We all love what we know and understand best and when it comes to music it is the piano for me. An invitation from the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey, Ayşe Sezgin, to a piano recital by Rüya Taner on 1st April, at the Manoel Theatre was most welcome. I was very glad to notice that it was almost full house too. Nothing is more disheartening for someone to make an effort, bring out musicians or whatever to play and then have a half empty theatre.
The only Turkish pianist I am well acquainted with is Idil Biret who plays Chopin and other Romantic composers. Rüya Taner turned out to be a most distinguished pianist in her turn although much younger than Idil Biret. The programme she chose was a happy mixture of east and west.
She started with Beethovan 's Sonata in C (Eleonorem Sonate) dedicated to the composer's first love Eleonore Von Breuning, whose family helped him during his years in Bonn. Beethovan never married but women had a strong influence on his life and the music he composed. He was born some 14 years after Mozart, that other genius, and had played for him. He refused to be defeated by his deafness even if he did have trouble coming to terms with it. (Today he would have had a good hearing aid!) He began to have trouble with his hearing in his 20s and by his 40s he was completely deaf. What a gift he must have had to continue to create extraordinary music without being able to hear a single note played. Of course he drank (as his father did before him) and it must have been very difficult to live with him but it was a question of mind over matter and he continued to create works of outstanding musicality and originality which are still loved and admired and give so much pleasure to so many.
I love the first movement of the Eleonorem Sonate, the Allegro. It could easily have been composed by Mozart and it sounds very much like the harp, rather than piano. I have heard this sonata just a couple of times. It is nowhere as popular as Pathétique, Moonlight and Appassionata but great nonetheless.
Ms Taner played Liszt - the well known and loved Un sospiro (from Grande études de concert no 3). Liszt has created piano technique for generations to come in his stupendous series of etudes. This piece with its crossed hands effects carries one of the composer's most beguiling melodies hence its nickname, "Un sospiro" -- a sigh. Arpeggios , a glittering souind mass sweeping the keyboard only a pianist of quality with excellent technique could bring off this lovely piece.
The next piece was a complete surprise: Gates by Kamran Ince, born in 1960. The pianist told us that she had commissioned it herself for her Sweet Waters of Europe CD which was a Turkish Themed Recital programme. . My seat was on the right hand side so I could not see her hands and watch how she was achieving the sounds that were coming out of that piano. Afterwards, at the reception she told me that Gates reflects the two different cultures on the island of Cyprus, that is why she commissioned the piece.(She is originally from the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus). She had plucked the string for the sound of the church bells and used her own voice for the sound of the prayer. This is one piece of contemporary music that I truly enjoyed.
She also played a most pleasant piece Piano piece No. 6 by another contemporary composer Sayram Akdil which was its world premier. A lovely tuneful piece which it was obvious the audience enjoyed very much.
There was Schumann and my darling Chopin - Fantasy Impromptu . Whoever is tired of Chopin might as well go and bury himself. Also Debussy's Reflets dans l'eau another much loved piece. This French composer was truly an innovator. He is seen as an 'Impressionist' composer and spent much of his time with the 'Impressionist'painters from whom he took inspiration forhis music, all of them living in Montmartre.
Ms Taner concluded her concert with Lyapunov and dances of Marosszék composed by Zoltan Kádaly.
This was a most satisfying evening both from the point of view of choice of pieces and the pianist herself who gave us a varied rendering.
At the reception afterwards I spoke to her parents. Yilmaz and Sifa Taner. Her father is a great musician and much admired by his daughter. He is a piano teacher as well as a conductor and spotted his daughter's talent right from the started. "My mother is a good listener and a great organizer in our lives', Ms Taner told me. They travel wherever their daughter is playing, but sometimes just one of them goes to accompany her, Mrs Taner often preferring to go to Europe.
We are lucky to be able to listen to such a distinguished pianist and the Turkish ambassador has to be thanked many a time for her choice and for bringing her out. There are now around six women ambassadors, each with her own special gifts and talents. Ms Sezgin is one of them and I am very happy to have been given the opportunity to get to know her a little better and understand what she is trying to achieve for Turkey and its people. To think we fought the Turks and here we are now enjoying their company.