Ahmet Adnan Saygun - Piano Concertos (Gülsin Onay)

Information

Composer: Ahmet Adnan Saygun

1. (01) Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 34
2. (04) Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 71

Gülsin Onay, piano
Bilkent Symphony Orchestra
Howard Griffiths, conductor

Date: 2008
Label: cpo

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Review

If you can imagine the combination of Bartók's alternately nocturnal and percussive keyboard writing (and scoring) married to the chromatic luxuriance of Szymanowski or Scriabin, then you have a good sense of what to expect from these two marvelous concertos. Saygun was without question a major composer, one of the last of the great ethnic nationalists. The influences of Turkish folk music have been fully absorbed into an evocative, personal idiom that has enough ties to Western tradition that aficionados of the great Romantic concertos won't lose their bearings while still savoring the many new, colorful, and atmospheric sounds that Saygun evokes.

The First Concerto dates from the 1950s, the Second (composed for the splendid soloist on this recording) from the 1980s. There's perhaps a touch more refinement to the scoring of the Second Concerto, but both are full of ear-catching ideas and offer plenty of virtuoso opportunities to the pianist. We probably won't get any more recordings of these pieces anytime soon, so it's a good thing that the performances here sound wholly fresh, idiomatic, and full of fire. I've been pushing Saygun's distinctive, masterful body of work for years, but if you haven't taken the plunge then this excellently engineered disc makes a great place to start.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/June09/Saygun_7772892.htm
http://www.classicalcdreview.com/hb.html

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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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Gülsin Onay (born 12 September 1954 in Istanbul) is a leading Turkish concert pianist, based in Cambridge. She studied with Mithat Fenmen,Ahmed Adnan Saygun, Pierre Sancan, Monique Haas, Pierre Fiquet, Nadia Boulanger, and Bernhard Ebert. Onay won prizes in leading competitions, including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud and the Ferruccio Busoni Competitions. An exceptional Chopin interpreter, Onay was in 2007 honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of Ahmed Adnan Saygun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClsin_Onay
http://www.gulsinonay.com/newsite/main-en-swfo.php

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