Year-ender: Raul Sunico the compleat achiever

This is for readers who might not know how the adjective "compleat" came about. The English writer Isaac Walton titled his essay on fishing "The Compleat Angler"; thus the term "compleat" has come to mean complete – more emphatically.

Concert pianist Raul Sunico is my choice for compleat achiever for the year just ended. I once told him he should be included in the Guinness Book of World Records, and in his soft voice and gentle manner, he replied, "The book is for the biggest pizza or the largest hamburger, and the like."

That isn’t so. I believe Sunico should be in that book because he is the only pianist – here or abroad – to have played all four of Rachmaninoff’s concertos in one evening. The feat was accomplished last Sept. 14, 2003 at the CCP main theater, with the UST Symphony Orchestra assisting under Herminigildo Ranera. I was in the audience and I might say, hearing was believing! Foreign and Filipino pianists have played one or the other of the concertos but Sunico, to my knowledge, is the only one to have rendered all four in a single concert – and sans score.

Sunico’s phenomenal memory should likewise be cited in the Guinness Book. At an earlier concert, he played, again sans score, a 170-page concerto of Ferrucio Busoni. I asked Sunico how he had done it. He answered that he started committing the work to memory through a few months, learning the bulk or major part of the piece on the plane while he was wending his way to Manila where he was to play it! Should not Sunico’s memory be compared to a computer or machine?

Indeed, one sees Sunico performing without a score while playing with other pianists in a chamber concert or recital. If he has the score, it is a token one he puts in front of him, so he does not stand out from the rest.

Another thing to marvel at: with Sunico as dean of the UST Conservatory since two years ago, he has revitalized it and maximized its activities to the limit. The UST Symphony Orchestra, the UST Brass Band, the faculty members are endlessly onstage, sometimes with Sunico himself as soloist or part of a piano or chamber ensemble.

For instance, at a recent musical at the US Embassy residence, he performed with soprano Rachelle Gerodias and tenor Lemuel de la Cruz, astounding listeners with his powerful rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

One wonders how Sunico manages as innovative and enterprising dean while actively performing himself. He continues fulfilling engagements abroad – through the years, he has given solo recitals in the US, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, Austria, Japan, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland and Spain. In the US, he has performed at the Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall and Town Hall in New York, in the Knoxville World’s Fair in Tennessee, Yale U., the U. of Pennsylvania, and in the halls of more than 15 states.

Academically, Sunico is far better prepared than most of his peers. His path has been from math to music. He graduated from the UP with a BS degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Statistics combined with a Bachelor of Music degree, cum laude. From Juilliard in New York, he received an MM degree and a Ph.D. degree from New York U., major in Piano Performance. His thesis included a performance guide to Philippine piano concertos.

In Juilliard, Sunico’s Russian piano professor Sacha Gorodnitzki marvelled at his "unusual gifts of lyricism, poetry and great brilliance". Doubtless, it was these qualities that won for Sunico prizes in three international competitions: the Busoni in Bolzano, Italy, the Viotti in Vercelli, also in Italy, and the Henry Cowell in the U. of Maryland, US.

The fevered excitement, pressure and strain participants felt in these contests may be gleaned from Sunico’s reminiscences of the Busoni tilt. More than a hundred pianists attempted to tackle the prescribed four rounds, many of them falling along the way. Each round had a different program, and the fourth allowed each aspirant to play pieces of his own choice which virtually constituted an entire piano recital.

Sunico’s included a Bach Prelude and Fugue, Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 111, Scriabin’s No. 5, two Chopin Etudes, a Liszt and a Rachmaninoff Etude. What was both intimidating and challenging was that the rounds left no time for rehearsals. Presumably, Sunico’s nerves of steel and unflappable nature saw him through the gruelling exercise.

In the intervening years, Sunico built an extensive repertoire that now includes some 20 concertos by Bartok, Barber, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Prokofieff, Tschaikovsky, Brahms, Saint-Saens, Ravel. Also the lone concertos of Schumann, Grieg, Gershwin’s in F, and Lucino Sacramento’s Nos. 2 and 3. And guess what: each of these concertos Sunico committed to memory in one day!

His recordings include his own arrangements of Philippine songs and carols in an album called "In a Classic Mood". Available in the US, his album "Romantic Classics" is a collection of widely-known romantic pieces, e.g., Chopin’s Nocturnes and Mazurkas, Liszt’s Consolation, Rachmaninoff’s Prelude, Debussy’s Claire de Lune and La Plus Que Lente.

With his tremendous versatility he shifted gears in his N.Y. recording "All about Love", a collection of American popular songs of the ’50s and ’60s – by Cole Porter, Gershwin, etc. Sunico even admits: "I go as far as rock" in the firm conviction that popular music actually deepens his interpretation of the classics.

Sunico has arranged and recorded songs of the Revolution in a disc entitled Mga Awit ng Himagsikan, and has authored a textbook series for elementary grades.

For his musicality, musicianship and impeccable technique, Sunico is in great demand as assisting artist. Further, he is often invited to perform with pianists and ensembles – and he always obliges! – because his participation enhances their stature, prestige and reputation.

Sunico’s achievements rest lightly on his brow: he remains humble, unassuming, approachable – and incredibly so!