SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Beethoven, Ravel, Bartok, Say:  Fazil Say (Piano), Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Violin), ENKA Auditorium, Istanbul, 27.6.2008 (AM)

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.9 in A Major, Op. 47, Kreutzer (1802)
Ravel: Violin Sonata No.2 in G Major (1927)
Bartok: Roumanian Folk Dances (1915), arr. Zoltán Székely
Say: Sonata for Piano and Violin, Op. 7 (1997)

Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fazil Say

The warm but breezy evening weather in Istanbul was an ideal complement to ENKA Auditorium, a beautiful open air performance space, not originally intended for classical music concerts due to its poor acoustics and proneness to noise from the nearby highway, not to mention a shooting range a few hundred yards away. The external noise grew from bad to worse unfortunately, thanks to high-decibel pop music coming from the nightclub within the same complex, followed by actual shooting noises from the range. It is safe to assume that except for a selected few seated around the piano close to the action—myself included—the rest of the audience must have suffered from this terrible distraction. Such a shame, because the concert featuring the acclaimed pianist Fazil Say and talented violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja was a big success.

This was the second evening of the ENKA Summer Arts Festival, a repeat of the program from the night before. It was a pleasant surprise to see a Bosendorfer Grand placed on the stage. I was a little worried too at the same time, since Say is not known for his light touch which seems to go best with this marvellous  instrument. Thankfully, my qualms disappeared shortly after they got into the Kreutzer Sonata. The first movement, Adagio sostenuto, started with Say’s stout playing, resulting in a muddy violin sound from Kopatachinskaja. However, he adjusted his touch to the delicacies of the piece soon after, providing sufficient sonic interval for his companion to make herself heard. With the arrival of the presto section of the movement, Ms. Kopatchinskaja’s technical abilities began to show as she stormed through the end of the movement confidently. The following variations were a mixed bag. In the dance-like rhythmic sections the duo worked in perfect unison. In contrast, during the Mozartian, more elegant variations, the melodic transitions which call for subtle adjustments were often neglected by the violin. Say’s perfect octaves were the saving grace here. The final movement with its fast and commanding lines assured me that this concert was sure to get better in the Ravel and Bartok pieces to follow.  It should be noted here that both players were extremely animated. Fazil Say, already known for his energetic way of playing, met his match in Koptatchinskaja’s lenient body language. She moved quite a lot, coming dangerously close to the piano at times. The first half of the concert ended after only this one piece.

With the start of the second half came the best part of the evening. Ravel's sonata—mysterious and ethereal —was executed with almost no faults at all. Special mention should go to Mr. Say for providing the audience with perfect accompaniment duties during the Allegretto. The smoky Blues movement was definitely the highlight of the program. The two players worked in perfect harmony here with Say producing unusually bright sounds from the Bosendorfer while Kopatchinskaja hit all the notes in exact timing and in apposite dynamic levels. She went further showing off her technical abilities in the extremely difficult Perpetuum mobile. She mesmerized the audience with her virtuosity, ending the piece with punch and a well-deserved applause. A nice visual effect was a butterfly coming out of nowhere and flying —at least one instance in which the concert benefitted from taking place in open air.

Bartok’s Roumanian Dances, originally scored for orchestra, was played in its reduced form arranged by Zoltán Székely. I thought it was a risky work to choose, both because of its unfamiliarity with the general audience (remember that Say’s own sonata—a virtually unknown piece—was to follow) and its short duration. The six dances took no more than that many minutes, but nevertheless it quickly became the audience favorite thus far, thanks to its folkloric themes that are reminiscent of Turkish traditional melodies. It had its moments of technical difficulties, but with musicians of this caliber it went very smoothly.

The ending work for the evening, Fazil Say’s own sonata for violin and piano written in 1997, was a complete unknown for me. I was familiar with only one of his compositions: The Nazim Hikmet Ran oratorio for piano, soloists, chorus and orchestra. That piece, full of traditional melodies was simple enough. This sonata, however, could not be further from that. The opening movement called Melancholy is mostly scored for the piano. The music is basically a gloomy melody over elongated arpeggios, followed by fast trills that are echoed in the violin. Say worked his fingers to the extreme to realize his own score to a very nice effect. The following movement, named Grotesque, might be the reason for the existence of the Bosendorfer on stage, since there are plenty of notes that call for this piano’s additional low register. After these two movements, came the third one: Perpetuum mobile assigning the leading role to the violin. Kopatchinskaja, once again, played with extreme vigor, making this seemingly impossible score sound like child’s play. The dynamic action was seemingly there just for the effect beyond which there was not much musical substance. The fourth movement, also dependent on the piano, was interesting in that a traditional Turkish melody was scored over dissonant motifs. Of special interest was the plucking of the strings by Mr. Say to give the piano the effect of an "ud" (a traditional Middle-Eastern string instrument). The final movement was a welcome return to the opening, and in my opinion the most successful part. This piece went very well with the crowd, resulting in enthusiastic applause for encores to which the musicians happily obliged.

I am oblivious to the names and the origins of the initial encores, the first being short, energetic and technically demanding, and the second, an entertaining solo violin interlude in which Ms. Kopatchinskaja vocalized while playing. The final encore was Mr. Say’s own jazz arrangement of Mozart’s "Turkish Rondo" from his Piano Sonata No.11, in A Major, K. 331. This well known arrangement pushed the crowd to their feet, ending the evening on a very positive note.

Alen Matalon

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