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Invited to the Concerts de midi in Liège, pianist Cansu Sanlidag is preparing to release her 1st solo CD, 24 March 2025. Radio programme: ‘Entrée des artistes’ on RCF Liège presented by Christiane de Moffarts
Cansu Sanlidag, a pianist from Izmir, performs this Thursday 10 April at the Concerts de midi in Liège with Philippe Graffin on violin. The musician, a graduate of the Universität für Musik and darstellende Kunst Wien and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, is the guest on this programme. She talks about this forthcoming concert, in which she and Philippe Graffin are committed to bringing to light forgotten pieces, in particular those by Eugène Ysaÿe that have never been performed before. Cansu Sanlidag also lifts the veil on her 1ᵉʳ solo album ‘The Noctural Poet’, recorded by Pavane Records and due for release in early April. A musical project in which she showcases Philipp Scharwenka, a poet of dance and sound in the tradition of German Romanticism. In the first part of this podcast, Lorenzo Ferinaiu gives us a sneak preview of the 2025-2026 programme of the Concerts de midi Liège.
‘The Nocturnal Poet, 20 March 2025 - Laurent Petit-Louis Selected by the editors’ of ConcertoNet was awarded to this album
Among the Scharwenka siblings, the name of Xaver (1850-1924) is perhaps a little more often encountered than that of his elder sibling, Philipp (1847-1917). It's true that, despite his success as a composer in the United States, the latter was more involved in theory and teaching, directing for almost a quarter of a century the Scharwenka Conservatory (now the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory) that he founded in Berlin with his brother, also a pianist, who, for his part, pursued a career as a virtuoso composer.
This unexpected album helps to make up for an unjust oversight, offering a very convincing overview of his piano works, which make up the bulk of a catalogue that also includes songs, two symphonies, a concerto (for violin - which can be found on Hyperion - but, curiously, not for piano), a few other orchestral works and chamber music, mostly composed after 1900. The piano works on this album, on the other hand, were published in the 1890s.
Recordings have done some justice to Philipp Scharwenka's chamber music, but this is not at all the case with his piano music, which remains largely terra incognita, apart from a first volume recorded by Luís Pipa for Toccata Classics in 2020, but which has not yet been followed up. Klavierstücke, Intermezzi, ballads, rhapsodies: an heir or epigone of Brahms? Probably more of a simple acquaintance, for here we hear more of the legacy of Schumann, as with the young Strauss a few years earlier, but also of Chopin, more in spirit than in technique or piano writing - he was born not far from Poznan (then Prussian Posen).
While the name may not attract the eye, the ear too can easily miss this art, which is anything but spectacular, sparing of great expressive or pianistic gestures and not indulging in complex harmonic research. Intimate, conceived, if not perhaps for amateurs, at least for something other than the concert hall, with its subtle play of light and shade, its inexhaustible delicacy, its enveloping Gemütlichkeit, this music of the fireside, of cocooning, as we would say today, willingly adopts the tone of confidence, tinged with a hint of melancholy or nostalgia.
The album is entitled ‘The Nocturnal Poet’, a fitting title for the six pieces in Scharwenka's last piano collection, the Abendstimmungen (‘Evening’ in the usual translation, but one could try ‘Vesper Atmospheres’). Though untitled and containing only tempo indications, these pages are nonetheless charged with expression, and one cannot help but be struck, for example, by the interrogative aspect of the third, like an echo of Schumann's ‘The Prophet Bird’. Similarly, the character of the vast Scherzo from the Klavierstücke of Op. 107 is more akin to a march of David's companions than a light entertainment. The Ballade Op. 94, which has something of a narrative quality to it, does not betray its name - and it is a story that ends badly. Only the First of the two Rhapsodies from Op. 85 indulges in a little more wild romanticism, but it's not quite the outbursts of Brahms' Op. 79.
But to bring out the best in this endearing world, there has to be a piano and a pianist. As for the instrument, the Bösendorfer chosen for this recording is captivating for its half-tones, the fullness of its never-flashy high notes and the mellowness of its low notes, which make you want to curl up in a good armchair. As for the performer, Cansu Sanlıdag does not overplay his hand, takes his time, shows great sensitivity and deploys a supple touch that seems to round out the angles of this music, which is already far from angular.
