Ahmed Adnan Saygun 1907-1991

Started by Guido, November 12, 2008, 08:54:51 AM

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Christo

#20
December 22, 2008, 12:27:45 AM Last Edit: December 22, 2008, 02:46:17 AM by Christo
Only now I realize, that his portrait reminds me more of Radovan Karadžić (not far away from here, in a prison cell in The Hague)  ....

                  
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Dundonnell

#21
December 22, 2008, 04:35:18 AM
Good grief...so it does! :o

Parsifal

#22
June 19, 2013, 02:22:16 PM
I had my first exposure to Saygun yesterday, in the CPO recording of his symphony No 1.

[asin]B000069KKZ[/asin]

A very rewarding experience.  Fascinating music, an amalgum of eastern and western elements.  I particularly enjoyed the way the (apparently rather small) orchestra was taken advantage of. Performance and recorded sound are outstanding.  I'll be listening to more of this series soon.

Tapkaara

#23
June 19, 2013, 02:44:35 PM
Listening to the first movement of the First Symphony on YouTube now. I like it! I remember hearing some piano music by this composer some time ago that I did not like...so, I suppose I didn't care to hear more. This is good stuff though. If I really like it, I should buy it.

Parsifal

#24
June 20, 2013, 11:17:23 AM Last Edit: June 23, 2013, 09:55:21 AM by Scarpia
Continued to the second symphony, which I enjoyed but found slightly less immediately appealing.  The second symphony uses a considerably larger orchestra, which I found less condusive to the neo-classical feel of the music, compared with the first symphony.  The first movement made the biggest impression, featuring a sort of moto perpetuo with various melodic and dramatic distractions along the way. 

Note added:  After a third listening to the piece it is starting to sink in, and all four movements of the second symphony are starting to reveal their secrets.  The second movement, which starts with unison statement a modal melody and continues with contrapuntal development which becomes more and more strained and dissonant, is a masterpiece. 

Parsifal

#25
July 02, 2013, 07:06:43 AM
I spend a lot of times listening to composers I never heard of before, and it is not this often that I find one that I resonate with so well.

Listened to the third symphony yesterday.

[asin]B000269QW0[/asin]

It just gets better and better.  The sound of the French horn is one of my favorite things about an orchestra, and Saygun uses it so well.  This work is a bit larger in scale than the first two.  What sticks most in the mind is the central section of the second (slow) movement which uses imitative counterpoint to build up to a tense climax.  Another favorite is the finale, which starts with a off-kilter march (a bit Shostakovichian) which also becomes more and more complex, leading to a dramatically dissonant conclusion.  Superb.

Scion7

#26
July 15, 2016, 07:20:26 PM


[asin]B0009JVOJI[/asin]
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#27
July 15, 2016, 07:45:45 PM Last Edit: July 17, 2016, 12:12:10 AM by Scion7


[asin]B001F1YC16[/asin]
^ Have not heard this one - attractive cover, though - and I love this record company - everything I've purchased from them has been extremely good.



 

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When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#28
July 15, 2016, 08:04:54 PM Last Edit: July 15, 2016, 08:14:32 PM by Scion7
[asin]B00008FA3N[/asin]



^ click

[asin]B00000309K[/asin]

When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#29
July 15, 2016, 08:24:28 PM
Nice cover.


^ click

[asin]B0031O7UZU[/asin]
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#30
July 15, 2016, 08:44:49 PM Last Edit: July 17, 2016, 12:42:18 AM by Scion7
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tikla24.de%2Fmuezik%2Fhande-ozyurek%2Fsaygun-la-yuz-yuze%2F&edit-text=

Very little info on this one.  Turkish CD without an immediate western distributor, apparently.   ç2007

http://www.hepsiburada.com/hande-ozyurek-saygun-la-yuz-yuze-pm-musicyerli1940




"Saygun Face-to-Face" - Hande Özyürek: violin ; Uwe Brandt: piano



The violin sonata on YT: - Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op.20  (1941)

1. Andante  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny-69xVPRwo

2. Molto vivo  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-7wbshQarY

3. Largo  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QMG4fpT9p4

4. Allegro  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfuv7gXmtGE

A good place to start for newcomers - very impressive, European-constructed music.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#31
July 16, 2016, 02:02:39 AM Last Edit: July 16, 2016, 06:36:18 AM by Scion7


