AN internationally acclaimed UST music alumnus paid homage to piano virtuoso Franz Liszt in a solo recital at the Manila Pianos Showroom in Makati on Oct. 1.
Thomasian pianist Dingdong Fiel’s piano recital, “Invocation,” was the 10th in the series of 12 performances dedicated to selected composers.
It featured transcriptions from the Hungarian pianist’s selections, including Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses (Poetic and Religious Harmonies) Book 3 S. 173, Deux Legendes S. 175, and Ballade No. 2 in B minor S. 171.
According to Fiel, his connection with Liszt’s compositions can be traced back to his post-graduate years, when he pursued further studies in a German academy named after the virtuoso himself.
“It’s been more than 10 years since my last Franz Liszt performance,” Fiel told the Varsitarian. “That’s why I decided to revisit his music.”
Fiel also staged Liszt transcriptions like Mozart/Liszt: Requiem in D minor, K.626: “Confutatis” and “Lacrymosa,” S. 550, where the piano virtuoso took sections from famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D minor, K.626.
He included in the piano performance, “Wagner/Liszt: Isoldens Liebestod (Isolde’s Love Till Death),” which Liszt composed after Richard Wagner’s opera, “Tristan und Isolde.”
The music alumnus said Liszt was a “forefather of a lot of styles” and one of the first pianists to play a “programmatic style” of a concert, or those that tell a story.
“With programmatic music, people have a mental image of what the music represents. It’s their interpretation [of the work], so I [just] try to convey the emotion,” Fiel said.
Fiel graduated magna cum laude from UST in 2007.
During his undergraduate years at the conservatory, he earned the Rector’s Award for Academic Excellence and the Benavides Award for Outstanding Achievement.
He was also involved in various theater and opera productions as a musical director and orchestra conductor.
Fiel is the songwriter and lead vocalist of the Original Pilipino Music band, “Hari.” Sofiah Shelimae J. Aldovino
