it was going to be recorded. I now just need to get a copy of the videos so that I can rewatch CJ's performance.
Congratulations, CJ!
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