Music of Blue Symphony performed for first time

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Pianist Hüseyin Sermet performs the music, inspired by ‘Blue Symphony’ by painter Burhan Doğançay. Company photos

The music, composed by Kamran İnce for Burhan Doğançay’s famous painting “Blue Symphony,” was performed by Hüseyin Sermet for the first time on June 28 at Istanbul Modern. The event brought together well-known figures from the business and art worlds, and the concert was broadcast live on www.mavisenfoni.com, as well as mobile phones.

İnce has been defined by the Los Angeles Times as “a rare composer that can be exotic without breaking his connection with modern music.”

“Blue Symphony” was once sold at auction for 2.2 million Turkish Liras, the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living Turkish painter.

Speaking at the event, Doğançay said it was a very important night for Turkish music. “It is not a common thing to make music by being inspired by an artwork. I am honored that a Turk did it and hope that we will hear this music abroad one day.”

İnce, who attended the event from the U.S. via a Skype connection, said that he was very excited when making the music for the painting. “I have a big respect for Doğançay’s art. It made me exited that our art fields are very close to each other. You can hear the surprises in Doğançay’s painting in my music.”

The “Blue Symphony” painting can be seen at Istanbul Modern’s exhibition “Fifty Years of Urban Walls: A Burhan Doğançay Retrospective” that will be open at the museum until Sept. 23. The exhibition represents as an anthology for Doğançay’s last 50 years of work. Since the early 1960s, Doğançay has examined the social, cultural and political transformation of modern and contemporary urban culture through his distinct use of walls. With works ranging from small scale pieces to big canvasses and installations that run beyond the walls, to various materials and pursuits, the exhibition unrolls the background to Doğançay’s ways of working. The exhibition gathers together 14 distinct series and periods of time, with works coming from different collections all over the world.