Fazil Say
The Chamber Music Cycle of the Auditorio de Tenerife is offering a concert by the pianist and composer of Turkish origin Fazil Say.
It is a recital full of contrasts that begins with a selection of six preludes by Debussy. Unlike the preludes for piano for Chopin, these are evocations aimed, on one hand, at describing atmospheres in an awakening of the senses, such as Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir and La Cathédrale engloutie, and on the other, characters and scenes, such as La Fille aux cheveux de lin, La danse de Puck and Minstrels. In one way or another, the composer transports us to an abstract plane of marked musical symbolism and this essence is transformed into works right at the end of the last bar of each of them, as Debussy gives each piece a title as it ends; a practice that we can interpret as an intention to dedicate it to a thing, person, or landscape. An authentic poetic microcosmos that connects with the dreamy tenderness of the Clair de lune of the Suite Bergamasque, a youthful work which, according to Alfred Cortot, “is gently influenced by the spirit of the poet Paul Verlaine.” Fazil Say has a deep knowledge of Debussy's work, and in 1990 he even set some of his preludes to music. He is a versatile composer who has created music for various artistic fields such as film, theatre, dance, symphony and chamber groups. His style is unique and free from any stylistic clichés.
With this initial atmosphere, he contrasts the Beethoven Sonata op. 57 n. 23 Appassionata, considered by the composer himself as one of his most important piano works. Composed between 1804 and 1805, at the time he was writing his Eroica symphony, it reflects the emotional state he was in during this period of great torment and longing. The piece itself contains a contrast between its movements. The first movement has extreme dynamics and suspenseful silences, while the second movement is more contemplative and serene. However, the seemingly serene mood quickly transforms into a challenging and tumultuous third movement that rushes towards the final coda.
Franz Liszt was known for producing many transcriptions of the works of other famous composers. These piano arrangements, although some are not widely known, held a significant place in his work. They include paraphrases of operas, such as Verdi's Rigoletto, as well as Lieder, such as those of Schumann, Schubert, and Mendelssohn, and transcriptions of symphonies. All of these piano works are compiled in a compendium that pays tribute to Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A minor, which adds a solemn finishing touch to this recital.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Preludes - book I
Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir (Sounds and scents swirl in the evening air)
La Fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with linen hair)
La Cathédrale engloutie (The sunken catedral)
La danse de Puck (Puck's dance)
Minstrels
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Suite bergamasque, L 75
Moonlight
Fazıl Say (*1970)
A la carte
-Intermission-
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Sonate No. 23, in F minor, Op. 57 Appassionata
Allegro assai
Andante con moto
Allegro ma non troppo
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Prelude and Fugue by J.S. Bach, no.1, in A minor (after BWV 543)
For the past 25 years, Fazıl Say has been captivating audiences and critics alike with his exceptional piano skills, creating an experience that is truly unique. His concerts are not just any ordinary concerts; they are more engaging, more honest and more thrilling. In short, they go straight to the heart. This is what the composer Aribert Reimann must have meant when, during a trip to Ankara in 1986, he had the pleasure, more or less by chance, to hear the young musician who was then aged 16. He immediately asked the man accompanying him, the American pianist David Levine, to go to the conservatoire in the Turkish capital, and did so with words that have since become almost a cliché: “You have to hear him, the boy plays like a devil.”
Fazıl Say received his initial piano lessons from Mithat Fenmen, a pianist who had studied under Alfred Cortot in Paris. Fenmen, possibly recognizing Say's immense talent, suggested that he should start each day by improvising on common themes before moving on to his piano exercises and studies. It was this engagement with free creative processes and forms that gave rise to the immense improvisatory talent and the aesthetic outlook that constitute the core of who Fazıl Say is today as a pianist and composer. As a composer, Fazıl Say has received commissions from the Salzburger Festspiele, WDR, Münchner Philharmoniker, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Wiener Konzerthaus, Dresdner Philharmonie, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the BBC, among others. His work includes five symphonies, two oratorios, several solo concertos and many piano and chamber music works.
Fazıl Say refined his training as a classical pianist from 1987 on with David Levine, first at the "Robert Schumann" Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf, and then in Berlin. He also regularly attended master classes with Menahem Pressler. In turn, his extraordinary technique soon allowed him to tame the so-called war horses of world literature with amazing aplomb, and it was indeed this mix of subtlety in Haydn, Bach and Mozart, and masterful brilliance in the works of Liszt, Mussorgsky, and Beethoven, which finally led him to win the International “Young Concert Artists” Competition in New York in 1994. Following this, Fazıl Say performed with all the renowned American and European orchestras and with several great directors, developing a diverse repertoire that ranges from compositions by Sebastian Bach to the "classics" Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, along with romantic and contemporary music, including his own compositions for piano.
Fazıl Say has performed as a guest artist in numerous countries across all five continents since he first began. He has been referred to as a "genius" by the French newspaper "Le Figaro." Additionally, Fazıl Say has played as a chamber musician several times. For instance, he played with the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja for years in a fantastic duo, and he has also worked with other esteemed musicians such as Maxim Vengerov, the Minetti Quartet, the Modigliani Quartet, Nicolas Altstaedt, and Marianne Crebassa.
Several concert halls, orchestras, and festivals have invited Fazıl Say as a resident artist or have presented their audience with portraits and weeks devoted to him over recent decades. These include, among others, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the hr-Sinfonieorchester, the Zürcher Kammerorchester, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Camerata Salzburg, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Bodenseefestival and the Festival der Nationen. Other works were heard in Paris, Tokyo, Merano, Hamburg and Say's hometown of Istanbul. In the 2022/23 season, he was a Focus Artist with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and an Artist/Composer in Residence with the Staatskapelle Weimar.
In 2013, Fazil Say received the Rheingau Music Award, and in December 2016, the International Beethoven Award for Human Rights, Peace, Freedom, Fight against Poverty and Inclusion in Bonn. In autumn 2017, he was awarded with the Music Prize of the City of Duisburg.
The recordings by Fazıl Say of works by Bach, Mozart, Gershwin and Stravinsky with Teldec Classics, as well as works by Mussorgsky, Beethoven and his works on Naïve, have received great praise from music critics and received several awards, including three ECHO KLASSIK awards. 2014 saw the release of his recording of works by Beethoven -the Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, the Sonata op. 111 and the Moonlight Sonata- as well as the album "Say Plays Say" with only his works. In the autumn of 2016, Warner Classics released the recording of all Mozart sonatas, for which Fazıl Say received his fourth ECHO KLASSIK in 2017. Together with Nicolas Altstaedt, he recorded the album "4 Cities" (2017). In autumn 2017, Warner Classics released Frédéric Chopin's Nocturnes and the album "Secrets" with French songs, which Fazil recorded with Marianne Crebassa and which won the Gramophone Classical Music Prize in 2018. His 2018 album is devoted to Debussy and Satie, while his latest launch presents his own works "Troy Sonata - Fazıl Say Plays Say" In January 2020, the recording by Fazıl Say of all of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano was released by Warner Classics, which will also release his recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations this season.
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