The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) continues its 35th concert season, dubbed “Romancing the Classics,” on Feb. 16, 8 p.m., at Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater).
The resident orchestra of the CCP will perform Bedrich Smetana’s “Die Moldau (Vltava) No. 2” from “Má vlast (My Country)” and Manuel de Falla’s “Interlude and Spanish Dance” from “La Vida Breve” and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5. Op. 47.”
For the revolution
Shostakovich created “Symphony No. 5” in 1937 after Joseph Stalin reacted negatively to his “Lady Macbeth” opera, condemning his music to be banned from the stage throughout Soviet Union. Composed for the 20th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, it premiered on Nov. 21, 1937 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).
Guest conductor is David Gómez Ramírez. Born in Seville in 1977, Ramírez is one of the most promising young conductors and composers in Spain. He studied piano, trumpet, musicology, composition and orchestra and chorus conducting at Superior Music Conservatory in Seville and Valencia. He studied conducting with maestro Enrique Garcia Asensio, Pedro Morales, George Pehlivanian, among others. —CONTRIBUTED