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The Waltz – Ecstasy and Mysticism: Concerto Koln/Sarband (album cover)

The Waltz – Ecstasy and Mysticism: Concerto Koln/Sarband (Archiv 4765-02)

St. Paul, Minn. — Since 1941, it's been a tradition to ring in the New Year with Strauss waltzes. That's why I thought this would be the perfect time to share this new recording which puts some familiar waltz music in a whole new light.

"The Waltz – Ecstasy and Mysticism" is the latest collaboration between Concerto Koln and Sarband. They perform recognizable waltzes by Mozart, Beethoven, Lanner and Strauss, but on this recording, these waltzes sound much more exotic because they're placed alongside works by the 18th century Ottoman Turkish composer Dede Efendi and his contemporaries.

Last year these two groups produced, "Dream of the Orient," an international best-seller that made it to the front page of The New York Times. That musical quest traveled back and forth between Europe and the Ottoman Empire. This journey is just as fascinating.

The idea for this project is a simple one according to Sarband founder, and medieval scholar Vladimir Ivanoff. All these pieces he explains, are in ¾ time. That metre however, has a different significance in each culture representing divine power and the harmony of the universe.

As dancing became a more social ritual, European music history has since forgotten about the philosophical basis of that time signature. But, Ivanoff says, "In the Orient, the religious dimension is still there." In Islamic mysticism for example, rituals are still performed to music exactly in those metres. So the works on this CD represent both a sort of Viennese waltz ecstasy, and the mysticism and religious ecstasy associated with the Ottoman culture.

What I really like about this recording is how Concerto Koln and Sarband literally place these two contrasting, yet similar ideas side by side. It would have been easy to have a block of European works on one half of the CD and the Turkish pieces on the other half, but these two ensembles give us the opportunity to compare these two different worlds back to back. One moment my mind was swirling to Beethoven's German Dance No. 9, the next I'm whisked away to an exotic land by the percussive sounds of Beethoven's Turkish contemporary, Dimitrie Cantemir. Just as I'm thinking I'd like to hear that intriguing transition again, Beethoven's German Dance No. 10 follows, this time with additional percussion.

On this recording Concerto Koln director Werner Ehrhardt felt it was important to show how the European waltz changed over time. So he chose certain works by Mozart, Beethoven, Joseph Lanner and finally the elder Johann Strauss. Mozart's German dance No. 6 starts off sounding very much like Mozart, soon he incorporates chromatic runs that slide mysteriously up and down, as if anticipating the action in an Oriental movie. Jump ahead to the elder Strauss fifty years later and the atmosphere is lighter, more optimistic.

Part of the mystical experience on this recording has to do with the unusual Middle Eastern instruments.

One of the most prominent of these is an ancient one known as the "ney." It's an end-blown flute made out of a hollow cane or reed that has five or six finger holes.

The kanun is an unusual string instrument that sits on the player's knees. The left hand adjusts the pegs to change the pitch, and the melody is played with the right hand. You might say it's the piano of Turkish music because he string produces a single note, but it's played more like a harp or guitar. When used in an orchestral setting it becomes the lead instrument, sweeping up all the other instruments along the way.

When heard together on Turkish composer Dede Efendi's, "Son Yuruk Semai," these instruments produce a very hypnotic effect.

Two-hundred-and-fifty years ago two cultures collided and were inspired to produce works of art for very different reasons. That story is told by Concerto Koln and Sarband on, "The Waltz – Ecstasy and Mysticism." The waltz became popular in Europe because the dancers whirled and twirled into a state of ecstasy. This recording may very well have the same effect on you.