As perfection is not of this world, it should first be noted that, contrary to what is stated, this is not entirely a ‘world premiere’, since three of the pieces in Opus 107 have already been published by Olympia in 1999. Secondly, although the booklet is very interesting, it is marred by a number of odd turns of phrase (‘afflictions cardiaques’, ‘la paire Liszt et Wagner’) and approximations (Arthur Nikkish). Above all, the album is very short, whereas it would certainly have been possible to include even the other Rhapsody from Opus 85 or the other three pieces from Opus 97.
Musikerlebnis hinter bröckelnden Mauern, april 2024
‘Together with two young soloists, the Turkish pianist Cansu Sanlidag and the Belgian cellist Pierre Fontenelle, the large audience was treated to a varied programme: Fontenelle first played the nostalgic ‘Elegy for Cello and Orchestra’ by contemporary Belgian composer Dirk Brossé, followed by a lesser-known, deeply moving cello piece by Max Bruch. ‘Kol Nidrei’ is based on the Jewish prayer that is recited on the eve of the highest holiday, Yom Kippur. During the Nazi era, Bruch, who died in 1920, was wrongly labelled a Jew because of this composition and his music was no longer performed.
Cansu Sanlidag then enchanted the audience with Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, which many consider to be his most beautiful. The concert concluded with Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldy's tempestuous ‘Italian Symphony’ - a welcome reminiscence of warmth and the south in view of the cold weather outside. The audience thanked the soloists and the young orchestra with long-lasting applause for a wonderful musical experience.’
« QUELQUES MUSIQUES PEU COMMUNES » : ARRIEU – CANAL- GRANVAL – SCHARWENKA, 5 April 2025 - Stéphane Loison
Who knows Philipp Scharwenka? He was a German composer at the end of the 19th century (1847-1917). His work can be divided into two periods: during his youth and maturity, he composed genre pieces, especially for piano, and later began to write symphonic works and chamber music. His style is an extension of Schumann, Brahms and Chopin! He did not take part in the great movements that shook up music in Austria and Germany. It's the young pianist Cansu Sanlidag who makes this wonderful gift - The Natural Poet, (Pavane ADW7605) - With great skill and virtuosity, she introduces us to this astonishing composer. You can discover her and hear her album live on 09 April 2025 at the Espace Bernanos, 4 rue du Havre 75009 Paris, at 12.45 pm. A magnificent album!
ÉMISSION : “L’INVITÉE DE LA MATINALE” LA PIANISTE CANSU SANLIDAG - 25 MIN, 4 April 2025 - Cécile Poss
« Philipp Scharwenka, The Nocturnal Poet » par Cansu Sanlidag sur le label Pavane, 5 April 2025 - Michel Dutrieue
Çağıl Cansu Şanlıdağ is known for her expressive playing and virtuosity. She has built a career marked by precision and musical sensitivity, which has seen her perform on many European stages. This programme highlights previously unpublished piano works by Philipp Scharwenka (1847-1917), forgotten treasures of music history that are finally revealed, bearing witness to her elegance and refinement. Philipp Scharwenka (brother of the composer and music teacher Xaver Scharwenka), a composer and music teacher of Polish origin, became a key figure in nineteenth-century Berlin music. A distinguished pianist and respected teacher, he co-founded the Scharwenka Conservatory. His legacy is a melancholy and dramatic body of work that bears witness to a deep inner life. His influence, though discreet, crossed borders from Berlin to the United States. His music combines the worlds of Schumann, Brahms and Wagner, to which he adds Polish idioms inherited from the art of Chopin. True to his artistic vision, Scharwenka stayed away from the frenzy of Berlin society in the last years of his life. An aesthetic retreat that does not indicate ignorance of modernity, but a refusal to ‘pursue novelty for its own sake’. The Abendstimmungen, dedicated to Moritz Mayer-Mahr, are perhaps Scharwenka's most intimate musical expression. These nocturnal works offer an introspective journey, sometimes calm, sometimes agitated, in which the dark night sky is sometimes illuminated by the fleeting light of a star piercing the darkness. Cansu Sanlidag is a pianist renowned for her expressive playing and virtuosity, with which she captivates audiences on various European stages. Trained at the State Conservatory of Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, she perfected her art under the guidance of Dalia Ouziel and Aleksandar Madzarat at the Royal Conservatory of Mons and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She further enhanced her performance skills by attending the postgraduate programme at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Markus Hadulla. Cansu Sanlidag has performed as soloist with renowned ensembles such as I Musici Bruscellencis, the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Her passion for forgotten musical treasures has led her to collaborate with violinist Philippe Graffin, unveiling previously unpublished works by Ysaye. A frequent guest at prestigious festivals such as the Music Chapel Festival and the Traces Festival, she also devotes her time to education, teaching at the Near East University and giving lectures on music.
