The Turkish composer Ulvi
Cemal Erkin (1906-1972) grew up with music around him, his mother played
the piano and his brother the violin. He studied at Galatasaray Lycée in
Istanbul and the piano with foreign tutors. He received a scholarship to attend
the Paris Conservatoire where he studied piano with Isidor Philipp and Camille
Decreus, harmony with Jean Gallon and counterpoint with Noel Gallon. After
entering the École Normale de Musique at the end of the 1920s he took
composition lessons from Nadia Boulanger.
Returning to Turkey in 1930, Erkin began work as a teacher
of piano and harmony at the Musiki Muallim Mektebi in Ankara, the capital city
of the Turkish Republic. This school, which had been established a short while
earlier with the purpose of training music teachers, was to become the Ankara
State Conservatoire a few years later. He was director of the school from 1949
to 1951 and continued to work there without a break, training young Turkish
musicians, until his death in 1972.
Erkin was part of a group of composer including Ahmed Adnan
Saygun (1907-1991), Cemal Reşit Rey (1904-1985), Hasan Ferdi Alnar (1906-1978)
and Necil Kazım Akses (1908-1999) who were known as the ‘Turkish Five’,
combining traditional Turkish elements with European contemporary classical
traditions.
Naxos www.naxos.com have just released a recording of Erkin’s Symphony No. 2 and Violin
Concerto coupled with his Dance Rhapsody
for Orchestra, Köçekçe with the Istanbul
State Symphony Orchestra www.idso.gov.tr
conducted
by Theodore Kuchar www.facebook.com/theodore.kuchar
with
violinist James Buswell www.schmidtart.com/artists/james_buswell
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| 8.572831 |
Perhaps Erkin’s best known work is his Köçekçe – Dance Rhapsody for Orchestra (1943). It was premiered by the Presidential Orchestra conducted by Ernst
Praetorius in 1943. It has an energetic, frenetic opening with a distinctive
eastern flavour, particularly when the woodwind arrive to weave the melody
through the strings. Theodore Kuchar draws strong contrasts between the various
passages, at times poetic, at others more dramatic. This is a real show piece
for orchestra, full of eastern flavour, revealing razor sharp reactions from
the orchestra to the many dynamic changes.
The Violin Concerto
(1946-47) was first performed in 1949 at the opening of the Ankara Opera
House with the Presidential Orchestra conducted by the composer and the
Hungarian violinist, Licco Amar (1891-1959) as soloist. A timpani roll opens
the Allegro giusto quickly followed
by the soloist and orchestra in an earnest theme that is developed in a series
of rising scales before leading to an expansive orchestral section. The music
falls as the soloist re-enters with Erkin developing some fine ideas, never
overtly Turkish or eastern. There is a lovely dialogue between oboe and violin
solo with often an underlying feeling of drama and tension. James Buswell provides
a virtuosic solo part through the movement’s varying moods, building through
some dramatically intense passages for soloist and orchestra to an extended
cadenza where Buswell brings some terrific, virtuosic playing. The orchestra
rejoin to help drive the music forward. There is a quiet passage for orchestra
to which the soloist brings a passionate edge as well as hints of subtler Turkish
influences before a weighty, decisive coda.
In the Adagio the
strings bring a steady, thoughtful theme underpinned by pizzicato basses to
which woodwind join creating a feeling of nostalgia, even sadness. The soloist
enters to weave the melancholy theme through the orchestra, developing some
fine dissonances for the violin with some lovely textures. The theme is taken
through some fine passages, always retaining an underlying steady pulse with Buswell
finding some lovely textures and sonorities.
The Allegro con fuoco
brings an intense, fast moving theme that soon develops a more overt Turkish
flavour. The soloist weaves the theme around the orchestra, finding much
passion, a terrific fusion of western classical tradition with Turkish
traditions. Buswell again finds many fine timbres and textures as he weaves and
develops the melody. There are some particularly fine woodwind passages as well
as a terrific forward pulse right through to the coda.
Though Erkin’s Symphony
No. 2 (1948-58), his last symphony, was
finished in 1951 it was not orchestrated until 1958. It was premiered in Munich
in 1958 by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karl Öhring. In three movements, the Allegro non troppo brings a dancing
Turkish inflected theme that bounds ahead with contrasting quieter passages.
Soon a gentle idea for flute and oboe arrives over a hushed orchestra soon taken
by muted brass creating a heavy atmosphere. Timpani soon herald a pounding,
raucous section where the music strides purposefully, even angrily ahead. Erkin
brings some lovely alternating quieter passages where woodwind weave some
magical ideas. The music develops through some wonderfully dramatic passages
with a forward surge, Kuchar and his Istanbul players finding a terrific ebb
and flow as the drama increases only to pull back before leaping suddenly to a
dynamic end.
The Adagio opens
slowly in the basses as a theme is darkly worked out. Slowly instruments are
added as the music subtly expands with a Turkish melody appearing. The music
finds a sense of inexorable forward motion, percussion add to the increasing
drama with the brass bringing even more intensity. Later there is a moment of
peace as a melancholy passage arrives providing perhaps more a stasis than
peace before gently moving to a hushed coda. This is a remarkable movement
built from the simplest of ideas.
The Allegro - Alla
Köçekçe leaps in with a strong repeated motif for strings, pointed up by
brass that soon gives way to a quieter, lively woodwind melody. The repeated
theme is developed dynamically with percussion pointing up the music. There is
a faster passage where woodwind dance forward over a pizzicato string backdrop before
timpani add a pounding accompaniment. The music travels through a series of
variations on the theme with rhythmic ideas and quieter woodwind passages.
There is an exquisite passage with arabesques for clarinet before the opening
idea returns to drive furiously to the end.
As would be expected, Theodore Kuchar Kuchar draws
thoroughly idiomatic performances from the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra
with some terrific playing from soloist James Buswell. They receive a first rate recording made at
the Fulya Cultural Centre, Istanbul, Turkey and there are excellent booklet
notes that put the composer in the context of the musical and political
developments in Turkey in Erkin’s time.
This is a really worthwhile disc that will introduce this
important Turkish composer to a wider audience.
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