Deutche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin & Howard Griffiths - Turkish Flavours: 100 Years of Turkish Symphonic Music (2024) [24/48]

If you ask classical music connoisseurs in this country about music by Turkish composers, the name Fazıl Say is likely to come to mind – but beyond that, there’s no idea! According to the British conductor Howard Griffiths, a lot has happened in the 100 years of the Turkish Republic’s existence: the Ankara Conservatory was founded in 1936 at the suggestion of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk; music students were sent to Europe and the USA for training. Starting with the ‘Turkish Five’, the pioneering generation of classical Turkish composers, an independent classical music tradition was able to develop, and a rich and lively musical landscape has emerged in Turkey. Today, there are six opera houses and numerous symphony orchestras in Turkey, and a young generation of performers and composers has emerged whose music powerfully combines classical and traditional Turkish music to create original works.

‘I send you out as sparks and want you to return as volcanoes!’ With these words, the Turkish state founder Kemal Atatürk is said to have sent young students to Europe and the USA – including many musicians. The volcano, writes conductor Howard Griffiths, who has a close relationship with Turkey and its culture, in the foreword to the album Turkish Flavours: this volcano was created and its fire continues to burn. On the double album, which was produced to mark the 100th anniversary of modern Turkey, he gives an insight into the diverse and rich symphonic oeuvre of Turkish composers on the podium of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

While the first CD of the double album is dedicated to the first (or second) generation of composers of classical music in Turkey, the so-called ‘Turkish Five’, the second CD features works by the younger generation of composers.

The composers of the ‘Turkish Five’ studied in Europe and combined Western symphonic music with the traditional music of Turkey in different ways – such as Cemal Reşit Rey (1904-1985), who took composition lessons from Gabriel Fauré and sketches a vibrant and lively picture of the Bosphorus metropolis in extremely colourful ‘snapshots’, or Ulvi Cemal Erkin (1906-1972), who studied with Nadia Boulanger and combines Turkish makams, traditional folk melodies and complex rhythms with the full sound of the symphony orchestra in his symphonic movement, or Necil Kâzım Akses (1908-1999), whose Poème reflects his love of Turkish poetry.

The composers of today’s generation, who have worked who have studied in Germany, France or the USA, look back at their own roots – through the eyes of Western music: be it the Berklee College of Music-trained Onur Türkmen (*1972), whose music is performed by many ensembles at festivals in Europe and the USA, be it the probably internationally best-known Turkish pianist and composer Fazıl Say, who in Şahmeran brings the old Anatolian legend of the tragic fate of Queen Şahmeran to life in a dazzling atmospheric landscape, or the rebellious, intense string quartet ‘hırçın’- widerspenstig (2015) by the young composer Sinem Altan (*1985), who has won several awards in Germany and Turkey: They all combine Western classical tradition with the heritage of their culture in their own individual way.

And so we can only agree with Howard Griffiths› wish that this album should serve as an inspiration to “discover more of this little-known treasure of Turkish music”.

Tracklist:
CD1
01 - Ayin Raks, Op. 57
02 - Enstantaneler_ No. 1, Balıkçılar Ağları Çekerken
03 - Enstantaneler_ No. 2, Âmâ Dilenci Kadın
04 - Enstantaneler_ No. 3, Eyüp Güvercinleri
05 - Enstantaneler_ No. 4, Boş Cami İçi
06 - Enstantaneler_ No. 5, Bayram
07 - Senfonik Bölüm
08 - Poème

CD2
09 - Türk Kapriçyosu
01 - Nehrin Düşleri
02 - Şahmeran, Op. 85_ I. Şahmeran’ım cennet Bahçesi
03 - Şahmeran, Op. 85_ II. İhanet
04 - Kayıp Sessizliğin Anısına Rağmen
05 - String Quartet No. 1 “hırçın“
06 - Gel


Thanks to the Original customer!