Family Bonds is the subtitle for the 46th edition of the Istanbul Music Festival and when you’ve got not one, but two sets of Turkish pianist identical twins performing, why not? Other family ties include the Skride sisters, husband and wife opera singers Diana Damrau and Nicolas Testé and the Maisky family, turning the festival into something of a family affair. The three-week festival is a highlight of the Turkish classical year, attracting a huge number of visitors, with opportunities to explore this fascinating capital city – a melting pot of influences and cultures – as well as soak up music in wonderful locations.
The resident orchestra at the festival is the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, long praised on these pages under its flamboyant conductor Sascha Goetzel in exotic, colourful scores. Goetzel and the Borusan open proceedings with a special gala concert which follows cocktails and an award ceremony. Star of the show is young Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo, Gold Medal winner at the XV Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He plays – appropriately enough given Cliburn’s fame in tackling big Russian concertos – Rachmaninov’s Third, a massive work requiring a massive technique. And to roll out the big guns, cannon effects will be needed in Tchaikovsky’s celebratory 1812 Overture which concludes the evening.
Another local ensemble – the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra – plays the second festival programme. Founded in 1992 under the name the Black Sea Chamber Orchestra, the ensemble gathers musicians from many countries across the Caspian region. In Istanbul, it plays Rachmaninov’s demonic Symphonic Dances under Aziz Shokhakimov, with Charlie Siem the soloist in Brahms’ Violin Concerto.
The festival has a number of visiting orchestras, none starrier than the Filarmonica della Scala, recently praised for its concerts in London, Paris and Milan for its sparkling playing under Riccardo Chailly and Myung-whun Chung. Daniel Harding conducts in Istanbul, where the focus will be on young Russian superstar pianist Daniil Trifonov, who performs Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. Trifonov was part of Valery Gergiev’s “tag team” at the BBC Proms, when all five concertos were played on the same remarkable evening, and “poetry cascaded from Trifonov’s fingers, pearly rivulets of sound”. Among other starry names billed, Joyce DiDonato brings her War and Peace programme to the Hagia Eirene Museum, while Diana Damrau and Nicolas Testé sing an evening of Verdi with the Borusan.