Pranav Ranjit | Ahmet Adnan Saygun - Symphony No. 2 (Score Video) @towardthesea_ | Uploaded October 2024 | Updated October 2024, 4 hours ago.
00:05 I. Allegro vivo
07:55 II. (no marking)
15:11 III. Moderato
21:22 IV. Allegro
Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz (German State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate) conducted by Ari Rasilainen
The fourth movement starts extremely softly, so turn up your volume as needed if you can't hear.
Ahmet Adnan Saygun (1907-1991) was a Turkish composer, the most famous of the "Turkish Five" who combined the Western classical tradition with Turkish folk music. During Saygun's lifetime, his work was widely performed across Turkey, Europe, and North America by leading ensembles like the NBC Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, and Juilliard String Quartet. Read more about Saygun on my blog: unknowncomposers.org/2020/08/15/ahmet-adnan-saygun-a-pioneer-who-brought-together-romanticism-western-modernism-and-turkish-folk-song
I find Saygun's second symphony of 1958 to be a kind of bridge between his earlier works, such as the string quartet or first symphony, and his subsequent symphonies and concerti. While some parts of this symphony retain a rather vivacious and energetic quality, Saygun starts to lean into the dense, meticulous and sometimes sparkling orchestration that would become characteristic of his later period. Historical context aside, this is a terrific, totally engrossing symphonic work and certainly deserves far more recordings and international performances than it's received in the recent past - I hope orchestras and conductors who see this video might be inspired to take it up in the future!
00:05 I. Allegro vivo
07:55 II. (no marking)
15:11 III. Moderato
21:22 IV. Allegro
Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz (German State Philharmonic of Rhineland-Palatinate) conducted by Ari Rasilainen
The fourth movement starts extremely softly, so turn up your volume as needed if you can't hear.
Ahmet Adnan Saygun (1907-1991) was a Turkish composer, the most famous of the "Turkish Five" who combined the Western classical tradition with Turkish folk music. During Saygun's lifetime, his work was widely performed across Turkey, Europe, and North America by leading ensembles like the NBC Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, and Juilliard String Quartet. Read more about Saygun on my blog: unknowncomposers.org/2020/08/15/ahmet-adnan-saygun-a-pioneer-who-brought-together-romanticism-western-modernism-and-turkish-folk-song
I find Saygun's second symphony of 1958 to be a kind of bridge between his earlier works, such as the string quartet or first symphony, and his subsequent symphonies and concerti. While some parts of this symphony retain a rather vivacious and energetic quality, Saygun starts to lean into the dense, meticulous and sometimes sparkling orchestration that would become characteristic of his later period. Historical context aside, this is a terrific, totally engrossing symphonic work and certainly deserves far more recordings and international performances than it's received in the recent past - I hope orchestras and conductors who see this video might be inspired to take it up in the future!
![Vasily Kalinnikov - Symphony No. 2 (Score Video) [N. Järvi]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IFu1RxsVUhw/hqdefault.jpg "Vasily Kalinnikov - Symphony No. 2 (Score Video) [N. Järvi]
Performed by the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi
00:00 I. Moderato - Allegro non troppo
10:18 II. Andante cantabile
18:25 III. Allegro scherzando
26:32 IV. Andante cantabile - Allegro vivo
Vasily Kalinnikov (1866-1901) was a Russian Romantic composer whose often colorful and energetic music drew from Russian folk melodies. For more on Kalinnikov, see my post about him on my blog: https://unknowncomposers.org/2019/03/25/special-feature-vasily-kalinnikov-the-forgotten-russian-romantic/
Written in 1897 and dedicated to the conductor Aleksandr Vinogradsky, Kalinnikovs second symphony is one of his most important works. Although I personally find the melodies of his first symphony most compelling, the second displays a mastery of form and development while retaining the exuberance and orchestral color so characteristic of his style.
Although they have begun to gain prominence in recent years, Kalinnikovs works remain rarely performed among major orchestras outside the former USSR - I hope this score video will be a small part of changing the status quo. You can find the score on Kalinnikovs IMSLP page (https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Kalinnikov,_Vasily) under Symphony No. 2 in A Major.")
