The National Youth Orchestra of Germany: East meets West
This concert with the National Youth Orchestra of Germany under the direction of Howard Griffith offers a range of exciting encounters between East and West, including music by Mozart and Ravel which incorporates sounds from Turkey and Morocco in a totally natural way. A special highlight is the breathtaking percussionist Murat Coşkun. The press were delighted: “The concert hall became a melting pot – rarely has crossover sounded so intelligent.”
Exotic, sensual and above all sophisticated: the concert presented by the National Youth Orchestra of Germany under the direction of Howard Griffiths is in a class of its own! While it is a truism that East and West have cultivated a lively exchange for centuries, seldom has that tradition of cross-fertilisation been so brightly spotlighted.
How many in Germany know the Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun, whose music is so obviously influenced by French Impressionism? Or the Moroccan-born French composer Maurice Ohana, whose Livre des Prodiges (Book of Marvels) provides us with something of a motto for this striking concert bridging the Christian and Muslim cultures. In any case, there is an abundance of musical marvels to be discovered in this programme. Let’s pause for a moment in Morocco: that the music of North Africa has inspired numerous composers with Spanish legacy is evident in the performance of familiar works by Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel.
Yet the next generation’s elite orchestral musicians aren’t satisfied merely with tracing East-West musical connections of the past. For its interpretation of the overture to Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail the German Youth Orchestra has come up with something quite special. The ensemble will be joined by percussion and frame drum virtuoso Murat Coşkun.
© 2013 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
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