There is a Turkish proverb: “Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.”

The music of Ahmed Adnan Saygun is very good coffee indeed. Saygun (pictured, right) rode a wave of Turkish nationalism to become his country’s foremost composer in the Western classical tradition. Perhaps best remembered abroad as an associate of Béla Bartók (pictured, left), Saygun was a prominent ethnomusicologist, but also an important educator and cultural administrator.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” savor an hour of his sometimes sweet, often astringent, always rewarding music, including a selection of “Etudes on Aksak Rhythms” (1964), his Suite for Violin and Piano (1956), and the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1951-57).

The refreshments are guaranteed to be aromatic, bold, and rich, on “Turkish Toughie,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.