Caf¿¿: Orient Meets Occident

by Pera Ensemble

Overview

Several musicians, including Jordi Savall, have tried to get a grip on the substantial musical interchange between western Europe and the Ottoman Turks that took place in the 17th and 18th centuries, culminating in no less a work than Beethoven's Ninth. This release is among the most interesting in this vein, partly because it comes from a Turkish perspective. Istanbul's Pera Ensemble under Mehmet C. Yesilcay offers a wide-ranging program that touches on many facets of the European-Turkish relationship. The majority of the music is Western, but is played on a mixed ensemble of Western and Turkish instruments, with subtle, delightful effects. The performers do not seem to be suggesting that settings like this were actually terribly frequent during the period under discussion, but sometimes, with a fresh area of musical performance, the best way to make things clear is to do something a bit speculative. The interaction occurred on both sides: several Western musicians, by choice or by necessity, lived in Turkey and began to notate what they heard. But the cultural influence was wider in the other direction and even included the popularity of coffee, which was introduced to Austria after Turkish troops left sacks of it behind during the Siege of Vienna in 1683. Thus the program includes not just Turkish-style pieces, like Fux's "Janitschara" (track 11) and the "Marche pour la ceremonie Turcs" of Lully (track 1, written for the most important Western manifestation of the cultural clash, Moliere's play Le bourgeois gentilhomme), but also opera arias linked to the Turkish theme by no stronger bond than that the composer might have been inspired by drinking coffee. It sounds a bit off the wall, but the listener comes away with a new sense of the cultural mixtures involved in this early stage of "orientalism." And who's to say that the Turks did not at times arrange performances of Western music, which their diplomatic corps would have known well? Novel and highly recommended. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	08/14/2012
Label:	BERLIN CLASSICS
UPC:	0885470004006

Tracks

1. Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme~Marche pour la c¿¿r¿¿monie Tures
2. Polifemo~Alto giove, ¿¿ tua grazia e tuo vanto
3. Canarios
4. Evi¿¿ Kar¿¿e: Geldi cevher tigi ates barina ayineden
5. Che si pu¿¿ fare
6. Air des Espagnols ("Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme") / Semai
7. Giustino~Ho nel petto un cor si forte
8. La Follia
9. Delirio amoroso~Un pensiero voli in ciel
10. Rast Murassa
11. Turcaria~Janitschara
12. Semiramide Riconosciuta~In bracio a mille furie
13. Uzzal Pesrev
14. Agrippina~No, no, ch'io non
15. RV 540~Largo

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Pera Ensemble   Primary Artist,Ensemble
Valer Sabadus   Counter Tenor (Vocal)
Mehmet Cemal Yesilcay   Director

Technical Credits

Mehmet Cemal Yesilcay   Arranger,Liner Notes
Jean-Baptiste Lully   Composer
George Frederick Handel   Composer
Antonio Vivaldi   Composer
Barbara Strozzi   Composer
Sig Brunacci   Text
Ebu Bekir Aga   Composer
Sandra Sinsch   Liner Notes
Arne Schultz   Photography
Gaspar Sanz   Composer
Arcangelo Corelli   Composer
Murad IV   Composer
Various Composers   Composer
Anonymous   Composer
Michael Windgassen   Text Translation
Janet Berridge   Liner Note Translation,Text Translation
Michael Berridge   Liner Note Translation,Text Translation
Christoph Stickel   Mastering,Mixing
Nicola Porpora   Composer
Johann Joseph Fux   Composer