Turkey Istanbul Music Festival 2025 [1] – ‘Strings of Love’: Coşkun Karademir (lute, baglama), Derya Türkan (Istanbul kemenche), Ibrahim Babayev (lyre), Murat Süngü (cello), Burak Çakir (percussion). Sakip Sabanci Museum, Fistikli Terrace, Istanbul. 23.6.2025. (GT)
Hossein Alizadeh (Iran) – Kuşların Çağrısı – ‘The call of the birds’
Traditional Turkish Music – Bülbül Uşşakı – ‘The Nightingale Nest’; Muhayyer Tekke Semaisi – ‘At home in the Sufi’
Sultan Abdülaziz – Gondol Şarkısı – ‘The Gondola Song’
Traditional Azerbaijani Melody – Iğdırın Al Alması – ‘The bright red apples of Igdir’
Traditional Anatolian Music – Zümreyi Nacileriz – ‘We are the humble Turkish people’
Coşkun Karademir – Yalnız – ‘Alone’
Traditional Anatolian Music – Yüzün Gördüm Dedim – ‘I saw your face’
This open air concert in gardens overlooking the Bosphorus was a charming introduction to Istanbul’s Music Festival in its 54th year. The two-week festival opened on June 11, and the 24 events, included the Camerata Salzburg with Fazil Say (Turkey’s superstar pianist and composer), a world premiere by Valentin Silvestrov, two concerts by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Rafal Blechacz, an evening of exclusively women composers, and it closed with the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle on June 26.
This evening of traditional Sufi music was based on an ensemble of five instrumentalists playing on the Turkish tambur (lute), baglama (long-necked lute), Istanbul kemenche (lyre), kanun (zither) and percussion. Sadly, the Iranian Saman Samimi could not travel to Istanbul owing to the conflict in his country and was replaced by the cello player Murat Süngü. The Golden Age of the genre was in the eighteenth century however the concept is based on constant innovation by the performers in a continually creative form of musical performance yet adhering to fundamental traditions.
The concept of Strings in Love curated by Coşkun Karademir, according to the festival, ‘uses the polyphonic richness and tonal similarities of the ancient stringed instruments of Azerbaijan and Turkey to create a magical musical journey that transcends borders.’ The selection of maqams from Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey evoke the exotic romanticism of Ottoman musical culture. Maqams form the core of Middle Eastern and Anatolian traditional music and are formed from trichords, tetrachords or pentachords and offer continuity in the modulation of the music.
The opening maqams immediately demonstrated the colourful harmonies of the Middle East with the exotic warmth of traditional Iranian music. The rhythms and sophisticated songs were infused with their swaying rhapsodic, and emotive playing. Hossein Alizadeh’s ‘Kuşların Çağrısi’ (‘The Call of the Birds’) invokes the ubiquitous seagull (the symbol of Istanbul and on the Festival’s publicity), vibrantly performed on the instruments, and the gentle and soft ambience evinced a magical allure. ‘The Nightingale Nest’ was invoked sumptuously in the song of traditional Turkish Sufi music. Throughout the evening, the audience were completely enraptured by the playing and enhanced by the balmy atmosphere of the surrounding trees and gardens.
Muhayyer Tekke Semaisi (‘At home in the Sufi) a colourfully rhythmic Turkish piece was led by the virtuoso percussionist Burak Çakir as each musician introduced his own elaboration to the charmingly evocative music of a Sufi inn or hostel in celebrating a shared occasion. ‘The Gondola Song’ by Sultan Abdulaziz Han was beautifully performed with the ensemble expressing every drop of Turkish orientalism in the style of European music.
The vibrantly colourful Azeri Sufi tradition was magnificently evinced in ‘The Bright Red Apples of Igdir’ by the rhapsodic inflection of nature, often distinguished by the frequent interaction with the audience. Karademir’s own Yalnız portrays solitude, in an evocation of being alone in a wistful, sometimes sentimental separation from family and friends. An Islamic prayer is expressed in Yüzün Gördüm Dedim (‘I saw your face’) in another sublime and beautifully performed song, most effectively in the melodic flow of the instruments, and by Coşkun Karademir – the masterly musician at the heart of this concert celebrating Sufi culture and tradition. On a sultry evening embraced by the gardens and the sight of the illuminated bridge crossing the Bosphorus, this was a splendid introduction to Istanbul’s Music Festival and was memorable for everyone fortunate to be present.
Gregor Tassie