Awesome cover on this LP - no idea what pieces are on it.


excerpt from the opera:   Köroğlu
Ayhan Baran (bass)
Hikmet Şimşek (conductor) Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#32
July 16, 2016, 03:48:17 AM Last Edit: July 16, 2016, 03:50:25 AM by Scion7
  [asin]B000050QIZ[/asin]

Classical Music Apolitical? Not in Turkey
By STEPHEN KINZER
Published: May 4, 1997

ANKARA, Turkey— WHEN THE REVERED Turkish maestro Hikmet Simsek lifted his baton to conduct Ahmed Adnan Saygun's oratorio ''Yunus Emre'' at the Turkish State Opera House here recently, he was making a political as well as a musical statement.

Light, liquid violin passages swelled in symphonic crescendos; the chorus sang at times softly and then with vigorous passion, and delicate, complex flute solos introduced the various movements. But when the spectators applauded, many were cheering more than a fine performance.

''Yunus Emre'' is often considered the finest piece of music composed in Turkey since the founding of the Turkish Republic 74 years ago. Although it is more than half a century old, it has suddenly become timely, because its message is one of religious tolerance and nonsectarianism.

Classical music, often thought of as quintessentially apolitical, has taken on an unusual role here. As this performance showed, it has become a symbol for those who want Turkey to maintain its identification with the West rather than reorient itself toward a less pluralistic and more religiously based way of life.

Turkey is immersed in a profound social and political conflict between secularists, who have been in power since the republic was founded, and an insurgent Islamic-based movement that seeks to increase the role of religion in public life. The country's leading Islamist politician, Necmettin Erbakan, has been the Prime Minister since last June, and secularists fear that he is leading the country toward a form of fundamentalism.

The Ankara opera had not planned to perform ''Yunus Emre'' this year, but as threats to secularism seemed to grow, it hastily added the work to the repertory. It will be performed again on Tuesday, for an audience that is to include President Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan, and possibly several times next season.

''The artists wanted to do it,'' said one member of the orchestra. ''It has a great message for this time. That's why we always have a smile on our face when we perform it.''

The oratorio is based on the writings of Yunus Emre, one of the greatest mystic poets of all time, who lived in Anatolia from about 1238 to about 1320. He was a member of the Sufi order of Muslims, which scorns religious hierarchy and stresses direct human contact with the infinite.

Emre's poems assert that divinity is to be found within each individual's soul rather than in temples. Written in a simple style, they became popular with ordinary people, and they are still recited in some Anatolian villages.

''We see all of mankind as one,'' Emre wrote, warning that ''whoever does not look with the same eye upon all nations is a rebel against truth.'' In what could be taken as a rebuke to modern fundamentalism, he maintained that ''God's truth is lost on men of orthodoxy.'' One of his famous couplets asserts:

God's truth is an ocean, and dogma is a ship.

Most people don't leave the ship to plunge into that sea.

Six hundred years after Emre's death, his poems attracted the attention of Ahmed Adnan Saygun, who was to become a titan of modern Turkish music. Saygun had traveled across Anatolia with the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok in search of folk melodies and was fascinated by the survival of Emre's poetry and ideals. In 1946 he completed the oratorio, which has proved the most enduring of his more than 90 works, which also include symphonies, operas and concertos.

''Yunus Emre'' had its American premiere at the United Nations in 1958, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Symphony of the Air and a chorus of 200. Since then it has been performed in many countries, both in the original Turkish and in a German translation.

Saygun died in 1991, and the role of preserving the oratorio has passed to the 73-year-old Mr. Simsek, who is arguably Turkey's most prominent conductor. By his own estimate, he has conducted the work more than 100 times here and abroad. He has also made a recording of it, which has been released on compact disc by the Ankara State Opera and Ballet.

''You can find some popular melodies in the piece, but very few and very well hidden,'' Mr. Simsek said after the recent performance. ''Saygun was educated in Paris, and this oratorio is firmly rooted in the Western classical tradition. It is a magnificent musical composition that also conveys a great message.''

