The piece de resistance at Cecile Licad’s piano recital Saturday at the Baguio Country Club’s Cordillera International Convention Hall was Schumann’s Carnaval, Opus 9, a nearly 30-minute composition that depicts masked merry-makers at Carnival time, which is observed before Lent. This rarely performed piano solo that had her appearing sometimes fiery, sometimes calm, sometimes serious, many times joyous, came after Beethoven’s more popular Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, also known as Moonlight Sonata.

What had the 600-plus audience swaying or nodding their heads though were the post-intermission numbers, particularly the homage to the American ragtime composer Scott Joplin: “The Entertainer,” “Rose Leaf Rag,” “Stop Time Rag,” wherein the pianist stomped her foot repeatedly to keep the beat going, and “Maple Leaf Rag.” Played on a Steinway grand, this type of music is usually associated with honky-tonks, saloons, even brothels. But here was Licad raising it to royal grandness without losing its proletarian essence.

In Liszt’s “St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Waters,” Licad was able to evoke to turbulence of water and its eventual calming after the saint lays his cloak on the Strait of Messina. In Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, she showed why she remains the foremost interpreter of this composer.

All these showed the versatility of the musical artist who has enthralled her Filipino and worldwide audiences ever since she was discovered as a piano prodigy. Almost singlehandedly she has revived the US piano repertoire through performances and her unique discs that cover American nocturnes and landscapes. Would that an all-Filipino piano recording be in the groundworks soon.

Just how evocative her playing was could be supported by a young audience member, Sara Albano, who has a condition called synesthesia. It enables her to see colors in her mind when listening to music. 

Her mother, visual artist Kora Dandan Albano, described Saturday night’s experience as “literally colorful for Sara. Especially when the pianist did her runs, so many colors were swirling and dancing in Sara’s mind while she was listening. I envied her. But when I saw on the screen that Cecile only had two hands, I couldn’t believe it. It sounded and felt like more than one person was playing.”

After two encores (Buencamino’s “Mayon” and Chopin’s “Minute Waltz), the pianist still found the strength and goodwill for a post-concert meet and greet with her admirers, some coming from Manila or out of town to watch her. 

She changed from her plum red concert gown, which she accentuated with a neck piece from Easter Weaving in indigenous colors, to a svelte off-shoulder dress. Offered wine outside the club’s museum, she immediately took a glass of Chardonnay and said her performance dress was just an off-the-rack thing she picked from her closet. It came with no high-class label. As for the spectacles she wore while playing, they were her reading glasses that enabled her to see her hands.

At the reception, where she was met with another round of applause, she wore another pair of glasses, white and round this time. To keep life from becoming boring, she said she collects eyeglasses of different colors. She has them in red, white, blue, green, even one made of steel.

The foodie in her was earlier satisfied when she reached Baguio and sampled the club’s bulalo which she had with a sawsawan of patis and chilies. 

Licad will repeat her outreach program following this schedule and venues: Miranila Heritage House and Library in Quezon City on 1 October with tickets available through 09065478268; Sta. Ana Parish in Molo, Iloilo on 6 October and at the University of the Philippines Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage on 7 October; and at the ECrown Hotel Ballroom in Virac, Catanduanes on 11 October.