Sunico surpasses himself / Carmen Padilla: Pax awardee

International concert pianist Raul Sunico was the main featured artist in the BMW Concert Series held last week at the elegant Music Hall of Noel and Eileen Gonzales in Alabang.

The 22-year old brilliant violinist Joseph Cimafranca opened the concert with the unaccompanied “Dance of the Goblins” by Bazzini. Cimafranca firmly executed the notes in the most rapid, bristling tempo. Sonata No. 3 by Ysaye was swiftly paced likewise, with violinist and assisting artist Greg Zuniega in perfect, animated rapport which generated breathtaking excitement.

Sunico startled the audience at once with Longa’s Aragon, its Spanish spirit strongly evocative of angular turns and traces of flamenco’s pounding zapateados.

Giving his own annotations for lack of program notes, Sunico observed that Buencamino’s Kulintang, which would follow, could be regarded a love song, and indeed, it had the charming, flowing melodies of a kundiman which Sunico exquisitely delineated.

Musicologists discern in Chopin’s Nocturnes “a yearning for romance, searchings for lasting love” which actually characterized the composer’s personal life. Sunico turned poetic as he reflected the “yearning” and the “searchings” in gracefully etched melodic lines, masterfully balancing these with challenging chords and runs in Nocturne in F Sharp.

In Scherzo No. 3 in C Sharp, the pianist conveyed vibrant energy and high speed to the astonishment of listeners. The astonishment increased as the concert progressed, unravelling deep emotions in Ravel’s Sonatine with its early suggestions of dissonances.

The emotions grew even more profound, more starkly dramatic in Liebestod from Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde as arranged by Liszt. Sunico powerfully recreated the scene wherein Isolde, not believing her beloved Tristan dead, expresses her enduring love for him, her song swelling into an overwhelming climax, the tremolos swiftly increasing in volume to stress the urgency of Isolde’s protestations of love.

But a greater climax was still to come in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. I have heard Sunico play this piece several times, and the latest rendition is always more awesome than the previous one. At the recent concert, how vividly he captured the spontaneity, energy, vibrancy, daunting rhythmic complexities, piquant syncopations and the distinctively American jazz elements! And how “sublime” was the melodious middle section after the preceding and ensuing turbulence and turmoil that had Sunico’s fingers crossing and criss-crossing the keyboard as though he had four hands! Masterfully, he had surpassed himself. The deafening applause and standing ovation came from an audience non-plussed with a tremendous performance particularly in view of Sunico’s multiple roles as CCP president, dean and professor of the UST Conservatory, and regular concertist abroad.

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Concert sidelights was nine-year old tenor Christian Gonzales, son of Noel and Eileen. Christian who sang “Think of Me” and “O Sole Mio” conveyed poise, confidence and assurance — admirable in one so young — his voice firm and expressive, his high notes sustained, his gestures enhancing the lyrics.

Filfest president Vicky F. Zubiri welcomed the audience; board trustee Lina Racho was emcee.

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Carmen D. Padilla will receive this year’s Pax award at the 79th commencement exercises of St. Scholastica’s College headed by Sr. M. Angelica Leviste, OSB, president. Dr. Jose S. Sandejas, SSC board chairman, will confer the award at the PICC on March 28, 3 p.m.

Mrs. Padilla was member of the SSC Honors Society in 1966, Mother Birgitta awardee for Academic Excellence, SSC, 1966; SSC’s Battig Scholar, 1963-66; Outstanding Alumna of SSC College of Music Centennial 2009.

She was executive director, Presidential Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2000-2002; NCCA executive director, 2002-2008, and acting chair, 2006-2008; Commissioner/Chair, Culture Committee of UNESCO National Commission, 2003-2010; Vice-Chair and later chair, UNESCO Memory of the World Committee of Asia Pacific; member of the UST Honorary Council for the Quadricentennial; World president, UNESCO advisory body to the Intangible Heritage Committee.

Pianist Padilla played in SSC’s centennial concert, in the 50th anniversary concert of Sr. Battig and in a College of the Holy Spirit concert with Sunico, Manuel Maramba and Amelita Guevarra.