Franz Liszt taught a number of pianists who went on to achieve world renown, but Faik Bey Franz Della Sudda was his only student from Turkey, whom he affectionately called ‘Der Pasha’. Della Sudda’s European concerts saw him acclaimed as ‘the most remarkable, graceful, and brilliant pianist of the present age’. With his own lyrically picturesque but complex and unorthodox compositions aimed at society’s elite Della Sudda moved in exalted circles until his return to Istanbul where he eventually died isolated and alone. These world première recordings of Della Sudda’s piano music are performed by the prize-winning Turkish pianist Zeynep Üçbaşaran.

Zeynep Üçbaşaran began her music education at the age of four at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. She went on to study for her Concert Artist Diploma at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest before undertaking advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and obtaining her Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Southern California. Among other professional awards, including the American Liszt Society Award, she was a prize-winner of the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition in 1996 and 2000. Üçbaşaran has given solo recitals and chamber music concerts in many countries. Her critically acclaimed discography spans the music of Liszt, Schubert, Mozart, Scarlatti and Beethoven alongside 20th-century composers such as Bernstein and Muczynski, and her album, The 3-Piano Project, includes the première recording of Saygun’s Poem, op.73. She has also recorded Sagyun’s piano works for Naxos (8570746).