Sorties discographiques de musique classique : de Puccini à Scriabine, découvrez la nouvelle sélection, 7 April 2025 - Pierre Solot
Pavane Records is releasing this CD of solo piano music by German composer Philipp Scharwenka, recorded by pianist Cansu Sanlidag. If we were to make comparisons, it would be easy to find in this music a link with that of Johannes Brahms, in the harmonic colours, the intimacy and the treatment of the rhapsodic pieces, but Scharwenka's music reveals itself to be more raw. The great success of this recording, over and above the delightful Romantic music, is the way Cansu Sanlidag manages to characterise this virtually unfamiliar music in a very natural way, giving both passionate impetus to the virtuoso moments and, above all, a great deal of tenderness to the more intimate outpourings, constantly seeking the warm light rather than the more distant pianistic volubility. The overall impression is one of refined pianistic discourse, nourished by a completely sincere commitment to this music with its overflowing heart.
« ESPACE BERNANOS » : CAGIL CANSU SANLIDAG, 10 April 2025 - Stéphane Loison
To present the album on Philipp Scharwenka - Pavane ADW7605 - recorded by this magnificent young Turkish-Cypriot pianist, her new agency - BSArtist Bettina Sadoux - organised a concert in this beautiful hall at the Espace Bernanos as part of the Pause Musicale series. Cagil Cansu Sanlidag, as we have already written on this website, is a warm and talented pianist. She has designed her recital very intelligently, setting Scharwenka, Reger and Brahms opposite each other. A concert in a very romantic mood, with Brahms's famous Klavierstûcke Op.118, of which she gave a very fine version. Reger's charming Valse impromptu was also very welcome. With an elegant touch, full of sensibility and energy, she introduced the audience to Scharwenka, a composer who has completely disappeared from the concert programme. It's a pity, because her compositions, which lie somewhere between Brahms and Chopin, are truly worth discovering. To have heard them live, under the fingers of Cagil Cansu Sanlidag, shows that this pianist had the right idea to make them heard and to make this recording. Get yours now! Thank you, Madame! The next CAGIL CANSU SANLIDAG / Scharwenka concert will take place in Louvain-La-Neuve on 23 May 2025. The next concert at Espace Bernanos will take place on Wednesday 30 April 2025 at 12:45 pm Sivia Ilves, cello, Samuel Bezzera, piano.
Cansu Şanlıdağ, à propos de Philipp Scharwenka, 27 avril 2025 - Pierre Jean Tribot
Pianist Cansu Şanlıdağ brings us her first disc devoted to works for piano by German composer Philipp Scharwenka (Pavane). This choice is seductive for its editorial originality and the album is convincing for its musical accuracy. Crescendo Magazine wanted to know more and spoke to the artist.
What motivated you to devote an album to Philipp Scharwenka's piano works? Especially for a first album?
The very first time I heard Scharwenka was his Sonata for violin and piano, op. 114. And I remember that moment very clearly: that almost inexplicable physical sensation, as if something opened up in your chest. The kind of reaction you have to a beautiful melody that seems to speak to you directly, without detours.
It wasn't a complex or spectacular piece of music - on the contrary, it had a luminous, almost modest, but overwhelming simplicity. The next thing that struck me was the silence that surrounds it. How could music so sincere, so right, remain in the shadows for so long?
It was clear to me that this composer deserved to be heard again. And at the same time, I liked the idea of starting my recording career with a strong gesture: to make a forgotten but deeply moving voice heard. It was both a choice of the heart and a way of asserting a certain vision of artistic commitment.
How did you discover the composer?
My discovery of Philipp Scharwenka is linked to a rather unexpected path... which began with Eugène Ysaÿe.
I was lucky enough to take part in a project based around a recently rediscovered Poème concertant, a magnificent work that we were able to perform and record with the violinist Philippe Graffin. The poem had been edited by the musicologist Xavier Falques, whose work was absolutely decisive.
The work was dedicated to Irma Sethe - a forgotten but fascinating figure - and it was thanks to the in-depth research of musicologist Marie Cornaz that we discovered who she was. We were so moved by her story and her place in the musical landscape of her time that we decided to pay tribute to her with a concert at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR).
