OCTANDRE ENSEMBLE & JONATHAN HARGREAVES - SINAN C. SAVASKAN: ELEVEN CONDITIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Metier presents the world premiere recording of Sinan C. Savaskan's captivating Concerto Eleven Conditions of Responsibility, written for and performed by the Octandre Ensemble, under conductor Jonathan Hargreaves. Savaskan has had a long association with the ensemble, having served as their inaugural Composer-in-Residence. Conceived as part of the composer's ongoing epic cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, Eleven Conditions of Responsibility embodies Savaskan's radical approach to composition. His constructivist methodology means that all the parameters of his music are dependent on the formal architecture, itself based on the behaviour and properties of sound and it's circular, logarithmic characteristics, giving rise to intricate, evocative works. During the COVID period when everyday life was so different, Savaskan read works by Henri Bergson and emile Durkheim, scholars from the turn of the 19th century, altering the way he thought about the fourth dimension - 'duration' (rather than time), space, and our attitude to commitments, therefore responsibilities. Savaskan came up with eleven of his own responsibilities, and became aware of how we conceptualise and adopt them. This became the basis for eleven thematic segments spread across the 3 main sections of the Concerto, 'little icons, as it were, to meditate upon', which each have their own fundamental pitch and related pulse. Circular Functions, the particular harmonic/structural method he has developed over the past 45 years, dictates how these segments are integrated into the three larger harmonic arcs. The three sections of 'Eleven Conditions of Responsibility' are modules 141, 148, and 11 of the cycle Many Stares through Semi-Nocturnal Zeiss-Blink, projected eventually to contain 360 pieces, reflecting the contemplation of a particular static object from different angles, covering 360 degrees. The pieces are assigned numbers which refer in some way to important dates in their conception. In December 2015, Savaskan's Many Stares through semi-nocturnal Zeiss-blink (Module 30), an Octandre commission, won a BASCA British Composer Award. Sinan C. Savaskan is based in London, as a composer, lecturer, and teacher of composition, and was Head of Academic Music at Westminster School for thirty-seven years. His music has been commissioned, performed, and broadcast in over thirty countries by some of the foremost performers, ensembles, and orchestras. In 2000, Savaskan was selected as the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts' prestigious Grants to Artists Award - the first British composer to receive this award. He has also written much ballet and incidental music, as well as music for film. In 2025, Metier Records released Sinan Savaskan's album of music for solo flute and electronics, The Sleep of Reason, with celebrated flautist Noemi Gyori, an arresting collection of works exploring the full expressive range of the flute. The Octandre Ensemble was formed in 2011 by composer Christian Mason and conductor Jon Hargreaves, their core repertoire being music written after 1945, with an emphasis on timbre and ritual. ?

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