But now, like a deus ex machina, this shy, somewhat awkward 19-year-old is standing beside his mother on stage, or sitting across her, playing with intense concentration on a second piano, or standing beside her, now and again, curtain call after curtain call.

Mother and son seem surprised at the happy surge of applause and wild cheers. Truth to tell, it’s not easy keeping up with Cecile; can playing with her be any easier?

By his own account, Otavio Licad Meneses was convinced by Eugene Castillo, conductor and music director of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, to visit the land of his mother’s birth and perform with her. "If you think I can do it, I’m prepared to do it," Otavio told the conductor. He also said he wanted to see his grandmother again, Rosario Buencamino, who like Cecile gave him "random" lessons when he was a tyke of three growing up in his first home in Switzerland.

While a few of us are obsessed with mother-and-child, father-and-son working arrangements in the Senate, the Cecile-Otavio tandem is proof that there are better ways than politics to do our genes proud.

Cecile’s solo piece was a Ravel concerto, but after the audience discovered what a great team she made with her son performing the world premiere of Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos, they demanded, and got, three encore numbers: One by Cecile and two by Cecile with Otavio (playing compositions by Lolo Buencamino and Rachmaninoff).

This report cannot end without what amounts to a survey of audience reaction to the PPO. The unanimous conclusion: They’re great! What an improvement! Kudos to Eugene Castillo!