MEDIUM RARE 

It’s not a glass house, it’s The Glass House. And there it sits, like a huge cube of ice – better yet, like a diamond almost as big as the Ritz – beside Goldenberg Mansion, one of the jewels of Malacañang Park.

Several footsteps away from Goldenberg, especially when both buildings surrounded by tall trees are facing a descending sun not quite ready to sink into the west, the Glass House feels like the perfect place for a tea party, or cocktails. This architectural gem with its 360-degree expanse of glass including roof and ceiling is very likely a brainchild of first lady Liza A. Marcos, whose ongoing restorations of Malacañang’s heritage mansions should earn her an award or acknowledgment in one form or another from our professional architects.

Raul Sunico, the pianist who can play Rachmaninoff’s four piano concertos in one night, was the musician chosen to lead the Goldenberg Concert Series last Friday, Nov. 8. The event began with tea at the Glass House – intimate but transparent – led by former first lady Imelda R. Marcos sitting at a VIP corner table. I watched her tackle her green salad, pasta in a creamy sauce, shrimp and bacon on a skewer, and plump green grapes – the lady had a good appetite, the better to help her stay awake until 5 a.m. (According to an assistant, she will not sleep until she has seen everything there is to see on YouTube about PBBM.)

Moving to the 80-seat hall of the Goldenberg, FL Liza and her mother-in-law sat side by side on the first row to watch and applaud Mr. Sunico for his romantic music – love songs and dances from Spain, the Philippines, Argentina. It was no surprise that his interpretations – and arrangements – of Filipino love songs went over big with the audience; for example, Bato sa Buhangin (Cuenco), Hanggang sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan (Canseco), Malikmata (Molina).

To my ears, the acoustics were perfect – or was it the setting, or the guests, or the weather that made it so? The pianist said, “A little amplification helped.” If I may add, nostalgia, too. I get the feeling that we’re not writing, or singing, or hearing enough love songs in Pilipino. Maybe FL LAM can do something about that, too?