Concert in Ankara confirms talent, potential of Şişli Symphony Orchestra

"A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed," Dmitri Shostakovich is reported as once saying.
The Russian composer meant that music should be written in such a way that "no one, no matter how philistine, can ruin it."
In the first concert of their third musical season, held in Ankara last Saturday, the Şişli Symphony Orchestra's 66 talented musicians uplifted rather than ruined the masterpieces they played. The concert featured Antonin Dvorak's "Slavonic Dances" (Opus 46 No. 2, 8 and Opus 72 No. 2), Johannes Brahms' "Piano Concerto No. 1" and Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 5." Under the baton of Serâ Tokay, the orchestra delivered an impressive performance that filled Hacettepe University's Cultural Center and its audience with communicative passion.

The evening began with three pieces from Dvorak's memorable "Slavonic Dances," in which the composer captured the spirit of his native Bohemia's folk dances. That Slavonic soul, Tokay says, is part of the orchestra's true self. Despite a very short rehearsal time, the musicians mastered the piece's characteristic changes from melancholic to frantic melodies. Tokay grasped the baton and used her assertive conducting to guide the orchestra through successions of folk rhythms and famed melodies. The ensemble was especially brilliant in the composition's exuberant accelerations and crescendos.

Brahms succeeded Dvorak, for what was arguably the highlight of the evening. Brahms' first piano concerto, featuring a solo performance by French pianist Laurent Cabasso, was a risky yet rewarding choice given the technical challenges it presents. The masterpiece, which is both Tokay's and Cabasso's favorite concerto, consists of three movements that foster a true blending of the performer and orchestra. "That concerto is one of Brahms' youth works and a fascinating piece to play," says prized concert artist Cabasso. "It is wonderfully written for the piano, with a perfect balance between the left and right hands that makes it particularly powerful. It is both rough and violent -- with a very harsh opening from the kettledrums -- but also expresses an infinite tenderness, particularly in the second movement." Despite the piece's complexity, Cabasso displayed a striking ability to merge with the orchestra. "Playing with a soloist is always challenging for an orchestra," Tokay said after the performance. "The soloist cannot communicate directly with the orchestra but only through the conductor, who enables the two to play in harmony. The conductor has to anticipate the movements of the soloist and transmit them to the musicians."

Tokay says she requested Cabasso, a long-time friend from the years she was studying piano in Paris, perform in Ankara with her orchestra because "just as me, Laurent feels and interprets musical pieces 'con fuoco' as Italians say -- with fire. We took risks because fire burns, but eventually I think we can be happy with the result." But the fact that both the conductor and soloist love a piece, Tokay adds, is no guarantee of musical perfection. "On the contrary, what you feel in your heart and flesh might be too strong, too moving to be able to properly focus on your conducting," she explains.

As for Cabasso, the pianist said he felt a genuine pleasure at playing with the Şişli Symphony Orchestra for his first performance in Turkey. A piano professor at the Conservatoire National in Strasbourg, Cabasso says the first time he listened to the orchestra was at the concert it recently gave at the European Parliament. "I was truly impressed that day," Cabasso recalls. "The quality and enthusiasm of the musicians was amazing and I appreciated the passion and conviction that emerged as they were performing in front of me."

The final piece of the evening was Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 5," which is probably the composer's most famed work. Tokay, who once again stresses her orchestra's affinity with works that embody the Russian or Slavonic soul, says her musicians showed their immense talent in the symphony's most intense, tragic moments. Whether with the violin and flutes solos of the second movement; the pizzicato violins and the dialog between the bassoon and strings; the quiet sections of the third movement; or with the loud, beating of percussions in the fourth and final movement, the orchestra undoubtedly did justice to the grandeur of the symphony.

"I was very pleased with the contrasts, moods and colors we created in the third movement," Tokay says. "You need to be able to go from fortissimo to pianissimo in a matter of seconds and we managed to express those contrasts during the concert. At certain moments, I felt I could do anything I wanted with my hands."

When presented for the first time in Leningrad in 1937, Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 5" is said to have received a half-hour-long ovation. Even though the Ankara performance did not receive such a triumphal welcome -- "The Turkish public never bursts into yells and applause," Tokay says -- deep emotion seemed to etch across the faces of the 120 or so people gathered in Hacettepe University Cultural Center's small concert hall.

One could always argue that better acoustics in the concert hall would have improved the technical and musical quality of the performance. "Dry acoustics compels you to play louder to produce enough sound and does no good to the violins' bows and the conductor's muscles," Tokay says. Or that the concert would have benefited from a longer rehearsal time (less than a week for three new pieces added to the orchestra's repertoire). But those bothers might well be solved by the time the orchestra gives its next concert, in İstanbul sometime in late January. None of those, however, tarnishes the quality of the performance and the visible dedication of every single performer. Their exhaustion was obvious at the end of the concert and only came as a confirmation of the tremendous potential those 66 musicians and their conductor hold in their hands.

08.12.2007
Arts & Culture
ANNE ANDLAUER