Fazıl Say en het Mozarteumorchester in Mozart, Haydn, Schubert en Say

Fazıl Say and the Mozarteum Orchestra

The virtuoso Fazıl Say is not only a pianist but also a composer. He moves between the Turkish world and the West, and tries, whenever possible, to build bridges between different cultures. A few seasons ago, this idiosyncratic musician was a Spotlight Artist at the Concertgebouw. Now he is coming with the Mozarteum Orchestra from Salzburg, an orchestra whose founding was witnessed by Mozart's widow and son. Say loves the classical repertoire; he is a passionate advocate for Mozart's music.

Mozart, Haydn and Schubert

Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven admired each other's work, and Schubert adored the three classical patriarchs. Haydn considered Mozart the greatest composer he knew; Mozart called him 'Papa Haydn'. Schubert sighed in his diary: 'Immortal Mozart, how many benevolent expressions of a light and better life you have engraved in our souls!' The fact that Schubert was one of the pallbearers at Beethoven's funeral brings the story full circle. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 features a bittersweet Adagio, and in the midst of the Sturm und Drang of his Lamentation Symphony, Haydn quotes a lament—the roots of early Romanticism clearly lay in the Classical period. Schubert's beautiful Second Symphony builds upon this. Moreover, Say performs as soloist in a work of his own: The Moving Mansion , a rhapsody for piano and orchestra based on a famous story about Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. This nature lover had a house moved a few meters—to save a plane tree. Intriguing.