When two virtuosi meet

At a musical evening held in the residence of German Ambassador Herbert and Micheline Jess, and a long-to-be-remembered one, brilliant German cellist Claus Kanngiesser and the equally brilliant Philippine pianist Raul Sunico, as assisting artist, interpreted an exquisitely romantic program.

This consisted of Mendelssohn’s Variations Concertantes Op. 17, Brahms’s Sonata in E Minor Op. 38 and Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro in A Flat Major, Op. 70.

Kanngiesser, who won the first prize in Munich’s 1967 competition, has worked with such towering figures as Gaspar Cassado, Casals, Menuhin and Serkin. He has also performed with major European orchestras and conductors, and played as soloist in various European festivals.

Expectations ran high with these formidable credentials and Kanngiesser matched them fully. His virtuosity was never in doubt throughout the evening; his bow-strokes were nimble and agile; his tones, robust and resonant. In this regard, the listener particularly noted the "sighing", plaintive lines which followed the opening of Brahms’s second movement, the allegretto quasi menuetto. Indeed, flowing lyricism characterized the music of the three romantic composers as eloquently conveyed by the over-all renditions.

What made these even more outstanding, more striking, was the extraordinary rapport between cellist and pianist. They had rehearsed only once (on the day before the actual concert), yet the listener would have assumed they had been playing together for at least an entire season! The instincts, impulses, sensitive artistry and musicianship of one seemed to match those of the other perfectly!

Further, the tones of the piano, ranging from fluid to sparkling, were a remarkable complement to the deep, luminous tones of the cello. The rapport was of the rarest; the music-making, of the most delicate. As the two instrumentalists were acknowledging the thunderous bursts of applause, Kanngiesser graciously mentioned his amazement at the instant rapport pianist Sunico had established with him. Indeed, Sunico’s own playing was stupendous.

In Cassado’s Suite for Violoncello solo, Kanngiesser proved how firmly he had grasped and captured the Spanish spirit (not easy for a German), and the special studies he had received from both Casals and Cassado may explain this in part. In prefatory remarks, Kanngiesser said the composer himself had taught him "all the tricks of the trade". Being a cellist, Cassado had doubtless shaped the work around his own technical virtuosity, and Kanngiesser certainly showed how well he had learned from the master.

Indeed, so vividly and vibrantly interpreted was the Suite – the cello being struck like a guitar in the danza finale – the audience could actually visualize the zestful movements of the dancers.

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The cellist’s affinity with Spanish or Latin-American music was earlier perceived in a concert at St. Cecilia’s Hall where he played works by a Brazilian and a Latin-American (both unnamed) as encore pieces. Further, he led 12 young cellists, who had taken master classes under him, in a spirited rendition of De Falla’s Premiere Danse Espagnole.

The program opened with Haydn’s Concert in C for Cello and Orchestra, with the Manila Symphony Orchestra II and the SSC Chamber Orchestra conducted by the highly perceptive and competent Arturo T. Molina. Julius Klengel’s Hymnus for 12 cellos and Piotr Moss’s Ragtime for 8 cellos delighted the audience.

Both concerts established the Phil-German musical link, the Benedictine nun Baptista Battig having introduced formal Western music education in 1908 at SSC’s music department now headed by Sr. Mary Placid. Incidentally, Kanngiesser played on the 200-year old cello graciously lent him by Geronimo Velasco, cellist by avocation.