THE CHOPIN CONNECTION OF CECILE LICAD

Frédéric Chopin was born 215 years ago, and it is amazing how Cecile Licad connected with the Polish composer’s music as though she had known him all her life.

- By PABLO A. TARIMAN

Understandably, some orchestras have made much of the fact that her recording of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor with André Previn and the London Philharmonic won the Grand Prix du Disque from Warsaw’s Chopin Society.

For the record, Licad was the first recipient of this CD citation from Poland’s Chopin specialists.

Asecond look at Licad’s phenomenal career shows that she had an excellent command and feel for playing Chopin as early as 11 years old.

Licad’s first competition piece was the same F minor concerto which won her the Manila Young Artists auditions when she was barely in her teens. She nearly didn’t make it in that competition because one jury member thought the Chopin concerto was not suited for an 11-year-old pianist.

The same Chopin concerto was Licad’s debut with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta in 1981. Like first teacher Rosario Picazo and Benjamin Tupaz, Licad’s Curtis teacher, Rudolf Serkin, also chose the Chopin concerto for her debut piece with the New York Philharmonic.

By coincidence, Licad played the first movement of this concerto as her audition tape for Curtis and was accepted without reservation.