Tricking AI with Liszt at 17.

Cellist Emanuel Graf (landesjugendorchester.de)

By PEGGY ANN BLISS

Special to The STAR

Just when everyone is packing up for the summer, musicians are working themselves into a frenzy of creativity and exuberance.

Take Matthew, a 17-year-old Maryland high-schooler of Chinese ancestry.

The youngest of 25 students enrolled in British keyboard genius Ian Hobson’s 12th International Piano Festival at the Puerto Rico Steinway Society headquarters in Jan D’Esopo’s Gallery Inn this week. Last Monday, the newly arrived students were testing all six Steinway concert grands in the historic 18th-century barracks in Old San Juan.

But the one who didn’t hide his talent was this shy teenager who kept re-incarnating Liszt and Chopin and Beethoven in the most ecstatic colors all evening while young tourists kept ordering up mojitos and gin & tonics and chicken wings in the Music Hall.

When we called on AI to identify an especially difficult piece, our helpful robotic ear told us quickly that it was a particularly difficult etude (aren’t they all?) by Franz Liszt, being interpreted by Argentinian virtuoso Martha Argerich, considered the world’s greatest living pianist! Matthew’s reaction? A subdued “I’m flattered.”

Argerich could not be reached for comment.

For information on free concerts, which start at 5:30 p.m. through week’s end, call (787) 722-1808.

One in 60

Another musician getting chills this past week on a rare instrument was Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) principal cellist Luis Miguel Rojas, after taking in the brilliant cello and piano homage to the world’s most famous cellist, Pablo Casals, in the hands of Emanuel Graf.

L’Eveque de la Rochelle (which means Bishop of Rochelle) was crafted in Cremona, Italy in 1690 by luthier Antonio Stradivarius, one of only 60 existing cellos made by the undisputed master (there are considerably more extant violins made by his gold-touch hands).

The instrument, one of only four made of strong, dark tiger wood, can sell for anywhere from $5 million to $10 million. But Graf was lucky he didn’t have to mortgage his soul to buy it; he has had it on indefinite loan since 2022.

Graf, an avid racing car fan, had the instrument’s case finished in the startling red color (rosso corsa) of Italy’s racing cars. He has been a special guest of Ferrari and combined his two loves in one concert.

While it seemed security was very tight, two elite musicians -- Puerto Rican guitarist Arturo Castro and Rojas -- and this determined reporter managed to get in.

Rojas was almost speechless after he was allowed to play a little bit, but he did manage to say: “A blend of powerful sound and elegance. A wonderful experience.”

The fondest of farewells

One of the most poignant scenes on the first night of the Casals Festival was not even in the concert hall but among a gang of PRSO members after the concert. The hangout on Martin Travieso Street, once known as Diana’s Pizzeria, is now Callejeros, under new management with an emphasis on Mexican cuisine and with A/C. But the gang still calls it “La Pizzeria sin aire” from the old days. Former concertmaster Henry Hutchinson and his wife Mari, bassoonist Pedro Vázquez and violist María Santiago, among others, raised a heartfelt toast along with a solemn group of friends of Ion “Nelu” Serbanescu, the PRSO second principal bassoonist who died just before the festival opened.

His sister Elena Sherbanesco, a retired PRSO first violinist, gave a moving toast, initially in Spanish, then at this columnist’s urging, in Rumanian. The fallen musician was cremated in his tuxedo after the release Monday of the many honors and emotions his colleagues and siblings had been bottling up all week during intense preparation for the iconic festival. While the festival always evokes the monstrous talent of Pau Casals, for whom it is named, the 70th edition was dedicated to a departed bassoonist.

PRSO Music Director Max Valdés read an elegy while a bassoon remained alone on stage as Emeritus Conductor Roselín Pabón and Hutchinson stood as honor guards.

For your many breaths of love and creation over two decades. 

Buen viaje, Nelu.

Soprano Natalia Santaliz (Facebook via Athlone Artists)

Featuring in ‘Trojan Women’

Natalia Santaliz, a beautiful young arts correspondent for CBS from Mayagüez, is the gal on the go these days. Sporting an incredibly individual shoulder-length hairdo, she also wore with grace the most exquisite jade green and ecru gown this observer has ever seen in a requiem (in this case, Mozart’s “Requiem in C Minor”).

Natalia, with all the elements, is a gal on the go. She made her first appearance at the Met in 2024 at the Met in the female chorus in Osvaldo Goloijov’s “Ainadamar” and will be featured in a unique role in the dramatized and musicalized updated version of Euripides’ Greek tragedy “The Trojan Women.”

This timeless piece of literature highlights the brutal treatment of women in war and their brave resistance. It has its greatest relevance today in Ukraine and Syria and Gaza and the many other sites of horror and brutality, says creator and director Vicente Castro. Look for mega stars like Jorge Luis Ramos as Hecuba, former queen of Troy and veteran theater icon Jacqueline Duprey as her successor Helen of you know where, and Braulio Castro as Menelaus.

Sultry triple threat Ana Isabelle is Cassandra, while talented character actor Willie Denton renders Taltubius. Brilliant young actress Daniella Paredes interprets Andromache.

The music is eclectic, with classical guitarist Alberto Rodríguez Ortiz doing the heavy lifting along with veterans such as Rucco Gandía on electric bass with lots of drums. All this with music from the best of Spanish and Spanish American composers such as Manuel de Falla and Argentinian Alberto Ginastera. 

“Cassandra’s Rap” is written by Vicente Castro to music by the versatile Rodríguez Ortiz.

Mérido González Marte, known as “Yiyo,” will bring his special talents in bomba and plena to the Greek stage.

The Caguas Children’s Choir and other singing groups directed by Meredith Alequín will provide the soldiers and women.

Veteran Quique Benet is on lights, surrounded by many new technicians.

Boston payback

Remember when the PRSO trekked to Boston to show those staid pilgrims up there what we can do in a Caribbean orchestra inspired by the great Catalan cellist? Yeah, Casals.

Well, now they’re sending 10 of their own, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, to show us what they can do. As part of the Casals Festival, they will be giving a concert Sunday at Bellas Artes Symphony Hall at 4 p.m.

They’ll be playing “Summer Music” by Samuel Barber, for woodwind quintet, Antonio Dvorak’s “String Quintet in G Major” and Carlos Simon’s “Gardner Suite” for just about everybody.

Simon was composer in residence at the Boston Symphony.

Happy listening wherever you are.

The big free clarinet concert with Spaniard Ángel Martín is on Monday at 5 p.m. at the Conservatory of Music in Miramar, and the big debut of Boriken (String) Quartet is on Tuesday at 7 p.m., also at the Conservatory, but not free.