Saygun might need some introduction although his works
are not total strangers to the recording studio. There is at least one
Koch International CD including a viola concerto of his.
Saygun saw the end of the Ottoman empire and the introduction
of Western values into the Turkish Republic from 1923 onwards. He was
a man for the times whose inclinations and inspirations were empathetic
with those of the great reforming President Kemal Atäturk. The
new government were dedicated to marrying Western cultural models with
Turkish heritage. Amongst the initiatives borne out of this was a programme
of financial support for composers to study in Paris. Saygun with, four
other Turkish composers, formed the Turkish 'Kouchka'. They were Cemal
Resit Rey, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Hasan Ferid Alnar and Necil Kazim Akses.
Turkish modal material is woven into Saygun's mature works.
The First Symphony is dedicated to the conductor
Franz Litschauer who, with the Austrian Radio SO, recorded the work
in 1954. Like the Second it is in four movements lasting three minutes
short of a half hour. The grand Turkish harmonic sway can be heard at
5.38 in the Adagio of the First Symphony. Bartók's influence
can also be picked up. This comes as little surprise as Saygun acted
as Bartók's assistant during the Hungarian's instructional folk
music field research visit in 1936. It is instructive to listen to the
wildly bubbling Allegro which surely must have been written with
knowledge of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra as
well as Martinů's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. The orchestral effect
is also part Weill, part neo-classical and part Russian - Shostakovich
not Pan-Slav nationalism. The highlight of the Second Symphony is
the lovely rocking moderato which has the great shifting curtained
harmonics of the classic Turkish music you might encounter by chance
on shortwave radio.
A palate cleansing experience for those who are sympathetic
to music that crosses cultural divides. Admirers of Hovhaness, Cowell,
Chisholm, Enescu, Glanville-Hicks, Szymanowski and Cage are likely to
find sympathetic material as well as a new experience. Does anyone know
of other Saygun discs I might be able to track down and broaden my knowledge
in this field? I would also like to hear music by Rey, Erkin, Alnar
and Akses.
Rob Barnett
Also see review
by Colin Clarke
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz/Ari
Rasilainen