Barenboim in Istanbul with Staatskapelle Berlin

ISTANBUL

Staatskapelle Berlin is known as one of the oldest orchestras in the world.

Istanbul will tomorrow host renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, one of the oldest orchestras in the world, at Zorlu Performing Arts Center.

Staatskapelle Berlin’s long-time affiliation with Wagner’s works was crowned with a Grammy Award for the Tannhauser album they recorded with Barenboim conducting. The orchestra will be playing two excerpts from Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde,” which the orchestra had first played back in 1876 under the baton of the composer himself.

The concert will also feature Wagner’s “The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Overture,” as well as the “2nd Symphony” by Elgar.

“The audience response at the end of this extraordinary Proms performance founded on Daniel Barenboim’s conducting of Staatskapelle Berlin suggested that cumulative expectations – already high – had in fact been exceeded,” reads the review in the Guardian last year.

Seven times Grammy Award winner Barenboim was designated as a United Nations peace messenger in 2007.

Founded as a palace orchestra in 1570, the Staatskapelle Berlin has been conducted by many stars of classical music throughout its history such as Gaspare Spontini, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Giacomo Meyerbee.

Barenboim has served as the orchestra’s general music director since 1992, and in 2000 the orchestra voted him conductor for life.