CD Review | Continuum — Didem Bașar; I Musici de Montréal

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Continuum

Didem Bașar, kanun and composer; I Musici de Montréal, Jean-François Rivest, conductor; Patrick Graham, percussion

Centre des musiciens du monde, 2024

Bașar

Montreal kanun (Turkish zither) virtuoso Didem Başar and the chamber orchestra I Musici de Montréal, conducted by Jean-François Rivest with the versatile percussionist Patrick Graham, have just completed a curious musical exploration.

The album Continuum, produced by the Centre des musiciens du monde, includes compositions for kanun and string orchestra as well as arrangements of traditional pieces that sum up this artist’s journey between her native Turkey and her adopted city of Montreal, where she found the context conducive to the development of this creative project. It takes the form of a musical challenge to continually push back the limits of her beloved instrument by exploring the possibilities it affords in exploring avenues of dialogue between Eastern and Western classical music.

Building on the success of her debut album, Levantine Rhapsody (Opus Prize for Best World Music Album 2020), Başar continues to develop and deepen her musical approach.

The album opens with a concerto for kanun and strings in three movements, setting the scene for an instrumental dialogue between violin, cello and kanun on compositions based on Turkish makams (modes) and rhythmic variations inspired by the chromatic richness of Western music.

It has to be said, the experimental nature of the pieces in this preliminary musical project reflect its exploratory nature into uncharted territory, hence the moments of dissonance to be found in the first part of the work. On the other hand, the arrival of percussion in the second part enables us to move beyond this to discover moments of exquisite communion between the three featured instruments, notably in the sublime piece Cry, dedicated to all the innocent people who suffer within murderous conflicts.

Translation by Gianmarco Segato