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On the Back Streets of Old İstanbul (2001)
The first work really to button-hole the ear was On the Back Streets of Old İstanbul by Hasan Uçarsu, a leading figure among composers now approaching 40. Its Turkish tang was not only stirred by the qanun, a 75-string zither plucked alongside cello, clarinet, harp and percussion. The music's hovering, undulating path also looked East, not West, though it travelled with a poetic precision suggesting fruitful times spent studying in America with the king of avantgarde atmospherics, George Crumb. Thirteen minutes of beautifully paced and shaped music; on this evidence Uçarsu should be better known.
Geoff Brown
The Times
30.06. 2004
The title of Hasan Uçarsu's piece, On the Back Streets of Old İstanbul (2001), promised a medley of folk and traditional tunes, and the use of qanun (plucked 75-string zither) alongside a relatively Standard ensemble might seem to confirm this. What, in fact, emerges is a rhapsodically unfolding evocation of time and place, its subtlety and allure transcending any consideration of ethnic fusion.
Richard Whitehouse
www.classicalsource.com Ltd.
28.06. 2004
I have found Uçarsu's elegant and refined work, which utilizes the colors of harp and qanun in a magical atmosphere, quite special and different.
Ateş Orga
Andante Müzik Dergisi
Eylül-Ekim 2004 Yıl 2 Sayı 12
Reminescences of a Summer Journey (1995)
Hasan Uçarsu, in his Reminescences of a Summer Journey (1995), accomplishes quite successfully the quick changes among the motives derived from the Turkish Folklore. In these pieces as if whispering in a dreamy world, the sounds are looked for even if those timbres have never discovered before ; each phrase is like a big door shattering in a cruel manner and while it repeats itself in higher pitches it fades away and disappears. Very impressive music.
Johannes Rubner
Süddeutsche Zeitung,
27.06.2000
During the half hour performance of Hasan Uçarsu's composition Reminescences of a Summer Journey we even didn't realise how time passed. The muted sounds that were achieved by stopping the sounds inside the piano by left hand and playing them with right hand created a marvellous affect. As if we were listening a Turkish instrument.
Mareike Kuhn
Westfalische Nachrichten
23.10.2001
Blue Moon is Gray, Yellow Night is Wall (1999)
Dissonance, percussive striking of the harp's frame, and the twanging resonance of the bass strings showed that in the hands of an accomplished and adventurous artist, the instrument can do much more than sound sweet and ethereal.
Liz Janes-Brown
The Maui News
24.07. 2001
uninvited guests (2008)
ceng/harp solo and orchrestra
The surprise of the festival is the world premiere of a concerto for ceng, harp and orchestra by Hasan Uçarsu who, according to me, has already took place among the composers of our time. Ucarsu is one of the rare composers who very well knows the rhythmic, sound, timre possibilities of the instruments and ingeniously treats the relationship of these possibilities with each other; blends the traditional and contemporary elements in mastery and in the meantime composes "listenable" music.
Filiz Ali
Milliyet Gazetesi
28.06.2008
...arp ve It was a very different and appealing music in which harp and ceng sharing the same structure but belonging to different cultures were presented. The magnificent handling of the drums at cadences, the benefit from each section of the orchestra without any hollowness were quite successful besides the long duration of the work.
Evin İlyasoğlu
Cumhuriyet Gazetesi
01.07.2008
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