Tue June 22 2010
Conzert in Ismir - TURCHIA

İzmir welcomes legends to international festival

The İzmir Foundation for Culture, Arts and Education, or İKSEV, is celebrating its 25th anniversary by organizing a feast of art, the 24th International İzmir Festival. Starting Wednesday, the festival will continue through July 19 at a variety of venues.

This year the International İzmir Festival will include Seferihisar, the first “slow city” of Turkey, among the festival venues, running at venues including the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center, the Celsus Library, Çeşme Fortress, the Bergama Asklepion Theater and the Ephesus Odeon.

  A first in İzmir, opening with four pianos

The 24th International İzmir Festival opens today at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center with a concert titled “Four Pianos, One Maestro.” Russian conductor Alexander Polishchuk, who undersigns extraordinary projects, will conduct the quartet of pianos, played by Alexander Ghindin, David Lively, Janis Vakarelis and Cyprien Katsaris. During the concert, these eight talented hands will perform distinguished works from the genius of Wagner and Debussy, written especially for piano. The finale will likely be engraved in memories with a rendition of Ravel’s “Bolero.”

Ephesus’ Celsus Library, one of the best-known 10 buildings in the world, will host another unforgettable concert on the night of June 19. Italian Michele Campanella, one of the best ever interpreters of Lizst, will give a recital. Campanella, who has a bright career as an orchestra conductor and a pianist, will perform program consisting of compositions from Schumann.

The Opera “The Flying Dutchman,” one of Wagner’s most famous masterpieces, will be the highlight of the festival, playing on June 21 at the Ahmet Adnan Saygun Arts Center performed by the İzmir State Opera and Ballet.

The story of “The Flying Dutchman,” originating from an old legend, is set in the 18th century. A Dutch captain named Vanderdecken says he will pass the Cape of Good Hope, even at the cost of going to hell, despite the severe conditions there. The Devil, angry at the challenge, dooms the captain to sail the seas for the rest of his life until he finds a faithful woman, with the one provision that he may touch land only once every seven years.

Slow City will be colored with the festival

On June 22 the emphasis of the festival will move to the first “Slow City” of Turkey, Seferihisar. Sığacık Fortress, which was one of the major bases of the Ottoman navy, will host “Ensemble Amarcord,” one of Europe’s best a capella groups, which will perform a repertoire consisting of a very broad range extending from Jimi Hendrix to Renaissance music, from folk to modern pop songs.

The Celsus Library will again be engraved in memories with an incomparable music concert on June 24. The philharmonics group, consisting of prizewinning soloists and artists from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, will play at the festival after their debut at the Salzburg Festival.

The philharmonic will present a very special repertoire extending from the most popular works of classical music to jazz, blended with eastern European and Russian timbres and enriched with Balkan melodies titled “Bohemian Memories.”

Mahler time

The 24th International İzmir Festival has allocated a place in its program for Mahler to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth with a concert by the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which has a great tradition of performing the music of Mahler. It is famous for its prize-winning recordings. The orchestra will be conducted by maestro Daniele Gatti, the talent of our age who was awarded the “Abbiati” prize by the Italian music critics in the category of best conductor.

The festival will also celebrate the 200th anniversaries of Chopin and Schumann, and a more contemporary anniversary with the 80th birthday of legendary İzmir trumpet player Muvaffak Falay.  He will perform compositions of legendary jazz names Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, with whom he played for years. With his stage name Maffy Falay, he will perform with his quintet a “Tribute to Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie” at the Çeşme Fortress on July 4.

The “Turkish-Greek Rendezvous of Art,” whose foundations were laid by former Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs İsmail Cem and Yorgo Papandreu in Ephesus, will be performed for the 10th time in Bergama Asklepion Theater on July 7. The Pireus Municipality Theater will stage “Prometheus Bound,” one of the seven tragedies surviving to this day written by Aeschylus.

Also, the Turkish-Greek Youth Orchestra, managed by Vladimir Ashkenazy will play on July 12, at the AASSM. The Turkish-Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra interprets the works of contemporary composers as well as Turkish and Greek composers and will give its first concert in İzmir as part of the festival.

The ancient theater of Bergama Asklepion will witness the “Timbres of Love” on July 9. During the night, love will meet musical notes thanks to sopranos Isabelle Cals, Sylvie Valayre and tenor Nicolas Schukoff. The concert will take place in the Asklepion, where historically medical patients were treated with music as well as more accepted healing cures.

  Chopin for incorrigible romantics

The Polish genius of music, Frederic Chopin, will be commemorated in the 200th anniversary of his birth in Ephesus Odeon on July 13. Polish virtuoso Krzysztof Jabłoński will present the composer’s immortal works.

The closing concert of the 24th International İzmir Festival on July 19 will also be an event that will not be erased from memories for a long time. Concha Buika, known as “The Daughter of Fire, the Voice of Love” will close the festival at Çeşme Fortress. Buika combines jazz, funk, Flamenco, gypsy rumba, Afro-Cuban rhythms, copla and new soul in a sophisticated and profound way, with the influence of Spanish culture enriching her ethnic identity, and extending all the way to Africa.

Tickets of the 24th International İzmir Festival are on sale through Biletix and İKSEV box offices in Kültürpark Lausanne Gate. Prices range 20 to 60 Turkish Liras.

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