The UST Symphony Orchestra impressed its audience anew with lively renditions of classical music in their concert, “Brahms meets Disney,” last Sept. 17 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Under the baton of Daniel Bartolome of the Conservatory of Music, the orchestra blended German composer Johannes Brahms’s intricate symphonies with the music of Disney animated films.
“Brahms requires a very high level of technique but with their dedication, focus and effort, they reached it in less than a month,” Bartolome told the Varsitarian when asked how the group studied the pieces.
Bartolome had served as musical director of concerts of Filipino singers including Lea Salonga, Christian Bautista and Julie Anne San Jose.
The concert opened with Brahms’s “The Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80,” a fun-filled melody narrating the story of when Brahms received an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the University of Breslau in Poland.
It was followed by Malaysian pianist Ng Chong Lim’s rendition of Brahms’s first musical piece, “Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15,” which featured layers of maestoso or dark powerful movement, adagio or an intimate sound, and rondo or cheerful tune.
The concert was capped by Thomasian Jedrick Itugot’s arrangement of the “Walt Disney Medley.”
The UST Vocal Performance Department, Coro Tomasino and Liturgikon serenaded the audience with Disney songs such as Alan Menken’s “Beauty and the Beast,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “How Far I’ll go” and “Once Upon a Dream” by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence.
Conservatory of Music students Demie Fresco, John Saga and Ryan Tamondong and Faye Transfiguracion joined the performance.
“The purpose of this concert is to let those who haven’t seen classical musical performance be somehow educated on the tradition of classical music,” Bartolome said.
