Going to hear Say conduct Mozart and play Shostakovich and Say tomorrow night in Basel, with the Kammerorchester Basel:

https://www.kammerorchesterbasel.ch/de/spielplan/say-mozart.html

🤩

@classicalmusic

#FazilSay #KammerorchesterBasel

Fazil Say with the Zürich Chamber Orchestra (Zürcher Kammerorchester) cond. Howard Griffiths - Mozart's piano concertos No. 12 KV 414 in A major, No. 21 KV 467 in C major and No. 23 KV 488 in A major. First spin, and I'm very much in love with this disc already! (Absurd that I had to get my used copy from Japan though ...)

@classicalmusic
#NowListening #FazilSay #Mozart #ZürcherKammerorchester #HowwardGriffiths

Last night and this morning's classical listening - all bought yesterday, all amazing.

Never heard the Fiocco Lamentations before, and gee, they are really beautiful!

"Má Vlast" on historical instruments makes for a complete rediscovery of these pieces!

And Kopatchinskaja/Say (rel. 4 Jan) really need no words!

@classicalmusic

#NowListening #Classical #MusicAgainstMadness #Smetana #VaclavLuks #PatriciaKopatchinskaja #FazilSay #Bartok #Janacek #Brahms #Fiocco #EnsembleBonneCorde

The piece features some of Hikmet's poems:

- "I come and stand at every door" (poem about dead girl that was killed by the Hiroshima bomb) -- https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=I_zG8k0IBNs (snippet of the Oratorio); https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=3kpHbuZm2nw (performance of the poem by This Mortal Coil)

- "Memleketim" ("My country") -- https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=KRFzmRhSJ7g

- "Yaşamaya Dair" ("On living") -- https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=yWQoacBt7rw (recital of the original poem by Genco Erkalın, who spoke in the Oratorio); https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=3Fej8igH_3o (nice recital of the English translation); https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=PJFR3p7UwU0 (other performance of Say's Oratorio)

The interview at the end of the video is also interesting.

#FazilSay #NazimHikmet #Turkish #classical #music #poetry

I found a recording of Nazim Oratorio with English subtitles!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=e32iN2rmUXs
https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=e32iN2rmUXs (privacy-friendly alternative link)
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=e32iN2rmUXs (in case the above doesn't work)

The Oratorio was composed by Fazil Say, who arguably is one of the most famous Turkish composers and a truely genious pianist.

The Oratorio is about the life of Nazim Hikmet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A2z%C4%B1m_Hikmet), the most famous Turkish poet of the 20th century, who was also considered by the Turkish government a traitor at the same time. He was a communist and spent many times in prison and in exile in Soviet Georgia and asylum in Russia.

These are the main themes of the piece:

- Nazim Hikmet's live (the orator) (youth, repeated imprisonments, repression, exile and asylum)
- Nuclear bombing of #Hiroshima
- Poverty and harsh life

#FazilSay #NazimHikmet #Turkish #classical #music #poetry