None the less, listeners are not wrong to recall Debussy in Koechlin’s almost gracefully naturalistic musical idiom, especially in the central Nocturne, for Koechlin admired Debussy as an inspired composer, a single bar of whose music was enough "to open the gates of the enchanted gardens in which we may perhaps be allowed to pick entirely different flowers from the ones that he himself picked". The third movement opens on a playful note and reveals a little of Koechlin’s interest in the early cinema, the zany writing for the bassoon coming close to recalling the soundtrack of a Charlie Chaplin film.

But Koechlin never wrote film music, in which respect he differed from Alexandre Tansman (1897–1986). Tansman was born in Poland but moved to Paris in 1919 and did much to promote the cause of 20th-century guitar music. In 1939, with the help of a fund established by Chaplin, he fled to the United States. In Los Angeles he got to know Stravinsky, who influenced him as a composer. He supported himself by writing soundtracks for various films, including Hollywood productions such as "Sister Kenny". He returned to Paris in 1946 and it was here, in 1952, that he wrote this three-movement Sonata for bassoon and piano, a piece which, in Zeynep Köylüoglu’s view, operates more on a surface level than the pieces by Saint-Saëns and Koechlin included in the present CD. As the medium of the cinema demands, it is geared to outward effect, while also taking account of the bassoon’s full range of expressive possibilities.

Another piece that is laden with effects is "Interférences 1" for bassoon and piano by the French conductor, pianist, teacher and composer Roger Boutry (*1932). The title of the piece is programmatical. It consists of an intense and, in Zeynep Köylüoglu’s words, "crazy" dialogue between the two instruments in which the music cascades wildly up and down. Boutry has filled the movements with a wide range of rhythmic and metrical subtleties resulting in musical "interferences".

The work-list of the prolific French composer Jean Françaix (1912–97) includes not only operas, film scores and ballets but also chamber works for relatively neglected instruments such as the electric guitar, percussion and bassoon, instruments which, loud and rasping, he described as an "orchestra from hell". In spite of this, the Andante from his Two Pieces for bassoon and piano is extremely harmonious, even offering Zeynep Köylüoglu "pure relaxation at the end of a long day’s work, when one returns home and wants to unwind". The second piece, "Petit divertissement militaire", likewise reflects the composer’s wish to write music that gives pleasure, in this case doing so in a carefree way. The music is light and avoids any climaxes. A year before his death, Françaix achieved his aim with minimal means.

In Cengiz Tanç (*1934), Zeynep Köylüoglu has chosen to profile a largely unknown composer from her native Turkey. Tanç studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and is influenced by American postmodernism. His Partita for unaccompanied bassoon recalls the mood of Turkish music, while containing elements associated with classical Modernism, such as its many minor thirds. It was written in 1987 for a competition in Istanbul. A very free piece, it seems to be designed as a rhythmic exercise for bassoon players. Although it has no immediate associations with folk music for Zeynep Köylüoglu, she none the less feels that it has an inner connection with Turkey: "This music is like a smell for me, full of memories."

Christoph Broermann
(Translation: Stewart Spencer)