Raul Sunico to rouse ‘Filipino romantic spirit’ with three piano concertos
For his upcoming show, “Gabi ng Piyano Konsyertong Pilipino,” Raul Sunico has prepared three piano concertos, which, while relatively unheralded, are nonetheless regarded as musical cornerstones that highlight the virtuosity of 20th-century Filipino composers.
On Feb. 6, at the Manila Metropolitan Theater, the renowned classical pianist, together with the Manila Symphony Orchestra, will perform Lucino Sacramento’s Piano Concerto No. 2 “Maharlika” (1973), Alfredo Buenaventura’s Piano Concerto No. 1 “Celebration” (1976), and Francisco Santiago’s Piano Concerto in B-flat minor (1924).
Conducting are maestros Jeffrey Solares and Herminigildo Ranera of the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music, where Sunico is a faculty member and served as dean from 2002 to 2016.
The concert, a production of Musika Pilipinas (tickets are available on TicketWorld), is an undertaking Sunico described as “manageable,” but still “quite daunting.”
Manageable because Sunico is no stranger to taking on hefty repertoires, both in volume and magnitude. In 2019, for instance, he did all four Rachmaninoff piano concertos to great aplomb. But daunting as well because he hasn’t touched one of the pieces in decades; the other two, he has never played at all.
“As time is of the essence, every day is a crucial day for learning and memorizing additional passages, not only for learning my solo parts, but also learning the orchestral accompaniment for our ensemble,” Sunico, who has been “carefully balancing his administrative and academic duties with concert preparations,” told Lifestyle.
Serendipity
The first one, Sacramento’s “Maharlika,” is a piece Sunico holds dear. After all, it was by serendipity that he found himself playing it at the Malacañang Palace for the late former President Marcos’ birthday in 1973—a career-shifting event that had him leaving his day job at a bank to attend The Juilliard School in New York, where he earned a master’s degree in music.
“I was just a last-minute replacement for my ailing piano teacher Benjamin Tupas. And that served as my passport to a scholarship to Juilliard,” he related.
He would play the Sacramento concerto—supposedly commissioned by former First Lady Imelda Marcos—a few more times after, both here and abroad, including a world premiere in 1974 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which he would later head as president, from 2010 to 2017.
“It’s a highly romantic work that wasn’t the usual contemporary style of the composer,” Sunico said of the piece, whose harmonic and melodic treatment—both in structure and thematic development—was inspired by Sacramento’s mentor, Nicanor Abelardo.
While Sunico featured and analyzed Buenaventura’s “Celebration” for his doctoral dissertation, he never got around to actually performing it. But on paper alone, it does sound like an intriguing piece—a contemporary composition with an “eclectic” flair.
“It has quartal and quintal harmonies, augmented chords, chromatism, and oblique melodies which deviate from usual expressive sequences,” he said. “It contains technical flourishes and complex progression while combining romantic interludes and dissonant intervals.”
Mysteriously appealing
Of the three pieces, however, it’s Santiago’s “Piano Concerto in B-flat minor” that Sunico finds mysteriously appealing, given its history. All known copies of the concerto were thought to be lost after World War II. But thanks to the efforts of Santiago’s former students and contemporaries, a reconstruction said to be faithful to the original was made possible in 1952.
It was first performed in the Philippines in 1925, at the Manila Grand Opera House, making Sunico’s upcoming performance a fitting commemoration of the piece’s 100th anniversary. “It’s a significant milestone,” he pointed out. “It had been declared lost for a long time until its recent discovery.”
The concerto is also a vital piece of music history, Sunico said, as it gives an insightful peek into Santiago’s compositional style and comparative approach vis-à-vis those of his Filipino and Western contemporaries a century ago.
“Evidently, the composer was ahead of this time in combining tonal harmonies and technical flourishes with the occasional stark resolutions and modulations,” Sunico said of Santiago, “The Father of Kundiman Art Song.” “While this piece is highly tonal, the thematic materials are diverse and not so closely related, providing a varied character and mood.”
All three pieces are “exciting to play,” said Sunico, and he can’t wait for audiences to hear them live. “We chose the three based on their variety of styles—traditional, electric, and modern. And in all of them, the Filipino romantic spirit is evidently present.”
