Fazil Say (piano)
Oiseaux tristes
François Couperin (1668–1733)
Quatrième livre de pièces de clavecin: Ordre XXIe in E minor (pub.1730)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Suite bergamasque (1890, rev.1905)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Miroirs (1904/5)
rec. 2023, Ahmed Adnan Saygun Sanat Merkezi (AASSM), İzmir, Turkey
Reviewed from Hi-Resolution WAV files
Warner Classics 5419 791488 [58]
Now in his fifties, the polymath composer and pianist Fazil Say has mellowed, perhaps, and his mature and considered approach to the works on this disc deserves a hearing. He has been with the Warner label since 2016 and I have enjoyed the releases they have given us and often felt they have been a little underappreciated by some in the industry. His Beethoven sonata cycle came during the pandemic I think and seem to remember much more focus given to the Igor Levit set at the time. His Goldberg Variations attracted mixed reviews in 2022, our own Ralph Moore being more concerned with the engineering than the interpretation (which he, by the way, enjoyed) (review).
Fazil Say’s previous foray into the French repertoire for Warner came in 2018 with a disc of Debussy’s first book of Préludes and Satie recorded in the Mozarteum, Salzburg in 2016. The current disc under review was recorded (like the Bach) back home in Turkey. I have no real gripe with the sound. It is full and warm. Yes the piano is recorded a little closely and thus tone can lose focus in denser chords and louder passages but the piano sounds good throughout its range. There is one other issue I have with the sonics but I’ll come to that at the end.
The five Couperin pieces are from his last collection of harpsichord works published in 1730 by which time Couperin was getting on in years. The Ordre Say chooses is a melancholy selection and they fit the disc title and mood well. Dynamics are well caught and these works adapt well to their piano adaptations which in the notes Say hints he has worked on personally.
Debussy’s early Suite bergamasque brings more variation in outlook and obviously more colour. I am really impressed with this performance which ends with a lovely passepied. After playing it through, I turned to Jean-Efflem Bavouzet in his 2008 Chandos account. Here, the recording is not so close and thus the soundworld is different. The extra space around the piano sound is probably better for repeated listening but both performances are excellent.
The dates for Ravel’s Miroirs are exactly contemporaneous with Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, of which I just recently wrote another review. Like the symphony, this composition is a large, difficult piece; indeed, Fazil Say explains in his notes how he studied the work extensively during the Covid lockdown and respects its extraordinary powerful quality.
A first play-through of this Miroirs seemed promising but this is a major work and comparative listening is needed. I started with two very recent performances. Philippe Bianconi’s complete Ravel on 2 CD’s from La Dolce Volta recorded in 2022 includes an interesting Miroirs. It is a sombre reading but the sensitivity of touch in Oiseaux tristes for instance is breathtaking. One could perhaps ask for a more cheerful outlook for our “barque sur l’océan” but as Bianconi says in the notes to the disc, he sees the boat as empty and the piece as an exercise in solitude. In the end, Bianconi’s rather gloomy Alborada convinces me to look elsewhere for my ideal reading to help me measure up this new recording from Fazil Say.
Next I turned to Zlata Chochieva on Naïve (Fazil Say’s old label) playing a Bechstein piano in 2022. This is a superb performance, capricious yet heart-felt. Chochieva paints these ever-changing tone pictures with a mastery of her instrument that is breathtaking. Naïve’s sound is faultless too. Her Une barque sur l’océan is a pearl of great price. Going back to Fazil Say at this point to compare is not disadvantageous to the new record. Say’s recording is warmer and richer and I think I might prefer it; he gets more drama and gravitas out of the piece. How strange that both pianists learned it in the isolation of the pandemic and both arrive at different yet both wonderfully valid interpretations.
Ravel explained that the clown portrayed in Alborada del gracioso is humorous but with an edge to him. We might say the same of this account. Fazil Say has worked hard to master this piece technically. The final movement of Miroirs is La vallée des cloches and once again it is clear that the hours spent on study and preparation pay off in this evocative mini tone poem. It is a fitting way to end the disc dedicated to our Sad birds.
Having listened consciously to two very recent performances to complement Say’s Miroirs, I should state that I also replayed two of my favourite versions from Beatrice Rana and Bertrand Chamayou on Warner and Erato respectively. These accounts are mandatory listening in the recent discography of this work and readers will no doubt have their own favourites too going back more than ten years. I shall not waste more time comparing though as it is easy to find write-ups on the Rana and Chamayou Miroirs. Do try and hear them though.
Overall, Fazil Say has made a Miroirs to keep. His version is masculine (can I say that?) and will repay repeated scrutiny, I think. There is one thing though. In the grand manner of Glenn Gould and Alfred Brendel, Say is a groaner. There are countless examples in all the music but especially in Miroirs where his vocal moanings disconcert (for example track 12, 3:14 or 3:45); this will be especially troublesome for you if you are listening on headphones. For his artistry and insight it is a price I am willing to pay, however, and I can give his new album Oiseaux tristes a big thumbs up.
Philip Harrison
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