Deutsche Grammophone
Concerto Köln / Sarband : Dream of the Orient (D,2003)****
I have been fond of Sarband’s work on Classical music with Turkish musicians. Lucky for me, I have found a cheap copy of another work from them, on super audio CD, in the sell-out market of a record store. It looked very interesting, as it showed (and described) the immediate confrontation of differences in interpretations between a Western educated classical group called Concerto Köln, and the oriental classical group, called Sarband (and how they had overcome these differences. It reminded me shortly of something I have noticed before in a random blitz at TRT, the Turkish television, of how a Turkish orchestra interpreted western classical music in a completely different way, and with a beautiful fluent way of playing the orchestra, much more as one big fluent organ, like a whirling huge bird group, a style which is also typical for Arabesque orchestras (-besides I could also tell interesting differences with Indian styled string orchestras-). But Sarband in this case is not a Western typed orchestra, but a chamber orchestra with traditional instruments, and for this concept, it is mostly percussion instruments.
Sarband’s leader, Vladimir Ivanoff explains in the liner notes how since 1683, after a war threat from the Ottoman empire, through certain circumstances, lots of Turkish percussionists from military ensembles came to play in European orchestras, also as some kind of friendly compensation and gift. In some way it is assumed, -and this is the underlying concept of the CD-, that the appearance of such percussionists not only created ideas for some new compositions (and compositional forms), but also must have had the effect of an exotic touch that inspired the public, that, perhaps still with the previous war threat in mind (from before 1683), gave some renewed shock effects to awaken the public, almost with a military aggression, but with precision, and like with a sense of humour as an overpowering effect. I don’t know if the additional percussion on Mozart and on Gluck’s pieces in those days must have had a similar contrast, but, like people from those days, with their unspoiled ears, that might have noticed more tiny differences the same way as we do now with more contrasts, now it matters less what is closest to the truth, because, at least for me, this result feels much better and very direct, and much more ready for my modern world of perception, compared to some of the overclean and stiff productions and interpretations I have heard from Mozart before.
The introduction notes by Werner Ehrhardt, leader of Concerto Köln, explains best how his group experienced the differences, confronting them with some different starting points because of their sort of Western musical education, when comparing them to the oriental educated ensemble, and to what surprises they came, and what they learned from it. Vladimir Ivanoff’s contribution in the musical direction (he also arranged some old notations) shows beautiful how nicely both ensembles are able to fit together. Many classical compositions are enriched with percussion, while there are also Turkish compositions, played by Turkish fiddles, zither, ney flute and percussion instruments. All compositions originate from the same period, from around the late 18th century. (Another lesser known classical composer listed twice is Joseph Martin Kraus). Especially wild and convincing with percussion, is Franz Xavier Süssmayr’s “Sinfonia Turchesca”, especially for it’s “allegro”.
