MEDIUM RARE 

As the man said, music shakes off the dust of everyday living.

What is music? The most elusive of the arts, hard to define or even describe, yet nothing like music to touch the heart, refresh the mind, enliven the spirit. The one thing to add to the joy of performing or listening to music is learning about it, a bit more each time, note by note.

That’s why attending a recital of pianist-pedagogue Mariel Ilusorio is a must for lovers of music (of whatever kind), including the young, students of classical music, and old fogeys who can never have enough, being the fulltime amateurs that we are.

Last Sunday, a day of worship and leisure, Mariel was in top form yet again, this time performing in a sunset recital with Inna Montesclaros – two pianists on one piano but as she described it, playing like “one person with four hands” – at Sunshine Place which, referred to as the habitual place of leisure for seniors, was filled to the brim, every seat taken, with nonseniors as well. Dressed in her favorite noncolor, white, the willowy Mariel looked like a Greek goddess on the podium, explaining the music she and Inna were about to play, providing the back story of each composer’s history as well as the circumstances behind each creation.

Of particular interest was Mariel’s story about Maurice Ravel, who was an ambulance driver during the war in Europe (like the novelist Ernest Hemingway). True enough, the first chords on the pianoforte sounded like war drums, the rumble of terror and fear – what a dramatic intro! – and the audience was captured.

I spotted Raul Sunico but missed Tony Pastor, who messaged that he would be watching Mariel at her repeat performance instead, this coming Saturday in Magallanes at Asia Pacific College, where his niece Tata is president. “Tata worked on this production with Mariel,” Tony the proud uncle added.

Tony the musicman, lawyer, Batangas outstanding citizen and papal awardee, just happens to be a sponsor of the Cuatros Manos recitals. During the question-and-answer portion last Sunday, Mariel gamely recounted how she and Inna “got together for one month playing and working and laughing” to put the show on the road. Take a bow, ladies!