It was in this context, while consulting the scores dedicated to her, that I came across a Sonata by Philipp Scharwenka, also written for her. The discovery of this piece was a real musical shock - and it was from that moment on that my exploration of her work really began.
How did you select the pieces from a catalogue of over 300?
I began by exploring Scharwenka's catalogue without any preconceived ideas, playing, imagining, letting myself be guided by what the music evoked in me. What was important to me was not to represent all the facets of her writing, but to construct a poetic thread, an inner portrait.
Some of the pieces stood out very quickly, almost as a matter of course, for their evocative power, their sincerity and their simple beauty. Little by little, a universe took shape - made up of subtle contrasts, light and shade, lyrical outbursts and suspended moments.
The title of your new album is ‘le poète nocturne’, can you explain why?
The title came about naturally during the recording process. Scharwenka has a very particular way of making silence sing, of letting the music breathe. A kind of modesty of expression, like an inner voice that doesn't need to shine to be moving.
‘Poet’, because his music speaks to the intimate. It doesn't tell stories in the narrative sense, but evokes states of mind, sensations and inner landscapes. And ‘nocturnal’, not just in the musical sense, but because of the soft, almost lunar light that shines through his works.
This is not music that imposes itself, but music that keeps watch - that accompanies you gently, long after it has fallen silent.
The work of Philipp Scharwenka is little known outside of mentions in music histories. Do you think his time is coming?
I'd like to think so. Today there is a real movement of rediscovery, a growing curiosity for forgotten voices, for repertoires that have remained in the shadow of the ‘big names’. And Scharwenka is one of those composers who have not been dismissed because they lack talent - but simply because history, or fashion, has chosen other paths.
His music has everything to appeal to today's audience: it is sincere, accessible without being banal, subtle without being hermetic. But for his time to ‘come’, musicians also need to take up the baton, for the works to circulate, to be replayed and shared.
It's patient work, but deeply inspiring. And if this album can make even a small contribution to that rediscovery, then I'd be delighted.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?
Yes, a second recording project is in the pipeline, different from the first. I'd like to explore several works from the great repertoire, this time moving away from a single composer to delve into broader musical worlds. This project will bring together pieces with choral and contrapuntal textures, varied works that I hope will share the same emotional depth. What is particularly close to my heart, and what I consider to be the ultimate goal of music, is to make people feel emotions, whatever they may be. For me, each note and each piece of music must touch, move and convey the deep sincerity that I feel when I play it.
Philipp Scharwenka a trouvé sa pianiste, 31 avril 2025 - Jean-Marc Warszawski
Recorded from 26 to 28 October 2024, Mons, Salle Arsonic.
Philippe Scharwenka, born in 1847, pianist and composer, achieved a certain notoriety in Berlin, where he taught at the conservatory founded by his brother Xaver, before becoming its director. He left a catalogue of one hundred and twenty numbers (around 300 pieces), in all genres and many for the piano, including quite a few for the bourgeois salon, not forgetting young apprentices. Although he is not totally unknown today, the presence of his works in concert programmes or recordings is marginal or ‘filler’.
It was then that pianist Cansu Sanlidad created a surprise by revealing some magnificent virtuoso works, with a refined and deeply poetic style, touchingly expressive, not particularly melodic, but sumptuous in their harmonies and figurations. Anyone with a bit of history in their ear could hear this as a tribute to, or a summing-up swansong for, the previous generation: Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Félix Mendelssohn...
Expressing feelings through music as perfectly as written poetry was the dream of the madrigalists, a project found in the genre of romance without words. Philipp Scharwenke and Cansu Sanlidag have set the bar very high. It's clear that Cansu Sanlidag has a lot to do with this musical success, not only in her choice of pieces, but above all in her vital (and virtuoso) commitment, which we'll call ‘romantic’ for want of a better word, where everything is narrative, poetry, emotion and freedom in a thousand nuances. We are won over by this rare osmosis between a work and a performer.
Originally from Izmir (Smyrna), she studied mainly in Belgium, in Mons and at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (and also at the University of Performing Arts in Vienna). She performs mainly in Belgium, in recital, chamber music and with orchestra, while teaching at the Near East University in North Nicosia.
Cublai, l'opéra interdit de Salieri, 6 mai 2025 - Emilie Munera, Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier
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