Ayşen Ulucan photo:Peter Mould

A very special evening with Ayşen Ulucan at Christ Church

Ayşen Ulucan returns to Christ Church, St Leonards, for a violin recital of early classical and modern music this Saturday, 22 February, at 7pm. Students and under-18s get free entrance, so it’s just the thing for students of the violin, writes Christopher Cormack.

Hastings Philharmonic’s first chamber music concert of the season features the wonderful Ayşen Ulucan performing an exciting solo violin recital, which explores all the different colours, techniques and timbres that the violin has to offer in three very contrasting pieces: Bach’s memorable C major Sonata, Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin and contemporary Turkish composer Özkan Manav’s Horon!

Bach’s Solo Sonata in C Major has a ‘colossal’ fugue based on his chorale Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott. It is a work that Ayşen has been wanting to play for quite some time; “it’s a challenge for every violinist”, she says, “and that’s the beauty of it”.

The Bartók piece was commissioned and performed by Yehudi Menuhin in 1944 in New York, one of the composer‘s last works. It is one of the ‘milestones’ of the violin repertoire, and Ayşen is very excited to be playing it in its entirety.

Manav’s Horon! is named after a very fast folk dance, a circle dance common to the Black Sea regions of Turkey. Ayşen says she wanted to play it here in Hastings — as a salute from her homeland to her chosen home. There is a plethora of folk melodies and rhythms from Turkey which inspired composers such as Bartók, who visited Turkey in 1936 to study and collect folk music.

Ayşen Ulucan:Solo Violin Recital Saturday 22 February, 7pm. Christ Church, Silchester Rd, Saint Leonards-on-Sea TN38 0JB. Tickets: adults £15.50 and £12.50 (plus booking fee), available online or on the door.

FREE ENTRY for students and under 18s! All parents, violin teachers and music teachers please take note!

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