The Istanbul Music Festival 2025 closes with a splendidly performed Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle

TurkeyTurkey Istanbul Music Festival [4]Rossini: Claudia Pavone (soprano), Tamar Ugrekhelidze (mezzo-soprano), Juan Francisco Gatell (tenor), Nahuel Di Pierro (bass-baritone), Slovak Philharmonic Chorus (chorusmaster: Jan Rozehnal), Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra / Carlo Tenan (conductor), Atatürk Cultural Centre, Istanbul, 26.6.2025. (GT)

Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle © Mühenna Kahveci

Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle

To close the Istanbul Music Festival with a choral masterpiece is admirable, yet Rossini’s final work is rarely chosen for such an occasion, bearing in mind the wider popularity of Mozart’s Requiem, the Verdi Requiem or Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. However, the Petite Messe Solennelle is a work worthy of wider recognition, and performances by first class musicians can ensure us that Rossini extended his genius well beyond his operatic comedies; it has many splendid qualities with inspired solo passages for the four soloists, and the writing for both chorus and orchestra reveals a composer at the height of his powers.

In closing the Istanbul Music Festival, it is worth noting that there is a connection with Turkey as this review of the premiere in La Pays shows: ‘a religious piece, performed at 10:00 at night in front of an audience of women dressed to the nines, to inaugurate the mansion of a Protestant patrician, before the Papal nuncio, who spoke with goodly courtesy to the Ambassador from Turkey, while a Jewish artist [Jules Cohen] directed the orchestra.’

The venue for the closing concert could hardly be more suitable as the hall accommodates both orchestral concerts and opera and ballet. The Atatürk Cultural Centre is one of the finest buildings of its kind. Opened in 2021, the outside looks like any other modern structure with its glass windows looking onto Taksim Square, yet when one enters, one sees a great cherry red globe within which is the interior of the concert hall. Entering through a passageway, the entrance into the hall is like any other with sloping seating to the stage allowing unimpeded sight of the orchestra and performers. The acoustic picture is excellent with every slightest sound heard clearly.

There are two upper levels giving an audience capacity of 2040 visitors. The venue also contains a small theatre for 802 people, and there is a gallery, library, cinema, children’s centre, recording studio, and design centre. There are also shops, restaurants and cafes in the environment of the Atatürk Centre. The building is based on the former site of the Opera Theatre, which was destroyed by fire in 1970, and construction of the new building took only two years.

The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic is a top class ensemble, a quality which was evident when I heard them on their visit to Edinburgh earlier this year (review here), they are all locally born and led by an outstanding conductor in Carlo Tenan. Every department of the orchestra is formed of highly gifted professionals, and the strings have a glorious harmonic ambience which distinguishes them from many other orchestras. The woodwind is excellent with especially fine bassoon and clarinet players, and the brass group are superb, and the timpanist is excellent. The Slovak Philharmonic Chorus is among the finest in Europe and have a wide repertoire and has world class standards of singing.

The opening of the ‘Kyrie’ was equally emotive on the low strings, and ever so softly, the chorus began singing ‘Christe eleison’ creating a sense of expectancy before the orchestra entered. In the ‘Et in terra pax’, the four soloists were heavenly, with the magnificent bass of Nahuel Di Piero displaying great mastery, the soprano of Claudia Pavone was lyrically rich in her intonation. One of the highlights were the two harps placed on either side of the stage, intoning beautiful harmonies in accompanying the two sopranos in the ‘Qui tollis peccata mundi.’ The symphonic interlude following was terse and vivid before the Argentinian Di Pierro in ‘Quoniam tu solus sanctus’ presented great vocal power and nobility against the exquisite string playing and effervescent woodwind.

The passage for acappella chorus in the ‘Sanctus and Benediction’ was intensely powerful in emotive power. This was the focus of the entire performance and revealed the great artistry of this chorus, while the playing of the woodwind – especially the virtuosity of the clarinets and bassoons was a major highlight. The ‘Agnus Dei’ with the final chorus, and the extended solo for the alto of Tamar Ugrekhelidze was breathtaking in its magnificence, and to her credit the Georgian singer ensured that she enough energy and vocal powers for this final passage in which the ‘Agnus Dei ‘is sung three times in the same melody, but in different harmony, and closing on E major. As the composer wrote as he was writing the work, ‘So blessed be thou, and grant me Paradise.’ Rossini’s work, unpretentious as it may appear has a wonderful clarity in its voicing of both orchestral and vocal expression and reflects on this composer’s mastery of invention despite a thirty-fours gap following his last opera William Tell. This was a triumphant finale to this great Istanbul Festival and the appreciation by the packed concert hall was overwhelming in their gratitude to the performance.

Gregor Tassie

Featured Image: Atatürk Cultural Centre © Mühenna Kahveci

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