Raul’s signature piece: Rhapsody in Blue

No one of our concert pianists, I venture to say, interprets Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in as dazzling a manner as Raul Sunico does. A little background on the piece might make the reader appreciate this assumption even more.

In 1923, the American conductor Paul Whiteman commissioned Gershwin to compose "a large work in the jazz idiom" for an all-American concert. The result was Rhapsody in Blue which, performed at NY’s Aeolian Hall, made Gershwin famous overnight. "It was the coming of jazz into the concert hall."

Gershwin himself explains: "Jazz has applied to five or six different types of music: It is a little bit of ragtime, the blues, classicism, and (Negro) spirituals. Basically, it is a matter of rhythm. After rhythm in importance come intervals, music intervals which are peculiar to the rhythm. After all, there is nothing new in music.

"In America, this preferred rhythm is called jazz. Jazz is music; it uses the same notes that Bach used."

Gershwin grew up in Tin Pan Alley, imbibing all its tunes, for which reason he is called "a symbol of the jazz influence on the American concert hall and opera-house; it is the real Broadway, even though it is reaching beyond its own soil. Perhaps, Rhapsody is still the most authentic and enduring work Gershwin produced."

Certainly, it will endure the dazzling way Sunico rendered it at last Saturday’s "Highlands High Tea" in Tagaytay’s Midland Veranda. How excitedly Sunico captured and conveyed the jaunty, syncopated rhythms of Rhapsody! Doubtless, it served as the thunderous climax of his one-hour program.

Whenever Sunico plays the piece – I have heard him interpret it more than once – he invariably imbues it with verve, zest, intense raciness that characterize American life: the work, loosely structured, shuttles from mood to mood, or abruptly shifts from rhythm to rhythm. Yet, there are the harmonies, rich and melodious – Gershwin’s concession to romantic classicism.

Finally, Sunico infuses the choral passages with the awesome power which the work demands, creating in the audience heady excitement. In sum, Rhapsody in Blue is Sunico’s signature piece.

His incredibly strong, steely fingers produced fascinating densities of sound likewise in Liszt’s Liebestraum (Dream of Love) and Liebestod (Love Death) from Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde as transcribed by Liszt. These stood out with such transcendence that they overshadowed Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capricioso, the three Chopin selections – Barcarolle in F Sharp, Grande Valse Brilliante and Impromptu in G Flat – and Ravel’s Jeux D’eau (Water Fountains). Chopin’s exquisitely nuanced, evanescent, romantic moods may not have exactly eluded Sunico, nor for that matter, Ravel’s distinctive style. The pianist delineated more than enough of Chopin’s lively spirit in Valse and Impromptu to have recreated in the mind’s eye of the sylph-like grace of ballerinas in Chopiniana which was choreographed to those works decades ago.

In any case, the first part of the program seemed the least inspired perhaps because here Sunico was valiantly attempting to ignore the obligato being provided by the birds and the bats holed in the high ceiling of the veranda. (Mercifully, the obligato ceased as late afternoon deepened into night.) But even in these earlier renditions, the thunderous chords and varying clusters of sound surfaced.

However, it was the Liebestraum and the Liebestod (and of course the Rhapsody) which sent the audience into raptures. The throbbling, quivering, undulating tones brought to mind Isolde calling to the dead Tristan whom she imagines to be still alive, her voice increasingly reflecting ultimate passion and grief, then subsiding in calmness and tranquility.

Throughout the performance, Sunico demonstrated his singular ability to build up to magnificent, towering climaxes.

Although the program was relatively short, it managed to display Sunico’s striking versatility through his own delightful, charming arrangements of Velarde’s Dahil sa Iyo, Gallardo’s Saranggola ni Pepe and Bato sa Buhangin, the encore piece (done in the classic style) which followed the standing ovation.

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German Ambassador Herbert D. Jess, himself a pianist, and his wife Micheline headed the select audience. Jul B. Dizon, president of the Foundation for the Musical Filipino which sponsored the concert, told the audience in her opening remarks that the Foundation aims to help develop world-class musicians. To help achieve this goal, Mr. Sunico generously waived his honorarium.

Among Foundation members present were VP Norma Santos, Willie and Ofie Soliven, "Syke" and Sessy Garcia, and Henri Regala.