The young Turkish pianist AyseDeniz Gokcin made her concert
debut at the age of nine, has already played at international festivals in
Moscow, Beijing and Istanbul, and won the diploma prize at the Vladimir
Horowitz International Piano Competition in 1999. She has just completed her
masters at the Royal Academy of Music and seems to have decided to celebrate by
making something of a splash. She has recorded a group of pieces which she is
releasing in Itunes and other Digital Music outlets.
Now, I have a confession. When Pink Floyd played the
Manchester Palace in 1977 when I was a student, I didn’t go to see them. I can’t
remember the last time I listened to Dark
Side of the Moon, and I don’t possess any other Pink Floyd records. The
only song I recognised on first listening was Another brick in the wall.
I am not sure that AyseDeniz Gockin has quite the same grasp
of structure that Liszt does and she has a tendency, in moments of stress, to
fall back on standard piano figurations, arpeggios in the right hand, jazz
piano in the left. These pieces sound rather like improvisations which have simply
been notated. And I think that AyseDeniz Gockin the arranger needs to stretch AyseDeniz
Gockin the pianist a little more. These are attractive and personable
arrangements, but they do not quite put the pianist at full stretch the way
Liszt does.
There is also a problem with her model. Liszt’s Dante Sonata dates from his middle
period, when he had settled in Weimar. Whereas his piano transcriptions of popular
melodies, and his rock star life-style, date from an earlier period in his
life. Also, the Dante Sonata isn’t a
transcription, it is an original work though based on something Liszt wrote
earlier.
But, if you put aside all the pseudo philosophising and just
listen, then the movements are rather fun. There are some lovely moments, and
some stunning barn-storming ones. I was very struck by the opening of the
second piece which seems to be rather Liszt meets cool jazz. And the
arrangement of Another brick in the wall
in the third movement as Mefistofelean fantasy is simply stunning.
In fact, on repeated listening, I ended up assigning
Faustian characters to the movements, I rather though that we started with
Marguerite, then moved on to Faust himself, who is a cool dude, till finally
Mefistofeles brings everything to a barn-storming conclusion.
I’d be interested to know what Pink Floyd enthusiast thought
of this piece, would they appeal or appal. But certainly AyseDeniz Gockin has
the making of rather a fun piece for ending concerts.
Further details from AyseDeniz Gockin's website.
i thought it was stunning and will hunt down the EP. i'm a huge Pink Floyd fan and this almost takes me back to early albums when the band were experimenting with music and sound. Richard Wright composed some truly beautiful piano pieces and also some 'out there' passages, Gockin has certainly brought those qualities into her interpretation. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteAs a Pink Floyd enthusiast I think this is great. At first I found the initial lead part a bit simplistic but I like the way it builds and becomes more complex. I'm not a classical music fan but now I'm interested in checking out some Liszt! And here's my recommendation to you – Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' album from 1975. A work of genius.
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