Chamber music to echo on Istanbul stage

ISTANBUL

Philharmonic Orchestra Soloists

The 3rd Istanbul Opus Amadeus International Chamber Music Festival lifts its curtains March 2 at Istanbul’s Fulya Art Center. Featuring eight concerts throughout five weeks, the festival will offer noble colors, mysteries, tasteful harmonies and unique melodies of the chamber music repertory.

This year’s program consists of concerts and various projects of some world-renowned artists and ensembles that will perform unique works rarely played or never premiered in Istanbul before.

The festival opens with a concert including a fantastic program, as well as brilliant performers: Berlin Philharmonic Soloists, formed by Alessandro Cappone, Naoko Shimizu and Knut Weber, and pianist Özgür Aydın come together for the first time on account of this project. Together, they will play quartets for piano and strings from the works of Mozart, Mahler and Brahms.

CSO Cello Quartet will greet music lovers March 9 with a concert where a blend of works from the classical and non-classical repertories will be offered. As a pleasant journey between ages and genres, the concert features pieces from Bach to the Beatles, Ellington to Shostakovich, Bregovic to Mendelssohn and Fauré to Morricone and Rossini.

Thanks to their concert comprising of an extraordinary program at last year’s festival, harpist Çağatay Akyol and Ankara Philharmonic Orchestra Soloists have won a great recognition from the audience. The ensemble will again perform a similarly rich program March 16.

Considered some of the brilliant pianists of a younger generation, Gökhan Aybulus, Kandemir Basmacıoğlu and Özgür Ünaldı will perform original and arranged works for piano for four hands and six hands March 23. They will also play two of Mozart’s fantastic sonatas.

As one of the most successful ensembles of Italy, Quintetto Bottesini will perform Schubert’s “Trout Quintet,” a masterpiece of the chamber music repertory, March 27. The ensemble will also play the “Quintet with Piano” of Hummel, an Austrian composer from the late-classical and early-romantic eras, who is less known to the Turkish audience.

As two of the most successful young French soloists, trumpet player Romain Leleu and organist Ghislan Leroy will be on stage March 31 at the Saint-Antoine Church in Beyoğlu for a concert including an extensive trumpet-org program, which spans from the Renaissance music to the Contemporary music.

Collegium Musicum Den Haag, an acclaimed young Dutch ensemble, will render a program including some breathtaking works from the Baroque era, alongside the works of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach, sons of the great Johann Sebastian Bach, on April 9 at Saint-Antoine Church.

Closing concert

The closing concert will take place April 11. As one the best Baroque ensembles of Europe having made numerous successful CD recordings, Aura Musicale Ensemble from Budapest will perform with one of the best Austrian bassists, Wolfgang Bankl, the cantatas of Bach and Handel, as well as some pieces from Biber, Purcell and Vivaldi. The concert at Saint-Antoine Church promises a very special experience to the audience.

The events of the 3rd Istanbul Opus Amadeus International Chamber Music Festival will take place at some distinguished music venues such as the Municipality of Beşiktaş-Fulya Art Center and Saint-Antoine Church. k HDN