Saygun: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2

Album review

If you define classical music as Western-styled concert music, then you can count the number of great Turkish classical music composers on one hand. Turkey already has, selecting five of its pioneering figures from the early twentieth century as "The Turkish Five," and the most prominent among these names is that of Ahmed Adnan Saygun. At the request of Atatürk, Saygun composed the first Turkish opera, Özsoy, in 1934; one critic noted that Saygun "was to his country what Jean Sibelius is to Finland." Early in his career, Saygun was noted for his command of the neo-classical idiom, but by the time Saygun got around to composing his Symphony No. 1 in 1953, Saygun had darkened it a bit; while there are still traces of Prokofiev's influence, Saygun's contact with Béla Bartók made a huge impression on him. Saygun's Symphony No. 2 followed a mere five years later -- he wrote five symphonies altogether -- and it covers similar territory. Both are combined on CPO's Ahmed Adnan Saygun: Symphonies 1 & 2 performed by Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen and the Staatsphilarmonie Rheinland-Pfalz.
It is interesting that Saygun only composed one film score -- that for the Turkish film Hanim (1988) in collaboration with fellow "Fiver" Cemal Resit Rey -- as Saygun's music here is profoundly cinematic in spots. It owes a debt to Bartók's "night music" and is reminiscent of other aspects of Bartók's orchestral language as well; only occasionally does one hear a 7/8 rhythm or some other characteristically "Turkish" element creep into the texture. The performance is listenable, but not particularly well shaped; CPO's recording is airy, distant, and a bit diffuse. The breaks between tracks seem unusually long as well. CPO's Ahmed Adnan Saygun: Symphonies 1 & 2 is an interesting addition to the recorded repertoire, but one wonders if somehow this can be done better.

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