I’m not sure what the point of the title is; not only could this collection have been chosen completely at random, but none of the usual culprits (Mosolov’s Iron Foundry, Honegger’s Pacific 231, Antheil’s Ballet Méchanique) is here. Even Prokofiev might have been more aptly represented by The Steel Step rather than the Scythian Suite, an essay in primitivism. And La Valse? The Perfect Fool?! Ogelala (another primitivist tract)? Yes, all of this music was composed during the interwar years of the 20th century, but then, why not call it “The Roaring Twenties” (more or less)?
Okay, enough of the concept, because the performances are just brilliant, and so if you like the program on purely musical grounds this is a remarkably fine collection, exceptionally well recorded. There are some items here that never have been better played, including Ogelala and The Perfect Fool. The Scythian Suite is suitably hard-edged and glittering, La Valse is alternately succulent and very powerful, and that mad chase fugue in The Miraculous Mandarin seldom has been more impressively projected, with each orchestral section really digging into the music and playing its heart out.
The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic may not be one of the world’s more familiar ensembles, but on evidence here it deserves to be much better known, as does conductor Sascha Goetzel. Despite the “concept”, the music encompasses a very wide range of styles, and the fact that conductor and orchestra project every note with such passionate conviction is most impressive. Now I just have to figure out where in my collection I’m going to file this. “M” for machine?
