Respighi, Hindemith, Schmitt (Onyx, through Ode Records)
Rating: *****
Verdict: "Turkish orchestra makes a colourful connection with the West in some remarkably fresh repertoire"
Think Turkey and, as far as classical music goes, your brain will probably be taken over by the whirr of Mozart's Rondo alla Turca. Yet, in line with its wider political philosophies, Turkey itself has for some time fostered the Western musical tradition.
Hindemith played an important role in the founding of the Ankara Conservatory in 1936 and Turkish pianists Idil Biret and Fazil Say have made their mark on international stages.
Now it's the turn of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra which has just released its first CD for international consumption.
Conductor Sascha Goetzel stresses how Istanbul is a European Capital of Culture this year and sees this album is a bridge to the European culture that Turkey so reveres.
Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber is the most familiar offering and Goetzel's flashy rendition has it flaunting its exoticism, right through to its jaunty closing march.
Respighi's Belkis, Queen of Sheba is a curiosity from a composer best known for his musical tributes to the fountains, pines and festivals of his native Rome.
Belkis is ballet music, pure, simple and spectacular. It's no time at all before Solomon's opening dream erupts into a heroic march and Belkis does her utmost to seduce us in her sinuous dance (complete with genuine Arab drum). An Orgiastic Dance, which provides a pounding finale to the suite, is delivered with an enthusiasm and sincerity that a more jaded Western orchestra might not be able to muster.
Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) is a relatively obscure figure of French music, a man vilified by Satie, who suggested suicide as preferable to emulating Schmitt's orchestral techniques, but praised by Stravinsky, who may well have realised that Schmitt's 1907 ballet, The Tragedy of Salome, has more than a few hints of a Sacre du Printemps that was still six years away.
The Borusan musicians hold nothing back in Schmitt's 1910 version of the ballet, lusciously and lovingly scored for full orchestra. This is a feast of colours, particularly when Schmitt goes underwater for The Enchantment of the Sea while the knife-edge changes of the first Dance of Fear might well have you clinging to the arms of your lounge chair.
