subject: A Brand-new Procedure In The Classical Music [print this page] Classical music is typically placed according to "Art and Entertainment" however is it seriously an entertainment?
Sure it is exciting and fun, however , is that all concerning it?
Okonsar is certainly a musician whose stature being a pianist has become unquestioned ever since his triumphal advent on the international landscape in early 1980s, but his standing up as a composer and conductor is actually steadily raising and has at this time gained alluring rank.
Mehmet Okonsar was born in Istanbul (Turkey) and lived in Paris throughout his initial education. He started mastering piano at the National Conservatory of Ankara, with Nimet Karatekin and Necil Kazim Akses. On account of the rich assets the Ankara Conservatory then held and the Mediatheque of the Centre Culturel Francais d'Ankara, he grew up studying the music of Pierre Boulez, Edgar Varese, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Schaeffer, composers that will have a powerful impact on him.
During this period connected with chaos who has been the nineteen seventies in Turkey, Okonsar linked on both friendly as well as professional basis with a pianist and conductor, ex-student of Pierre Sancan. Via this particular companionship he learned the basics of the keyboard principles of Pierre Sancan who was the teacher of pianists like Michel Beroff and the student of Yves Nat.
Alexis Weissenberg, after listening to a recording by Okonsar asked him (on a scholarship or grant) to study in Switzerland.
Okonsar endorsed the Belgian citizenship in 1992, however while doing so the President Suleyman Demirel of Turkey recognized him with the title "State Artist of the Turkish Republic". Thus Okonsar will settle in Turkey together with his spouse Lale Okonsar, artist.
"Working from Turkey is just not out of the question within our days" affirms the pianist. It holds true that he's in particular confident using the computers and has a very durable position on the Internet. Okonsar is extremely dynamic from Ankara where he performs, exercise, create and writes. He operates a CD company and a publishing house.
His noted concerts incorporated the premiere in Turkey of the Concerto for piano by Schoenberg with the exceptional performances of the Concerto for piano by Lutoslawski in Poland.
His researches on music and modern technology have been exposed in a lecture at the Yamaha headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan. Okonsar authored and also offered a documentary series about music technologies on the National Television Broadcast of Turkey, the T.R.T.
His repertoire encompasses a variety from the early seventeenth. century ("The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book") which includes amongst others Orlando Gibbons and Giles Farnaby and reaches to late the twentieth century with all the works by Karlheinz Stockhausen as well as Witold Lutoslawski. Well known works within this repertoire are: J.S. Bach "The Art of Fugue" performed on organ (or piano) and harpsichord; the Goldberg Variations, the integrale of Well-tempered Keyboard.
The keyboard technique is fine-oiled and exactly tuned. An entire life straight self-discipline is experienced all over his numerous touch. Zero unwanted motions, things are all sniper-accurate. The work is built with architect's precision.
Pianists, such as any kind of musician or singer by the way, are usually divided into two classes. The ones with a common dynamic range plus the others along with a great amazing scheme of sound which operates together with almost every instrument.
Certainly, there is not any unwarranted gesture at the hands of Okonsar. Each and every transition is precisely projected to reach out to the key in a way to power up the mechanics behind it for the desired sound.
The continuity additionally, the feeling of coherence is exclusive inside Okonsar's performances. The works performed bring clearly defined shape and also unfold as being a nicely like a nicely elaborated "tale". This is the consequence of a true faithfulness to the composer's hints written in the score in fact it is learned via the fantastic artists Okonsar received the opportunity of studying with. They are actually Alexis Weissenberg, Jean Claude Vanden Eynden and also partly Eduardo del Pueyo.
One exciting, provoking pace and accuracy characterizes the particular "Lisztian" octaves. However, they aren't arid nor mechanized. In Okonsar's playing the most "flashy" sets of octaves which are often performed as outbursts of a machine-gun, become orchestral in sound. This is often mainly because that Okonsar takes any additional work to do them practically legato and they seem like the Violins One and Two of an orchestral ensemble. Sets of chords as well wear a legato as well as orchestral sound. Okonsar creates that by holding them as much as one can do, in contrast to many other pianists who hit them and leave for the pedal to supply the sound. The affect associated with Weissenberg's playing is clear there. Hand are pretty much "slipping" over the keyboard they don't raise and struck.
Pedal is in no way employed to hide blemishes. With Okonsar, pedaling is usually occasionally at the boundaries of the harmonic blur, however this is certainly intentional and it gets quickly obvious. For example: the extended recitatives or the very special sound effects inquired by Franz Liszt (i.e. the 3rd. Hungarian Rhapsody the location where the left hand takes on a melody inside the extreme low register and it is depicted with a stretched pedal sustain) or in the popular passage of the "Tempest" Sonata (op.31 number:2) by Beethoven, where a long sustained pedal is actually obviously indicated by the composer to present the particular passage its incomparable sound, are faithfully rendered. Also inside parts without pedal, the playing is in no way dry.
Another stimulating aspect of Mehmet Okonsar's playing is its directness its naturalness, which usually occurs particularly in his selection of tempos. Mehmet Okonsar could have nothing to do with any established traditions; however you have the impression that the chosen tempos are established and that he has considered every possible choice after which he knowingly chose to pick his and overthrow others.
The compositions by Okonsar are particularly structuralist and also calls for a good systematic strategy to perform as well as appreciate. These days the composer utilizes the computer in order to formulate representational as well as algorithmic music composition rules. Okonsar utilizes LISP and Common Music to create a strong structural base pertaining to his compositions and also advocates this process as the condition sine qua non for a powerful as well as coherent work. This structuralism is delivered in the finished score in an exceedingly detailed, complex and delicate musical "ecriture".
"The scenario is hard for younger musicians..." Okonsar says "...they are definitely not encouraged to investigate and also come to feel the actual age most of us are now living in, to understand that music of a different if usually difficult expressions, like contemporary art-music may be equally as gratifying as great works of the past."
"It is true I am awkward in what may generally be referred to as "neo-romanticism", having said that it is incorrect that I don't like Rachmaninoff. In common with many younger pianists I grow-up below the influence of Horowitz playing the Third Concerto [by Rachmaninoff] however I continue to be happy to have enjoyment from listening to it instead as performing it myself."
