Sunico’s unmatched feat/Yatco: Mighty Man of Music

In the Newsweek magazine of March 17, 1997, a brief article “Four Who Dared the Rach 3” written by Yahlin Chang, gives great importance to the four pianists who played Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto.

Herewith is the piece. “Serge Rachmaninoff said he composed his thunderous Third Piano Concerto for elephants. Playing it is like taking him up on a dare, the Third is recognized as the most technically difficult piece in the standard repertoire. Only the most macho — or foolhardy — pianists need apply.

“After hearing Vladimir Horowitz play his Third Concerto, Rachmaninoff said he’d never play it again, and he never did. Horowitz’s best recording with the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner in 1961, sounds beyond human: powerful, precise, dazzlingly quick. Electric urgency suffuses the whole piece, even the moments of heartbreak. Don't expect to breathe.

“Two days after returning from his career-making victory at the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition, the 24-year-old Van Cliburn recorded the Rach 3  with the Symphony of the Air conducted by Kiril Kondashrin. His reading is pure lyric turmoil. He allows himself to locate the piece's transcendent pain — which most pianists forego in favor of flashiness.

“Martha Agreich's 1982 recording with the RSO Berlin conducted by Ricardo Chailly is in the Horowitz tradition of flawless virtuosity, her inimitable sensuality alternates between tenderness and out-and-out lust.

“Of Serge Rachmaninoff, what can you say? For almost 20 years after he wrote the Third Concerto, the formidable six-foot-six composer was the only pianist who dared play it in public. Conducted by Eugene Ormandy, with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1939, the Rach 3 is so easily tamed by its master that Rachmaninoff’s bravura almost borders on flippancy.”

If Chang had been present at the 2003 concert of Raul Sunico in the CCP main theater, he would have written reams of copy on Sunico who played not just Rachmaninoff’s Third but all his four concertos in a single evening without a score! Sunico rendered each daunting piece with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Herminigildo Rañera. No other pianist in the world has matched Sunico’s achievement, making it unprecedented. Unequalled.

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After Oscar C. Yatco earned a Teacher’s Diploma from the UP Conservatory at 16, he studied at Juilliard in NY under Ivan  Galamian, then proceeded to the State Academy of Music in Munich. He then won the top prize in a Hamburg violin tilt over contestants from all West German academies, and the only violin prize at the Munich International Competition.

Subsequently, Yatco played as soloist of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the North German Radio Orchestra, the Athens Philharmonic, later performing in all major  European cities.

In the mid 70s, after besting 15 aspirants, Yatco became concertmaster of the Mannheim National Theater Orchestra, Germany’s oldest municipal ensemble.

Shifting from concertmaster to violinist in Khatchaturian’s Concerto, he earned a rave review titled “The New Concertmaster: A Phenomenal Violinist”.

After having stayed for only eight months in Mannheim, Yatco was invited by Wolfgang Wagner, grandson of the great Richard Wagner, to be concertmaster of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra whose 196 hand-picked instrumentalists come from Germany’s 60 major orchestras. Serving in three successive Festivals, Yatco refused further invitations.

Although opera was still not too familiar to Yatco, he played over 250 with a Mannheim orchestra, catching up so quickly, his peers asked him, “What will you do next?”

Yatco became concertmaster of the Stross Chamber Orchestra and was the only Filipino in the Stross Quartet, (the other three members were Germans), which had regular engagements in Italy, France, Germany, the Middle and Far East.

Before his appointment as full professor in Hannover’s Music Academy, he had won over 30 international violinists after a screening so rigid it lasted a whole year!

Before becoming the most widely-known and applauded Filipino musician in Germany for his rare achievements, Yatco made the Manila Symphony Orchestra the best in SE Asia, and later conducted the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, introducing works by Britten, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. His recent homecoming concert with the PPP proved he is still the mighty man of music.