There is no city in the world quite like Istanbul. Its superb geopolitical position, straddling two continents, and guarding the route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, has given it a rich and complex history, whose strata are visible in the city’s names, Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul; and in its buildings, from Roman ruins, Christian churches, Ottoman palaces and mosques. Now in its 45th year, the Istanbul Music Festival embraces and celebrates this extraordinary city, bringing together Turkey’s musical heritage with music from around the world. This year’s theme seems particularly appropriate to Istanbul: it is, simply “Unusual”.
The title reflects not just the city itself, but also the way the festival will present some of its performances, as festival director, Yeşim Gürer Oymak, explained. “Art production and its consumption cannot be independent of the conditions of the digital age we are living in, where we have infinite access to all art forms. We stream music and download concert performances and scores, anything! We have digital halls and opera houses in our living rooms. On the other hand, classical music audience is ageing everywhere in the world. So we have to think in new ways, to attract new audiences and present them with a new and fresh experience in new venues. A ‘usual’ presentation of classical music is not enough. We have to think more about interdisciplinary arts forms, to make connections between music, literature and other forms of arts. So we wanted to present a more flexible, varied concert programme with “unusual” connections which are nonetheless in tune with the context”.
These interdisciplinary connections can be found across the festival. Pianist Mikhail Rudy illustrates his recital on 31 May with art by Kandinsky and Chagall; Ensemble Soqqadro Italiano presents Vivaldi with visuals on 5 June, and on 20 June the Debussy Quartet teams up with the circus-ballet group Circa Ensemble for a programme of Shostakovich. Making unusual connections within music, David Greilsammer and jazz pianist Yaron Herman lead the Geneva Camerata through an eclectic and exciting encounter between Baroque and jazz on 12 June, which includes Rameau with Herman’s jazz improvisations and his arrangements of Purcell and Marais.
The range of venues at the Istanbul Music Festival continues to grow, with concerts in fifteen different locations. Yeşim Gürer Oymak notes that “One of the missions of the Istanbul Music Festival is to attract attention to the cultural heritage of the city. Listening to music in these venues, discovering new historical gems and being lost in time is an ‘unusual experience’ in itself.” Thus, the imaginative Music Route day on Saturday 3 June invites audiences on a walk through the city, following a programme of chamber music around six different historic venues. Looking to the city’s Ottoman heritage there are two concerts in venues that particularly suit the context of the music. The distinguished Şimdi Ensemble perform Sufi music in the heady, spice-laden atmosphere of the Grand Bazaar on 4 June, whilst “Rosery”, a project reflecting the cultural dialogue between the Ottomans and Iran takes place in the Garden of Galata.