Fazil Say, Paganini Variations
Pianist and composer Fazil Say was born in Ankara, Turkey in 1970. He performs much of the standard repertoire in concert appearances and his recordings include mainstays such as all of the Beethoven sonatas. His performance persona tends to be eccentric and flamboyant. He often sings along and conducts himself with his free hand, for example. (I always had both hands full when performing, but Say’s technique clearly surpasses my own.)
Say also likes to mix jazz improvisations into his performances. And his written compositions lean strongly in the direction of jazz. There’s an exuberance in his writing and playing that’s hard not to like.
I expect I will be featuring one of Say’s videos sometime soon, but this performance is by Nicolai Gerassimez. We used his video of the Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 3 in our 7 Days to Beethoven course and in Performance Pick No. 23, in case you’re wondering where you’ve seen him before. (A snippet of that performance appears at the end of this video.)
And hopefully by now you recognize the theme by Paganini. In this Friday Performance series, we have had Paganini’s theme (his own Caprice No. 24), and variations by Liszt, Rachmaninov and, more recently, Lutoslawski. It is a very popular theme for composers wishing to create a set of variations.
Gerassimez certainly captures the exuberance that Say wrote into this work, if not all the eccentricity. It’s kind of a wild ride made a bit wilder by the camera moves and video editing, which, according to the credits, was done by Gerassimez himself.