THE PERFORMANCE OF ''Yunus Emre'' was not the first cultural event in Ankara this season that carried not-so-subtle political overtones. Several weeks ago an ensemble of 450 instrumentalists and singers mounted a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in a sports arena outside the city. Secularists used it as an occasion to show their support for Western music and, by extension, Western values. They flooded the arena to overflowing despite a decision by the Mayor of Ankara, who is a member of the Welfare party, to send earthmovers to dig up nearby roads in an effort to discourage them.

The crowd loudly booed Minister of Culture Ismail Kahraman, who is perceived as unfriendly toward Western culture, and cheered wildly for President Suleyman Demirel, a militant secularist. Later Mr. Demirel, visibly moved, came to the stage to thank the musicians and the audience.

''This magnificent picture is the picture of contemporary Turkey,'' Mr. Demirel told the crowd. It responded by loudly chanting, ''Turkey is secular and will remain so.''

That tumultuous evening, followed by the performance of ''Yunus Emre,'' reflected the role classical music has assumed in the cultural confrontation now sweeping across Turkey.

''No other Islamic country in the world has a state-sponsored network for the performance of Western classical music and dance,'' said Huseyin Akbulut, the director of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet. ''We are in a way the border of this tradition. In the same way, we are the border of democracy. For us, Western art and culture go hand in hand with a pluralist political system. If we lose one, we are afraid that we might lose the other.''

When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#33
July 16, 2016, 04:23:58 AM Last Edit: July 16, 2016, 10:57:14 PM by Scion7
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

The new erato

#34
July 16, 2016, 07:06:07 AM
I've had my eyes on that Farao disc. Seem to remember a good review in the now sadly defunct International Record Review. Any good in your view?

Scion7

#35
July 16, 2016, 10:08:28 AM Last Edit: July 17, 2016, 02:41:10 AM by Scion7
re: Views from Ararat

sorry, don't have that one - musicweb loved it, though - see the review ^

Therefore, I'm sure it is an excellent performance.

The Hande Özyürek disc has both the compositions included on "Views" and is very good, so if you can convert your cash into Turkish currency and order it from that website, I'm sure you'd be satisfied with it.  Last year she performed in Constantinople with their new 55-piece orchestra, so she's still active, if not actively recording.  She teaches in both Munich and Constantinople and lives part of the year in each city.  She's also a member of the Trio Gradiva with her husband(?)
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#36
July 16, 2016, 08:29:55 PM Last Edit: July 16, 2016, 08:50:01 PM by Scion7


This is the direct-download link to a 1999 PhD thesis: "The life and works of Ahmed Adnan Saygun" by Emre Araci

                      https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/7680/Araci1999_FULL.pdf

It's 300 pages with the notes - probably the most authoritative thing available.
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#37
July 16, 2016, 10:35:56 PM Last Edit: July 16, 2016, 11:13:07 PM by Scion7


[asin]B000A6CLB0[/asin]

An earlier (2005) recording than the Naxos release - Sagun's Inci's Book Op.10 and from the 12 Preludes Op.45 -  No's 1, 4, 7, 10 & 11

REVIEWS -->  http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Aug05/Scarlatti_Zeynep_JDT3223.htm
                                http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/e/ero03223a.php
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#38
July 17, 2016, 02:00:44 AM
The un-issued Sonata for Cello & Piano, Op.12 - don't know the origin of this recording.

Date of composition: 1935-36
1. Animato (J=116)
2. Largo (J=44)
3. Allegro assai (8/8=56 or 3/8=140)

Dedication: To the memory of David Zirkin.

Reşit Erzin - Cello
Ergican Saydam - Piano


1st Movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CKKvXfGc90

2nd Movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oHOyPHJpFg

3rd Movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-ZM81NruM
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Scion7

#39
July 17, 2016, 05:06:42 AM Last Edit: July 17, 2016, 05:08:18 AM by Scion7
Wind Quintet, Op.46 (part of the last movement is cut-off) ... major humor in the first movement.  1968 radio broadcast

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ahmed+Saygun-wind+quintet%2C+Ankara+Nefesli+%C3%87alg%C4%B1lar+Be%C5%9Flisi

Wind Quintet Opus 46 - For flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn
Date of composition: 1968

1. Moderato (l=66)
2. Lento (.J=46)
3. Deciso (.J=108)

Commissioned by: The Ankara Wind Quintet
First performance: 23 October 1968, Ankara by the Ankara Wind Quintet
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."
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