BIS-CD.827STEREO Total playing time: 66'42 ALI-ZADE,Frangiz (o. 1s47) tr Music for Piano (1989) A ootyetwtiuendown) 6'30 Three Watercolours (1987)ABc 1si*orsxrl 13'06 for soprano,flute and preparedpiano, to versesby NigjarRafibejli tr Preludium 1'11 r tll The Narcissus(No. 1) 4',04 tr The Boatman(No.2) ltc tr Interludium 1'02 L9l Expectation(No.3) 3'16 tr Postludium 1'15 Dilogie I for stringquartet (1946; tr KL 6t*ors*i1 15'.47 tr Adagiocon sordini 7'12 tr Variations 8'29 '19 From Japanese Poetry (1990)ABc 1,r,r,".1 11 for soprano,flute and piano/celesta/vibraphone, to versesby lsikawaTakuboku @ L Whenlike a rarevisitor... 4'.02 E ll. Youbroke an azaleatwig... 3',42 @ lll.All people are going... .tJl 2 tr Crossingll (1993)AoDEFGHTKLMN 1n"7 18'38 forflute, oboe, bassoon, horn, trombone, harp, vibraphone/glockenspiel, violin.viola. cello and double bass FrangizAli-zade, piano, celesta, vibraphone, glockenspiel A Bengilspir, soprano' La StrimpellataBern Regula Kfiffer, flutec Marianne Aeschbacher,violin I Thierry J6quier, oboeD Regula Schwaar,violin I Ueli Binggeli,bassoon E Ren6eStraub, viola K JenniferClark, horn F David lnniger,cello L Adrian Weber,trombone c Kdthi Steuri, doublebass M JadwigaOkon-Halicka, harp H Jiirg Henneberger,direction N 5"'fr'{P D%"11"7,%7, ) La StrimpellataBern Photo:O HansueliB[irki heAzeri composer Frangiz Ali-zade (pronounced Ali-zad6; born in Bakuin 1947) is bestknown among lovers of new musictor her Habil-sajahy(ln the Styleof Habil),the work for cello and prepared piano with which, in 1979,she first achiev- ed a convincingsynthesis of the compositionalpractices of the westernavant-garde andthe musical traditions of herhomeland. From the beginning, the composer's posi- tionbetween two cultureshas lefttraces in her music.At homewith her parents, she explains,she was encouragedto practiseBach's Klavierbdchlein der AnnaMagdalena Bach;on theother hand nobody took the trouble to teachher the complicated mugam systemupon which traditional Azeri music is based.Her education at the BakuConser- vatoryconcentrated on westEuropean models, as was usualin the SovietUnion. In additionto thiscame her encounter with the SecondViennese School and with serial techniques,as reflectedin the Sonatain memoriamAlban Berg (1970). During and afterher studies, Frangiz Ali-zade devoted herselt systematically to her musical 'mother tongue'- the ancient,strictly defined mugam patterns that had been developed over thecourse oi thecenturies and passed down in theoral tradition, with their characteris- tic intervalstructure, their very clear emotional meanings, their cyclical conception of time(which seems so oddto a westEuropean listener) - andto theart of constructing large-scalemusical forms from these raw materials. The composer- who is also a pianistand a doctorof musicology,taught for many years at the Baku Conservatoryand became a renownedinterpreter o{ contemporary music,giving the first performancesin Azerbaijanof works not only by Schoenberg, Berg and Webernbut also by OlivierMessiaen, John Cage, GeorgeCrumb and others. In July 1992she emigratedto Turkey,because cultural life in Baku had been broughtto its knees by the war betweenArmenia and Azerbaijan.Since then she has worked at the opera house and conservatoryin Mersin.Her status as an exile - which she shareswith many other composersfrom the formerSoviet Unionand regardsas pain- ful - is reflectedin her music,for instancein the ballel The EmpU Cradle(completed in 1993),as is a heightenedconsciousness of two differentcultural spheres, between which FrangizAli-zade is constantlyseeking new opportunitiesfor mediation, FrangizAli-zade composed Music lor Piano especiallyfor the first concertdevoted to her own worksat the SchoenbergSociety (of whichshe is a member)in Los Angeles, and premidredit thereon 25th October1989. lt is a short,highly expressive piece in whichAmerican avant-garde and traditionalAzeri musicalprocesses come together. The composertakes John Cage'sidea of a preparedpiano and uses it to achieve sounds and nuancesthat are characteristicof eastern music culture;indeed she believesthat Cage,by meansof the preparedpiano, accidentally managed to approx- imateto easternsound concepts whereas she herself- quiteconsciously - is doing the opposite,incorporating the Europeaninstrument into her own musicaltradition The two vocal cycles demonstrateFnngiz Ali-zade'seastern-style perceptions of time and form with specialclarity. Here contemplativepassages, the meditative penetrationof a sound,a rhythm,a nuance,are suddenlycontrasted with passionately activesections of great virtuosity;here meditationand ecstasyare to be understoodas two poles of a unifiedconception. fhe Three Watercolours,written in 1987 and premidredin Baku, are based on poems by the