Ahmet Adnan Saygun - Symphony No. 4; Violin Concerto (Ari Rasilainen; Mirjam Tschopp)

Information

Composer: Ahmet Adnan Saygun

• Symphony No. 4, Op. 53
• Violin Concerto, Op. 44
• Suite for Orchestra, Op. 14

Mirjam Tschopp, violin

Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz

Ari Rasilainen, conductor

Date: 2005

Label: CPO

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Ahmed-Adnan-Saygun-1907-1991-Symphonie-Nr-4/hnum/5816804

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Review

As I mentioned when I reviewed the CPO disc of Saygun's first two symphonies, his music is not a total stranger to the recording studio. There was at least one Koch International CD including a viola concerto of his as well as that CPO disc of symphonies 1 and 2 CPO 999 819-2. The Fifth Symphony is on CPO 999 968-2.

Saygun's music was part of a movement that from 1923 saw Western influences borne in on authentic Turkish voices. His writing was in keeping with the cosmopolitan reforming drive of President Kemal Atäturk. The new government supported Turkish composers to study in the great centres of world culture, Saygun had financial assistance to study in Paris. His brethren included Cemal Resit Rey, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Hasan Ferid Alnar and Necil Kazim Akses.

The Fourth Symphony is a three movement work lasting well shy of half an hour. The music recalls the muscular surging energy of Markevitch and Hartmann. In the second movement we perhaps detect the gentle disillusion we associate with Rubbra or Finzi but with a stronger infusion of dissonance. I noted less of the Turkish harmonic ‘sway’ or muezzin melisma-ululation found in his first two symphonies. The two outer movements recall the chattering activity of Alwyn's Fourth Symphony and in their aggression the grinding attack of Panufnik's Tragic Overture.

The Violin Concerto is the biggest work here at three minutes over half an hour. Once again the work is creepily energetic, but finds ample time for almost Delian reflection and warmth [2:20]. That lyrical vein also leans towards Berg e.g. at 4.13. Explosive expostulation from the orchestra follows the manner of Schoenberg and William Schuman. Towards the end a Sibelian tempest boils up and curves down into silence enigmatically accentuated by the most gentle of strokes on the tam-tam. Otherworldly Tempest-like music opens the second movement Adagio although there is a more turbulent central episode. The finale projects a sinister aspect - a sort of nocturnal march of conspirators - recalling the finale of Rawsthorne's Violin Concerto No. 1. In the final bars the concerto discovers a new optimism emerging from nowhere. Mirjam Tschopp seems to be fully in command of the work's requirements both in drama and in poetry.

The overture-length Suite is from Saygun's earliest years. The three movements are Meseli, Improvisation and Horon. Here the Turkish harmonic sway is clearly heard. The treaty between East and West does not, in this case, lead to synthesis; both elements can be heard distinctly. The suite might be compared with Enescu's Romanian rhapsodies where folk voices are to the fore. The sparkling finale has a very engaging rhythmic signature.

This is music which in the case of the symphony and concerto evinces full assimilation of western art music. The Suite is an extremely attractive and folk-accented piece.

Saygun's symphony and concerto will be enjoyed by those who like their Berg, Hartmann and Alwyn. All are superbly performed and typically well documented.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

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Ahmet Adnan Saygun (7 September 1907 – 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. One of a group of composers known as the Turkish Five who pioneered western classical music in Turkey, his works show a mastery of Western musical practice, while also incorporating traditional Turkish folk songs and culture. His extensive output includes five symphonies, five operas, two piano concertos, concertos for violin, viola and cello, and a wide range of chamber and choral works. Saygun was known not only as a composer but also as a scholar, an ethnomusicologist, and a teacher.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmet_Adnan_Saygun

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Ari Rasilainen (born 18 February 1959 in Helsinki) is a Finnish conductor. He studied conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy and with Arvid Jansons in Berlin. He also studied violin in Berlin with Aleksander Labko, then played as a violinist in the Finnish Radio Symphony and the Helsinki Philharmonic. As a conductor, Rasilainen was Generalmusikdirektor of the Deutschen Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz from 2002 to 2009. He has also worked as a guest conductor with several German radio symphony orchestras. Rasilainen has been teaching at the University of Music in Würzburg since 2011.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Rasilainen

https://www.arirasilainen.com/

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Mirjam Tschopp (born 1976 in Zurich) is a Swiss violinist and violist. She studied violin with Aïda Stucki, Franco Gulli and Thomas Brandis, and viola with Christoph Schiller. Since her debut at thirteen, Tschopp has enjoyed a career as violinist and violist, with both instruments featuring equally in her activities. Her extensive concert tours take her to some of the most prestigious venues in Germany, Austria, China, Taiwan and Korea. In 2018 she was appointed professor of both violin and viola at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She also teaches masterclasses and serves as a jury member of several competitions.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirjam_Tschopp

https://www.mirjamtschopp.com/en

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