Can Çakmur - Without Borders (2022) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Piano Sonata, Sz. 80: I. Allegro moderato
02. Piano Sonata, Sz. 80: II. Sostenuto e pesante
03. Piano Sonata, Sz. 80: III. Allegro molto
04. Passacaglia, intermezzo e fuga for Piano: I. Passacaglia
05. Passacaglia, intermezzo e fuga for Piano: II. Intermezzo
06. Passacaglia, intermezzo e fuga for Piano: III. Fuga
07. Piano Sonata, Op. 76: I. Moderato
08. Piano Sonata, Op. 76: II. Allegro
09. Piano Sonata, Op. 76: III. Lento
10. Piano Sonata, Op. 76: IV. Allegro
11. Piano Sonata No. 3 in D Major, Op. 24 No. 3: I. Vivace con brio
12. Piano Sonata No. 3 in D Major, Op. 24 No. 3: II. Andantino cantabile
13. Piano Sonata No. 3 in D Major, Op. 24 No. 3: III. Allegro con spirito

Towards the end of the 19th century, several composers were taking a new interest in folk music. Folk tunes, or imitations of them, had previously mainly been used in order to provide "local colour" or as a way of catering to nationalist sentiments, but it was now seen as a means to revitalize art music itself, opening up for new possibilities in terms of rhythm and harmony as well as melody. At the forefront of this development was Béla Bartók, who also considered the use of folk elements as a tool to transcend boundaries - to achieve a "brotherhood of peoples".

For this recital recording, Can Çakmur has devised a programme which juxtaposes four composers’ different responses to folk music. Bartók’s Piano Sonata is followed by Passacaglia, Intermezzo e Fuga with which Dimitri Mitropoulos made a clean break with earlier works in a more nationalistic vein.

Next comes Çakmur’s compatriot, the Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun, who in 1936 accompanied Bartók on a field trip in Turkey collecting music. His Piano Sonata was composed some fifty years later, however, and refers to folk music primarily on a theoretical level. Closing the programme is George Enescu’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in D major, which Çakmur in his own liner notes describes as "radiating a natural affinity for the village, without sacrificing the compositional value of the work".

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