Let the Music Wash

By Steven Ritter, "Classical CD Reviews" - Audiofile Audition - USA
Friday, January 23, 2009

Listen first, and suppress any preconceptions about this soothing disc

For her exemplary efforts to classical music and to Gallo in particular, the label has awarded Turkish flutist Sefika Kutluer the honor of having all her future albums designated as “Golden Edition” issues.

This is all well and good to my mind, being a long time fan of Ms. Kutluer, whose fantastic flute often hovers under the radar of some of the more well-known artists recording for more aggressive labels.

But she refuses to be categorized, and records the kinds of music that mean the most to her, or to what any specific advisor thinks she should be recording. This is replete with promise and frustration, the former because we often get music (like on this album) that we would not normally consider, and the latter because we all have our favorite pieces that we would love to hear her play.

This is not an exciting album. For that, there are many other Kutluer releases that provide ample documentation of her abilities in the fireworks and barn-burning departments. This release is ruminative, relaxed, mystical, and contemplative, dedicated to the spirit if not the person of Mevlana, or as he is more commonly known in the West - Rumi (1207-73).

He may have been the greatest poet of his age, a Sunni Islamic jurist and theologian, and the very name is an appellation referring to the fact that he lived in an area called “Rum” (Rome) as it was once part of the Byzantine Empire, at least as the West refers to it. (In fact, no one in the Byzantine Empire would have known what you were talking about if you called them “Byzantines”, the shortened name of Byzantium, a small cattle town that became the foundation of the great city of Constantinople, now Istanbul. They always thought of themselves as “Romans”, and continued to do so long after the fall of Rome in the west).

After Rumi’s family migrated west he lived most of his life in what is today Turkey, in the town of Konya, producing the works that would make him famous, perhaps the crown of Persian literature.

The “Whirling Dervishes” and Mawlawīyah Sufi Order were founded after his death. Rumi always emphasized the pursuit of art, music, and literature as means of approaching God.

Though he was confidently writing within the traditions of Islam, his legacy is more questionable in those circles. Some see him as a bridge between East and West, and indeed his popularity is very great even in the United States.

Many see in his spirituality more of a connection with the ancient Christian Greek fathers, while some in Islam reject aspects of Sufism as heretical. Suffice it to say that Rumi’s influence is great, and will continue to be controversial according to one’s own worldview. But for our purposes, does the disc in question evoke this Sufi spirit?

If you are looking for an obvious in-your-face mélange of orientalisms and overt remnants of purely “Turkish” flavoring, this will probably not meet the criteria. And I doubt this was the intention of any of the composers on this disc, who are instead trying to use aspects of traditional Sufi music (melodic and rhythmic elements) to portray in Western guise (for that is what an orchestra and modern flute do) the sensual and whimsical nature of Rumi’s philosophy.

Some of these people, like Ilyas Mirzayev, absorbed much of jazz as their influences, something miles away from Sufism, yet is able to incorporate subtle aspects of this influence in three beautifully contrived pieces. And the romantic and folk-like elements of Arif Melikov’s Concertino has these ears even pealing back influences emitting from the French Les Six; but all through the work we hear a certain Sufi bent of melody and tone that provide us with a key to how to listen to this music—without preconceptions.

In fact, before you read the excellent notes or hit the web for articles on Sufism and Rumi, carefully listen to this disc several times and let the music wash over you. It may not be the greatest you will ever hear, but its perspective is fresh and alluring and certainly calming and ingratiating.

And of course with Kutluer it is always about the sound, one of the warmest flute sounds you will ever hear. Sonics and projection are first rate in this issue, the Prague Virtuosi offering palpably contended support.

ILYAS MIRZAYEV: Overture “Yunus Emre”; Flute Concerto “From Mevlana to Today”; Dede Efendi Gulnihal; EKREM ZEKI UN: At the Tomb of Yunus; ARIF MELIKOV: Flute Concertino – Sefika Kutluer, flute/ Prague Virtuosi/ Oldrich Vlcek, conductor – Gallo 1266, 54:13 **** [Distr. by Albany].