Medium Rare
With the rain making its own music – pitter-patter mixed with sibilance, a hiss intimating a whispered conversation – the tribute to piano legend Nena del Rosario-Villanueva was about to begin.
Minutes before 2 p.m., the impromptu concert hall of Manila Pianos on Magallanes Drive began filling up with a hushed audience of lovers of piano music, recalling a time when every daughter was obliged to take piano lessons or be considered uncivilized. On the agenda, three pianists – Danica Mae Antazo, Pauline Aguila, and a special guest, Elnora Halili, who was once a student of Nena del Rosario – who were all ready to convert a gloomy afternoon into a recital in the rain.
The tribute to Nena was timed for Sept. 22, which would have been her birthday.
Danica played Chopin and Ravel; Pauline preferred Rachmaninoff and Bernardino Custodio. Elnora chose Hollywood theme music, thrilling her audience with Climb Every Mountain, My Favorite Things, An Affair to Remember. The petite pianist wore a black cocktail dress to go with black shoes with five-inch (!) heels. Because I was early, I caught the leftmost seat on the first row, the better to watch her fingers moving up and down the keyboard in waves, in leaps and bounds, caressing the 88 or pounding on them like mad.
Elnora the pianist is also a teacher. She lives with four – or is it now five? – pianos in her house. Not many pianists can do what she also does: she’s an arranger. Besides being able to make a piece sound like a lullaby or a live orchestra (even on her toy-like, portable Clavinova), this pianist can play any piece by ear, as long as she knows the melody. She’d also write down the notes for other pianists to play. Before the pandemic, I could go to the bookstore, look for the music sheet containing the notes of a popular song – we used to call them “song hits”—and voila, I’d find the notation “Arranged by Elnora Halili” alongside the names of the composer and lyricist.
Trained in the classical tradition at UP, Miss Halili is nonetheless a favorite of the party-giving crowd who rely on her versatile repertoire of love songs, dance music, and favorites from way back when.