The Ottoman Four Seasons
This concert celebrates the resonance of different cultures. In addition to works by Antonio Vivaldi, the Australian Chamber Orchestra features music of the Ottoman Empire alongside original works by Egyptian-Australian oud virtuoso and composer Joseph Tawadros.
There is a profound symbiosis between the cultures of Venice and Islam, as evidenced by countless artworks, relics and traditions. In a book accompanying the 2007 Metropolitan Museum exhibition Venice and the Islamic World, 828–1797, Stefano Carboni, who was curator and administrator of the Department of Islamic Art, wrote:
“The artistic consequences of the dynamic relationship that Venice forged with its Islamic trading partners, especially the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, the Ottomans of Turkey, and the Safavids of Iran, were felt over nearly a thousand-year period. The same merchant galleys that carried spices, soap, cotton, and industrial supplies from the bazaars of the Islamic Near East to the markets of Venice also brought with them luxurious carpets, velvets, silks, glass, porcelain, gilded bookbindings, illustrated manuscripts, and inlaid metalwork. Not surprisingly, these and other portable works of Islamic art, which were often superior in quality to what was available in Europe, made an indelible impression upon artistic taste and production in Venice. From the medieval to the Baroque eras, Venetians acquired Islamic art and adapted and imitated its techniques. In turn, albeit to a lesser extent, the arts of Venice became of interest to the Islamic world.”
That so much visual art, so many textiles and foods resulted from this rapport comes as little surprise. The consequences of this symbiosis on music are harder to discern from a composer’s manuscript, but when performed in a collaboration such as this, the not-insubstantial links become clear.
Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons come from a 1725 set of concertos entitled The Contest of Harmony and Invention. Of the 230 or so concertos he wrote for the violin, these four have acquired a special place in the repertoire, celebrated for their recognizable melodies, their virtuosity and innovation, and for being vividly programmatic. This is illustrated not only through the music, but in seasonal sonnets and scenic descriptions that Vivaldi wrote to accompany the score.
In Vivaldi’s Concerto No. 1 in E Major, “Spring,” birdsong, flowing fountains, and rustic pastoral dances frame a gentle middle movement in which the murmur of waving branches and leaves accompany a sleeping goatherd and his dog. In the Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, “Summer,” everything languishes in the extreme heat except for a few birds. The turbulent north wind draws storms ever closer until thunder interrupts the buzz of insects. In the finale, the storm breaks.
In Concerto No. 3 in F Major, “Autumn,” a village celebration leaves one drunkard tumbling into the gutter, while the middle movement portrays the strange dreams of sleeping drunks. The finale is a hunt — the game is set loose, guns fire, dogs chase, and the fleeing beast dies. Concerto No. 4 in F Minor, “Winter” brings horrid winds from which one must run and stamp their feet to keep warm. There is brief respite by a cozy fireplace, but in the finale one slips on the ice before a stormy battle of the winds.
The inclusion of Joseph Tawadros’ exquisitely crystalline oud line and the zing of James Tawadros’ riq lifts these concertos out of the Western concert hall, and places them back into the Venice that Vivaldi himself would have inhabited, with an abundance of sounds and flavors from the East around every street corner.
The Near East served as direct inspiration for Vivaldi’s opera Bajazet, as well as the Violin Concerto in D Major nicknamed “Il Grosso Mogul,” for the Mughal emperors of India. After hearing Vivaldi’s use of modes and improvisational solo writing, the similarities with two Ottoman works on this program become unmistakable. The concert opens with a Middle Eastern improvised instrumental prelude, Nihavend Taqsīm, a form that continues to be especially popular in Egypt and Turkey today. Tanburi Angeli, a Greek musician living in Istanbul in the latter part of the 17th century, was renowned for playing the tanbur — a form of long-necked lute from the same instrumental family as the oud. His Ottoman march Maka-m-i-Rehavi Çember-i-Koca pre-empts the hunt of Vivaldi’s “Autumn.”
Joseph Tawadros: About My Music
I have always found that the music of the Baroque shared many similarities with Arabic music: chord progressions, its diatonic nature, its use of ornamentation and phrasing. This can be clearly seen in Vivaldi’s music, and this concept has formed the basis for these collaborative performances of The Four Seasons alongside my own music with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
The pieces I’ve written come from a turbulent period in my life. The year 2012 saw the passing of my beautiful mother, Rose. Then in 2013, my father Nabil also passed away. Both were wonderful characters and storytellers. It is not easy losing anyone, let alone two very inspiring and encouraging figures within the span of a year.
At times like this, my oud is my refuge, my comfort, and true friend. And, although it is already a very big part of my everyday life, it is also a metaphysical outlet and healer, a link between my reality and my aspirations. Its charismatic sound reminds me of my parents: my father’s voice in the bass and my mother’s in the treble.
The album from which many of the works on this program are taken is Permission to Evaporate. The music covers a range of diverse voices, compounding all that I’ve learned in my decades on this planet and converting those experiences to sound — a compositional diary, if you will.
I believe the strongest link in this collaboration is the energy, passion, and shared vision of this music. It’s not about placing it in any genre, culture or time, but how it moves us as humans and can be shared together regardless of our backgrounds.