Search - Ahmet Adnan Saygun, Howard Griffiths, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra :: Ahmed Adnan Saygun: Piano Concertos 1 & 2

First-rate piano concertos

William J. Coburn | Basking Ridge, NJ USA | 12/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Saygun is easily the best of the twentieth century Turkish composers. His mature works were written late in life, from about 1955 to a few years before his death in 1991. He was deeply involved in music education for many years and so had a limited time to compose. His best works were written several years after accompanying Bela Bartok in the Hungarian composer's search for ethnic music in Anatolia. Most of Saygun's mature compositions have now been recorded by cpo. The two piano concertos, like four of the five symphonies and one of the three string concertos, are about twenty-five minutes in length and densely packed with good ideas. I suspect he is indebted a lot to Bartok whose best works waste no time in developing their ideas. With the exception of the earlier oratorio Yunus Imre, none of Saygun's music which I have heard so far has failed to impress me.

The first piano concerto is immediately dazzling. The second is deeply moving and was written by Saygun for the soloist in this recording, Gulsin Onay. She is a very gifted musician.

Hopefully, cpo will record his Variations for Ochestra, the Ritual Dance and a couple of the earlier orchestral pieces. Discovering his music has been a happy experience for me."

;_;

DV | US | 01/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is so good!



Beautiful and engaging (modern) romanticism. The performance is incredible. I hope CPO records everything he ever did. It seems like a fluke that Saygun is not more popular by now."