Press

Pure perfection
By John Shakespeare Dyson | November 25, 2024


On October 16 I made my way to the Süreyya Opera House in Kadıköy to hear the violinist Bahar Büyükgönenç and the pianist Tutu Aydınoğlu play works by Zoltán Kodály, Johannes Brahms, Manuel de Falla, Robert Schumann and Fikret Amirov. For the first time I had the privilege of sitting in a private box (someone else’s, I hasten to add) at the Süreyya Opera House, and was thus able to rest my trusty notebook on the narrow shelf atop the wall of the box. Usually I have to nurse the notebook in which I write my comments on the performance in my lap, where it is in danger of falling onto the floor each time I clap. The more enthusiastically I applaud, of course, the more likely it is that I will end up fishing for my notebook on the floor in the dark – to the discomfort and annoyance of my neighbours. (Few people enjoy having their ankles groped during a concert. However agreeable the sensation itself may be, it does tend to disturb the concentration.)

Bahar Büyükgönenç began learning the violin with Prof. Nuri İyicil at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatoire at the age of 11. She then went on to study with Veniamin Varshavskiy at the Istanbul University State Conservatoire. From 2002 to 2005 she was concert master (i.e. leader of the first violins) at the Cemal Reşit Rey Symphony Orchestra. Her association with the CRR Jazz Orchestra, meanwhile, is ongoing. In 2007 she began playing in the violin virtuoso Cihat Aşkın’s Aşkın Ensemble, and that same year started teaching at the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatoire. In 2018 she transferred to the Maltepe University Conservatoire, where she currently teaches.

The Azeri pianist Tutu Aydınoğlu began playing the piano at the age of 6, subsequently receiving tuition from Prof. O. Abaskuliyev and Prof. Meral Yapalı. She is currently an academician and teacher at the Istanbul University State Conservatoire. Ms Aydınoğlu is known for her performances of works by Azeri composers. Among these are Fikret Amirov and Elmira Nazirova’s Piano Concerto after Arabian Themes, and Pike Axundova’s İstiklal Triosu (Independence Trio), written to celebrate the centenary in 2018 of the foundation of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In addition she takes an interest in Turkish classical music. As a researcher she has carried out projects on subjects such as ‘Traces of the Ottomans in Western Music’ and ‘Sultan Abdülhamid’s Lost Piano’.

The first item on the duo’s programme on October 16 was the Adagio for Violin and Piano by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967). This piece was unfamiliar to me, and I was pleasantly surprised both by the Adagio itself – an early work, written in 1905, that packs a considerable emotional punch – and by the quality of the performance. I especially appreciated the evenly-played upward arpeggio flourishes produced by the pianist, who was wearing a bright red dress that contrasted with the tortoiseshell tones sported by the violinist. Here is a rendering of the Adagio by two Romanians: the violinist and conductor Ştefan Ruha (1931-2004), and the pianist and Cluj-Napoca Music Academy professor Ferdinand Weiss (1932-–2002).