La Traviata (photo DHA)
ATATÜRK CULTURAL CENTRE HIGHLIGHTS
Atatürk Kültür Merkezi* or ‘AKM’, Türk Telekom Opera Hall, Taksim – Beyoğlu, 34437 Istanbul
Events at this venue
bilgi@akmistanbul.gov.tr
Tel: ++90 212 372 50 00
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Thursday January 8: 20:00
Saturday January 10: 15:00
Saturday January 17: 15:00
Wednesday January 21: 20:00
Saturday January 31: 15:00
Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’
Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ (‘The Fallen Woman’) is a three-act opera composed in 1853 by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901). Based on the story of ‘The Lady of the Camellias’, a play written by the younger Alexandre Dumas in 1848, it calls contemporary taboos into question, focussing on the roles assigned to women and exposing the hypocrisy of restrictive social ‘norms’. Both the composer and Francesco Maria Piave, the librettist, intended the opera to be staged with the singers in contemporary dress. However, as Violetta, the heroine, is a courtesan who is sympathetically portrayed, the censors in Venice (where the work was to receive its first performance) insisted that it should be performed in 17th-century costume.
Indeed, ‘La Traviata’ occasioned in some people a strong sense of moral outrage: Queen Victoria refrained from attending the opera when it was staged at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in 1856, and the heads of the Church did their best to have it banned. Later that year, it was performed at the Academy of Music in New York, where criticism of the work’s moral stance was less severe: the critic of the ‘Evening Post’ wrote that ‘Those who have quietly sat through the glaring improprieties of ‘Don Giovanni’ will hardly blush or frown at anything in ‘La Traviata’.’ Subsequently, the work proved extremely popular, and it remains one of the most frequently-performed operas of all time, even outshining other operatic hits by Verdi such as ‘Rigoletto’ and ‘Il Trovatore’.
These five performances by the İstanbul State Opera and Ballet company are to be directed by Recep Ayyılmaz. The orchestra will be conducted for some performances by Alessandro De Marchi, and for others by Zdravko Lazarov. The chorus, meanwhile, will be conducted by Paolo Villa.
Tickets from [Biletinial] From TL240 to TL890
Event website
Sunday January 11
Vienna Mozart Orchestra ‘New Year Concert’
Founded in 1986, the Vienna Mozart Orchestra keeps alive the rich musical heritage of the city of Vienna. Performing in period costumes – including wigs – they aim to recreate the elegant 18th-century atmosphere in which Mozart lived and worked. Their repertoire includes over 100 pieces by Mozart such as movements from his symphonies and concertos, and overtures from his operas.
Tickets: sold out.
Event website
Sunday January 11, 20:00
Sunday Recital: Violin and piano
Hasan Gökçe Yorgun (violin), Jiao Li (piano)
The Turkish violinist Hasan Gökçe Yorgun and the Chinese lady pianist Jiao Li are to present a programme entitled ‘Silk Road Resonance’ that is dedicated to the furtherance of friendship between Turkey and China. The pieces to be performed are derived from the musical traditions of Tatar, Mongolian, Tajik, Anatolian and other Silk Road cultures.
Tickets from Biletinial TL250
Event website
Friday January 16, 20.00
Orchestral music: Denizbank Concert
İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Timothy Ridout (viola)
The İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of German guest conductor Raoul Grüneis, will first perform the 8-movement ‘Suite for Viola and Orchestra’ written in 1933 and 1934 by the British composer Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). In this work, the soloist will be Timothy Ridout, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the Kronberg Academy. In 2014 he won the Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition. Then, in 2016, he became the first prizewinner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition; Lionel Tertis (1876-1975) is in fact the viola-player and teacher to whom the work was dedicated.
In the second half, the orchestra will play Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 8 in F major’, Opus 93. This four-movement work, composed in 1812, is the shortest of Beethoven’s symphonies, and is mostly light-hearted in mood.
Tickets from Biletinial] From TL260 to TL650
Event website
Sunday January 18, 20:00
Orchestral music, piano concerto
İstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrei Korobeinikov (piano), Vova Rodionov (trumpet)
In this New Year concert, the İstanbul Philharmonic Orchestra is to be conducted by Orçun Orçunsel. The first work to be performed will be ‘Waltz No 2’ from the 1938 ‘Jazz Suite No 2’ by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), in an arrangement by the conductor.
This will be followed by Shostakovich’s 1933 ‘Concerto No 1 in C minor for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra’, Opus 35, in which the pianist will be Andrei Korobeinikov, a graduate of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatoire. The trumpet part, meanwhile, will be played by another Russian – Vova Rodionov.
