Classical music season opens in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Pelin Halkacı

The Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra (BIPO) opens its 2014-2015 season today. The city will welcome world-famous figures of classical music until the beginning of summer next year.

The new season opens tonight with one of the stellar performers of the opera world: Juan Diego Flórez. He will present a selection of arias that cemented Flórez’s outstanding career to the point of being Pavarotti’s only heir is a promise of another musical wonder.

2014 was the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss, the creator of compositions. Having paid tribute to the great composer last season, the orchestra will present on Nov. 6 another evening comprising of three of the composer’s favorite works. The soloist will be Georgian soprano Iano Tamar.

On Nov. 20, a “Special Concert” will be organized to provide funds for the Borusan Kocabıyık Foundation Music Scholarship. The concert will invite veteran theater actor Ali Poyrazoğlu as the guest conductor. He will take the world-famous story of Little Prince to the stage with Rachel Portman’s music and Nicholas Wright’s libretto.

BIPO’s New Year’s Concert will be a not-to-miss musical feast, even for the not-so-avid fans of classical music in Istanbul. Scheduled on Jan. 8, 2015, the program will start with a Christmas night’s tale and extend to joyful love stories. After Strauss’s merry Zigeunerbaron Overture, the “Flower Waltz” from Tchaikovsky’s evergreen Nutcracker and again Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite will be performed under the baton of Sascha Goetzel.

The new year will continue with Piano duo Ufuk and Bahar Dördüncü. In the concert on Feb. 19, 2015, their first meeting with BIPO will shine with Britten’s Scottish Ballad and Takemitsu’s “Quotation of Dream.”

Feb. 26, 2015 will feature a first from BIPO in years. A baroque evening titled “BIPO Goes Baroque” will feature BIPO’s concertmaster Pelin Halkacı Akın as the soloist. Performing in prestigious venues of Europe either as a soloist or an orchestra member, Akın continues her brilliant career with concerts around Turkey and as an instructor. She particularly assumes responsibility in championing works of contemporary and 20th-century Turkish composers in her concerts and master-classes.

An evening of Haydn’s choral masterpiece, “The Seasons” will be performed by BIPO, the amazing Salzburg Bach Choir, Sweden’s latest and precious gift to the opera world soprano Miah Persson, almost a living legend in his own right, the outstanding Ian Bostridge and the rising baritone Mark Stone on March 12, 2015.

Grammy-winning pianist and composer Michel Camilo will revisit Istanbul on March 19, 2015. Camilo combines an original rhythmic texture with harmony with inspiration from his native Dominican Republic. He will perform his “Piano Concerto.”

The month of April will host U.K. pianist Arcadi Volodos who will take the stage on April 9. U.K. baritone Bryn Terfel will be in the city on April 16. The great opera star will share the stage with young harpist Hannah Stone. Also, Julian Rachlin, a performer the Istanbul audience knows very well, will join forces with BIPO on April 20.

Tribute to Leyla Gencer

BIPO’s 2015 tribute concert for Leyla Gencer will be very special and memorable with American soprano Latonia Moore as the lead. After an unexpected and triumphant debut at The Metropolitan Opera in March 2012, replacing Violeta Urmana as Aida, she has become associated with this role, reprising it in leading opera houses. Mezzo-soprano Stella Grigorian, tenor Carlo Ventre and baritone George Gagnidze will be on the stage for Gencer on May 14.

The Rudolf Buchbinder recital series at the Süreyya Opera House in the 2013–2014 season was a first and was met with great interest. So Borusan Sanat scheduled world-famous pianist Hüseyin Sermet.
All concerts will take place at the Lütfi Kırdar International Congress and Exhibition Center, starting at 8 p.m.