Azeri poetessNigjar Rafibejli . Frangiz Ali-zadeselected texts that indicatestages in the life of a youngwoman. The composer '1. characterizesthese vocal settingsas follows: The Narcissus- the easilyhurt, ten- der feelingsof youth;2. The Boatman- the playlulelegance and coquetterieof a young woman in love; 3. Expectation- anticipationand passionateyearning for love on the thresholdof maturity.'In these three movementsa processtakes placethat be- gins as a quietdialogue between the voice and flute,rises to livelydeclamation and climaxesin expressivecantilenas around which the flute swirlsvirtuosically. As a counterweightthere are three movementsfor pianoalone: these, with their sparing, consciouslylimited musical material, their unrelentingslow tempo and quietdynamic level,might be thoughtto be remrniscentof minimalmusic, but havetheir roots equally in easternperceptions of cyclictime, circulating within itself. These piano sounds are incorporatedinto the processesof the vocal movements;they are individualizedor pre- sentedas subjectivelyexperienced time, but then returnin their'timeless' stale. Over- all,therefore, an areaof conflictingtemporal proportions is created,which may alsobe a musicalimage of theway the worldis perceived. From Japanese Poetry was writtenin 1990 to texts by the Japanesepoet lsikawi Takuboku.This cycleconsists of threemovements, which follow each other without a 6 break and form a musicalunity. The psychologicallymotivated treatment of tone colours,which is typicalof FrangtzAli-zade, becomes immediately apparent in the first movement:one sphereis representedby the peacefullyadvancing chords from the harpsichord,which correspond to the wordsof lonelinessand grief;the othersphere is representedby the figurativepassages from the piano,an image of the agitatedspirit- ual lifethat liesbehind the words.The themeof the secondmovement is painfulme- mories,which break forth almost violently in the piano'svirtuoso passagework; at the end,when the textspeaks of homesickness,this passagework gives way to a long-held cantilena(soprano and vibraphone).The thirdmovement begins with a sort of funeral march. Repetitivefrgures and arabesques- perhapsa distantreminiscence of Azeri music- leadinto the text.Here the imaginaryhero sees himself as a marginalizedand broodingpersonality, represented musically by a grotesquedance. Finally the 'funeral march'returns.This cycle is, so lo speak,a'Winterreise'. Frangiz Ali-zade has dedicat- ed it to SofiaGubaidulina - as she putsit. to commemoratethe factthat the two com- posers,like manyof theircolleagues, were 'scatteredto the windswith the fall of the SovietUnion'. FrangizAli-zade likes to work with compositionalproblems in groupsof pieces.In the set of two pieces enlilled Dilogie (Dilogie / for string quartet [1988] and Dilogie lllor stringquartet and windquintet [1989]) she examinescontrast in the broadestsense of the word- contrastin the musicalmaterial, musical cultures, spiritual positions - and ways to mediatebetween them. In DilogieI we find the iuxtapositionof a slow move- ment and a fast one, the latterentitled 'Variations'. The first movementis characterized by restraintat all levels.Here she makesdo withjust the (alwaysmuted) string sound, pedalpoints, a strikingmotif from the firstviolin which is latertaken up in inversionby the celloand slightlymodified, and a similarlystriking swinging figure in the middle parts.This economicalmaterial is developedinto an ever densertexture of sound, which- approximatelyat the GoldenSection - culminatesin a bar of chordsbefore slowlysinking back into itself. The secondmovement is constructedin a whollydifferent manner.The title'Variations' refers not onlyto the duet presentedat the beginningby the two violinsin highposition but alsoto instrumentalcombinations (of two, threeor four players),of tone coloursand of playingtechniques. ln this mannera processis begunthat risesto a very expressivequartet sonority, gradually recedes and then cul- minatesin an ecstaticsection lrom all the instruments,in the highestregister. Then we hear staticsonorities, the slow tempo of which refersback to the firstmovement; in conclusionthere is a furtherpassage ol great intensity.lt is not the musicalmaterial but ratherthe tensionalrelationships of these two quartet movementsthat correspondto time proportionsand emotionalprocesses characteristic of the Azeri mugam. The two works called Crossing - Crossing/ for clarinetand vibraphone/celesta (1991) and Crossing// for eleven performers(1992) - are a continuationof the two Dilogies.Crossing // beginspeacefully with a pedal pointwhich is intenuptedat regular intervalsby littleg/lssandr. New elementsare graduallyadded - a sighingfigure heard threetimes in the cello;repetitions of the pedalpoint