Troy Sonata, Fazıl Say plays Say

Fazıl Say
  1. i. Bard Recounts, Homer                                   
  2. ii. Aegean Winds                                                 
  3. iii. Heroes of Troy                                               
  4. iv. Sparta                                                                               
  5. v. Helen, Love                                                                      
  6. vi. Troy                                                                                  
  7. vii. Achilleus                                                                        
  8. viii. The War                                                                        
  9. ix. Trojan Horse                                                                   
  10. x. Epilogue                                                                            
  11. Part I. Enlightenment                                                         
  12. Part II. Struggle against darkness                                    
  13. Part III. Believing in Life                                                     
  14. Part IV. Plane Tree                                            
  15. Sari Gelin (Art of Piano 2)
  16. Winter Morning in Istanbul (Art of Piano 3)                

 

 

In his work as a composer, pianist Fazil Say frequently draws inspiration from the music, history and culture of his native Turkey. He was born inland in Ankara, but the major new work on this album evokes an ancient city that lay near the Dardanelles, the strait in north-western Turkey that connects the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

Fazil Say’s Troy Sonata was premiered in August 2018 at the 55th Troia Festival in Çanakkale, a port situated about 30 kilometres from the archaeological site of the legendary city. On Çanakkale’s seafront stands the wooden Trojan Horse that was used in Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 film Troy, and Say performed his new work, commissioned by the city, in its Çimenlik Fortress, which dates back to the 15th century.

As reported by Ismail Aksu in Andante, Turkey’s leading magazine for classical music, Say introduced his Troy Sonata to the thousands of people in the expectant audience.

“While composing the sonata I drew inspiration from every source. I was inspired primarily by the 3000-year-old legend written by the poet Homer [born, it is thought, on the western coast of Turkey], but also by other sources and by the various films and plays on the theme of Troy. Each of these offers a different interpretation of the events and people involved … I composed this work, my opus 78, over six months in 2018. There are not many purely musical works on the subject of Troy, so I have endeavoured to express all the dramatic features of this magical legend through the language of music.

“The people of Çanakkale embrace the legend of Troy. They hold festivals for Troy and commission special works in its honour. I think that’s the right thing to do. As a fellow-Anatolian, both this Anatolian legend and composing this work have given me immense pleasure. In the coming years, I aim to perform this sonata on my tours around the world … In it, I have written a very difficult work, and I have to keep myself in good condition, because it demands 40 minutes of sheer exertion. My dream is that other pianists will also include it in their repertoire.”

Ismail Aksu wrote that the Troy Sonata “is composed around a structure just as epic as its subject”. It is cast in 10 movements: The Bard Recounts, Homer; Aegean winds; Heroes of Troy; Sparta; Helen, Love; Troy; Achilles; War; The Trojan Horse and Epilogue. Fazil Say discusses its thematic material:

Helen

“As everyone knows, Helen of Troy was the most beautiful woman created by the gods. I thought for a long time about how I could represent her melodically. What kind of melody could portray a beautiful woman? Cemal Süreyya [a 20th century Turkish poet] had a great saying: ‘All beautiful melodies are rather sad.’ So I composed a melody that was a little sad, but ultimately reflected the beautiful Helen.

Achilles

“This has greater pace and tempo and is dramatically and physically one of the more difficult parts to play. Anyone who has read Homer’s book or watched Wolfgang Petersen’s film will know how athletic and strong Achilles was — picture Brad Pitt and you’ll understand what I’m trying to say.”

Agamemnon

“The antagonist in this tale is Agamemnon, the king on the other side (the Achaeans). He gathers together all the Greeks to take Troy and uses Helen as a tool of imperialism. He has a saying: “Great empires are not established through peace, but through war”. In composing his music, I endeavoured to create Agamemnon the antagonist by incorporating the playing techniques used in Kara Toprak [Black Earth – a piece Say composed in 1997 and which features plucking of the piano strings to evoke the sound of the lute-like saz].

Paris

“This is a simple leitmotif, and it occurs in almost every section. When Paris is in love with Helen, in the Heroes of Troy section, the leitmotif moves faster, but as he is dying, we hear a different version. In other words, there are variations of the same motif throughout the work.”

Fate weaves its web

“As all these events are a matter of epic fate, this is represented by a simple leitmotif of four notes conveying the march towards an unhappy ending. This is the most important element in the work.”

This recording of the Troy Sonata was made in the Salzburg Mozarteum the month after the premiere in Turkey. It is complemented by three other recent piano works by Fazil Say.  The Moving Mansion (in Turkish, Yürüyen Köşk), is a four-movement piece that draws on an anecdote about Kemal Atatürk, the venerated founder of the Turkish Republic, who in 1930 opted to shift an entire holiday house by several metres rather than allow branches to be removed from a favourite plane tree that was growing too near the building. The house still exists in Yalova, on the Sea of Marmara south of Istanbul.   Sarı Gelin (Blonde Bride) is based on a haunting folk song that is well known in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran. It tells the sad story of a Turkish man who cannot be with the Armenian woman he loves. Winter Morning in Istanbul, which like Sarı Gelin comes from Say’s collection Art of Piano 3, is a nostalgic depiction of the multicultural world of Old Istanbul and makes use of a distinctive Turkish musical scale, the Hicaz.

Troy Sonata, Fazıl Say plays Say • Troy Sonata, Fazıl Say plays Say • Troy Sonata, Fazıl Say plays Say • Troy Sonata, Fazıl Say plays Say •

Želite biti obveščeni o vseh novostih in dogodkih, ki se pri nas odvijajo?

Prijavite se na naša e-obvestila