After the interval, the orchestra will first play the four-movement ‘Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No 3’ by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936). This somewhat melancholy work, written in 1931, is based on pieces by various Italian composers of the Baroque and Renaissance periods. The final item on the programme will be the – also four-movement – ‘St Paul’s Suite’ by the English composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934), best known for his ‘The Planets’ suite. Completed in 1913 but not published until 1922, the ‘St Paul’s Suite’ takes its name from the girls’ school in London where Holst served as music teacher from 1905 to 1934.
Tickets from [Biletix]()
Prices: 2540TL, 2979TL, 3245TL
Event website
Friday, January 23, 20.00
Orchestral music: Denizbank Concert
İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra: Mozart, Sibelius
The İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen, will first play Mozart’s ‘Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E flat major’, K 364. In this work, the soloists will be violinist Deniz Yakın and viola-player Denizsu Polat. In the second half, the orchestra will play the ‘Symphony No 2 in D major’, Opus 43, by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). There is a link between these two works in that both were written either when their respective composers were on trips abroad, or after they had returned from them. Mozart wrote his ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ in 1779 during a European tour that took him to Mannheim and Paris, while Sibelius wrote his four-movement ‘Symphony No 2’ during and after a visit to Italy in 1901. He began writing it in Rapallo, shortly after the successful premiere of his ‘Finlandia’ tone poem. The composer himself said: ‘My second symphony is a confession of the soul.’ Its grandiose finale was seen by some as an expression of Sibelius’s burning desire to see his country become independent from Russia – an event that eventually occurred in 1917.
Tickets from [Biletinial]()
Prices from TL260 to TL650TL
Event website
Saturday January 24, 11.00
Türk Telekom Prime Coffee Concert: Piano recital with narration
İlyas Mirzayev (piano), Remzi Buharalı (narrator)
This concert, which is to take place in the downstairs foyer of the Türk Telekom Opera Hall, is for the most part a repeat of a successful one given by İlyas Mirzayev, a highly-skilled pianist and composer trained at the conservatoires in Bakü and Moscow, at around this time last year. In his recital on January 24, he will again be playing pieces of his own composition: ‘Aşk Rüyaları / Dreams of Love’, ‘Kervan / Caravan’, ‘Blue, Red, Green’, ‘The Deep Blue Sea’, ‘Mermaid’, ‘Humanism’, ‘The Lights of Bakü’, ‘Leyla’, ‘Fırtına / Storm’ and ‘Elveda / Farewell’. Narration, meanwhile, is to be provided by Remzi Buharalı. Originally a trombone-player from Samsun who learnt his art at the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire, Remzi Buharalı is now General Director of Turkey’s State Opera and Ballet Companies. This concert is entitled ‘Müziğin Sonsuz Çizgisi’ / ‘The Infinite Trajectory of Music’.
Tickets from Biletinial Price: TL350
Event website
Friday January 30, 20.00
Orchestral music: Denizbank Concert
İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra: Brahms / Schoenberg, Beethoven
The İstanbul State Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Italian guest conductor Giuseppe Mengoli (who won the 1st Mahler Competition for conducting in 2023), will first play Brahms’s four-movement ‘Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor’, Opus 25, in an arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg. The solo part will be played by Cem Babacan. This work, originally written for violin, viola, cello and piano and completed in 1861, proved highly popular with audiences, and an orchestral version was produced by Schoenberg in 1937.
After the interval, the orchestra will accompany pianist Cem Babacan in Beethoven’s ‘Piano Concerto No 1 in C major’, a three-movement work – written in 1795 and revised in 1800 – that is seen as forming a bridge between the Classical and Romantic periods. While showing the influence of Mozart and Haydn, it bears Beethoven’s unmistakable stamp, especially in its melodies and harmonic shifts. An (unsigned) [article on the Houston Symphony website](https://houstonsymphony.org/beethoven-piano-concerto-1/) gives a good introduction.
Tickets from [Biletinial TL260 to TL650
Event website
Saturday January 31, 11.00
Türk Telekom Prime Coffee Concert: Violin & piano recital
Violin & piano recital
This concert, which is to take place in the downstairs foyer of the Türk Telekom Opera Hall, features Mozart’s 1781 ‘Sonata for Violin and Piano No 27 in G major’, K 379 (an Adagio-Allegro movement followed by a Theme and Variations); the 1853 ‘Three Romances for Violin and Piano’, Opus 22, described as ‘lush and poignant’, by Clara Schumann (wife of Robert); Mozart’s 1778 ‘Sonata for Violin and Piano No 21 in E minor’, K 304 (a two-movement work that reflects the composer’s sadness at the recent death of his mother); the ‘Nocturne’ and ‘Cortège’ by Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), the tragically short-lived sister of the famous teacher Nadia Boulanger; and the lively ‘Zeybek’ by the Turkish composer Ulvi Cemal Erkin (1906-1972). The performers will be Ezgi Yürümez (violin) and Kaan Bıyıkoğlu (piano).
Tickets from Biletinial TL350
Event website
La Traviata (photo DHA)
