Café: Orient meets Occident / Valer Barna-Sabadus: countertenor; Pera Ensemble

• Audio Samples
• Album Summary
• Notes & Reviews
• Also Purchased
• Works Details

Audio Samples

Album Summary

Performers

• Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Valer Barna-Sabadus

Ensemble

• Pera Ensemble

Composers

• Nicola Porpora (1686 - 1768)
• Barbara Strozzi (1619 - 1664)
• George Frederick Handel (1685 - 1759)
• Murad IV (1612 - 1640)
• Gaspar Sanz (1640 - 1710)
• Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741)
• Anonymous, Turkish
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687)
• Ebu Bekir Aga (1685 - 1759)
• Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713)
• Johann Joseph Fux (1660 - 1741)

Notes & Reviews:

The aroma of coffee links East and West in a mysteriously sensual manner. Equally sensual are the sounds of the Pera Ensemble, and their latest CD brings to life the enthusiasm of earlier centuries for the mystic East. The musicians, who have long established an enthusiastic following at major festivals, bring great vigor and spirit to their playing. European and Eastern compositions are fascinatingly contrasted and vividly conveyed to the listener, and the subtle combination of instruments from both cultures brings the seemingly different styles of music amazingly close together.

Notes & Reviews:

Recording information: CRR Istanbul (2011).

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 cérémonie Turcs" of Lully (track 1, written for the most important Western manifestation of the cultural clash, Molière'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

Includes air des espagnols (from "le bourgeois gentilhomme" by various composers.

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Works Details

Lully, Jean-Baptiste : Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme :: Marche pour la cérémonie Tures

• Performer: Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 1 min. 45 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Ballet

Porpora, Nicola : Polifemo :: Alto giove, è tua grazia e tuo vanto

• Performers: Valer Barna-Sabadus; Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 4 min. 14 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Opera/Operetta

Sanz, Gaspar : Canarios

• Performer: Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 2 min. 44 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Written: 1674

Aga, Ebu Bekir : Geldi cevher tigi ates barina ay (Eviç Karçe), song

• Performers: Valer Barna-Sabadus; Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 3 min. 26 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Vocal

Strozzi, Barbara : Che si può fare, cantata, Op. 8

• Performers: Valer Barna-Sabadus; Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 5 min. 54 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Cantata/Oratorio
• Written: 16th Century

Vivaldi, Antonio : Giustino :: Ho nel petto un cor si forte

• Performers: Valer Barna-Sabadus; Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 7 min. 10 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Opera/Operetta
• Written: 1724

Corelli, Arcangelo : Sonatas (12) for Violin and Basso Continuo, Op. 5

• Performer: Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 7 min. 21 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque

Handel, George Frideric : Delirio amoroso :: Un pensiero voli in ciel

• Performers: Valer Barna-Sabadus; Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 4 min. 13 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Written: 1707

Anonymous, Turkish : Makam Rast "Murass'a" usul Düyek, traditional melody (Ms. de Kantemiroglu)

• Performer: Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 4 min. 8 sec.

Fux, Johann Joseph : Turcaria :: Janitschara

• Performer: Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 1 min. 38 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque

Porpora, Nicola : Semiramide Riconosciuta :: In bracio a mille furie

• Performers: Valer Barna-Sabadus; Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 3 min. 22 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Opera/Operetta
• Written: 1729

Murad IV : Uzzal Pesrev

• Performer: Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 3 min. 28 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque

Handel, George Frideric : Agrippina :: No, no, ch'io non

• Performers: Valer Barna-Sabadus; Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Notes: Composition written: 1709.
• Running Time: 3 min. 20 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Form: Opera/Operetta
• Written: 1709

Vivaldi, Antonio : RV 540 :: Largo

• Performer: Pera Ensemble Istanbul
• Ensemble: Pera Ensemble
• Running Time: 3 min. 4 sec.
• Period Time: Baroque
• Written: 1740