Violist Atilla Aldemir brings a touch of Berlin to Istanbul
Turkish violinist-violist Atilla Aldemir will perform on Oct. 23 at the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall in Istanbul. (Photo courtesy of Atilla Aldemir)
October 21, 2014, Tuesday/ 16:58:42/ ALEXANDRA IVANOFF / BERLIN
On Thursday at Istanbul's Cemal Resit Rey concert Hall (crr), Atilla Aldemir, one of Turkey's top young musicians, will bring a touch of Berlin, his recently adopted city, back to Istanbul.
Aldemir has spent the last year undergoing a trial period for a coveted position in the Konzerthaus orchestra Berlin. On Sept. 1, 2013 he was chosen, out of hundreds of auditionees, to be assistant principal viola. The position required 12 months of intense scrutiny in order to be granted a permanent contract. The reason he was successful will be evident in Thursday evening's program at CRR when he performs a viola concerto by 18th century composer Franz Hoffmeister with a select ensemble of his colleagues from the Konzerthaus Orchestra.
“The first year with a German orchestra appointment is basically a test,” Aldemir told Today's Zaman. “A very tough test! There were 340 applicants for this position initially. Then it was narrowed down to 35, then 2, and then they chose me. I felt so honoured. But then the real work began. First of all, you must prepare all the parts by heart [to prevent making mistakes]. If you make a mistake, you can correct it, but the third time you're out. Secondly, you cannot be late! If you are even five minutes late, you're fined 30 euro. Thirdly, if someone corrects you, you cannot react. And you cannot talk at all during rehearsal. It's German discipline. There are several officers within the orchestra who are watching you. All that was very stressful. But if you succeed, you'll get to enjoy the next 30 years playing with a great orchestra.”
The Konzerthaus Orchestra is, based on the German tiered rating system (using letters A, B, and C), an A level ensemble - only the Berlin Philharmonic has a higher rating of A+. The Konzerthaus Orchestra has the internationally renowned Iván Fischer as its Chief Conductor. At this point in Aldemir's life, he's living his dream. “It's a fantastic atmosphere here,” he says. “I love Maestro Fischer and this orchestra.” But what about all that stress? “It creates a good orchestra!” he exclaims!
Aldemir's very special viola
A graduate of the Mimar Sinan State Conservatory of Music in Istanbul and the Conservatories of Music in Detmold and Essen (Germany), Aldemir was awarded Istanbul's Donizetti Music Award, ”The Year's Best String Performer”, in 2011. Prior to that, he had won several prizes in the Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria – in both violin and viola categories. After ten years of freelance work in Europe, the USA, Israel and Egypt, he was invited to audition for the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin.
On Oct. 23, the Konzerthaus Orchestra, led by its concertmaster Michael Erxleben, will show Istanbul audiences the results of all that German discipline. They will perform Mozart's Symphony in A Major and Bruckner's Quintet in F major for strings, in addition to the Hoffmeister concerto. One of the unusual features of this concert is the instrument that Aldemir will be playing -- a Zanetto Pellegrino viola, made in 1560.
I had the opportunity to hear Aldemir play this 454 year old viola in concert on Oct. 19 in a special “Kiez Konzert” (District Concert), one of a series organized by the Konzerthaus Berlin in various areas of the city. With one of the members of the orchestra's first violin section, Adriana Porteanu, Aldemir performed duos by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Martinu's Three Madrigals and Ahmet Adnan Saygun's Demet (Bouquet) Suite for Violin and Piano, based on Black Sea dances, and arranged for violin and viola by Aldemir himself.
While a program performed by only two people may sound tame on paper, it was in reality a tour de force. All 15 compositions were strenuous tests of agility, ensemble precision and stylistic demands. The live acoustics and ultra-intimate setting of the Schloss Schönhausen, a restored Baroque palace in the Pankow district, provided additional challenges.
Both players met all the challenges with plenty of confidence and energy, flying through hundreds of intricately woven phrases, creating tonal beauty -- especially the lovely serenade with sublime muted fluttering in Martinu's Second Madrigal. The icing on the cake was the voluminous tone of Aldemir's extraordinary viola. His performance on it, in those particular acoustics, was a delicious experience in voluptuous richness coupled with expressive acumen.
“This viola is worth around $2 million dollars,” Aldemir explained. “It's not mine, it's on loan from my former teacher who has been granted access to it by the owners. I recently played it for a special ceremony that celebrated 65 years of the press in Germany - I sat next to the President of Germany, Joachim Gauch, and the Turkish EU Minister, Volkan Bozkır. I played music by Mozart [with colleagues], and President Gauch spoke very eloquently about music and thanked us all by name. I also proposed a pilot program to Minister Bozkır to get Turkish children more involved in music.”
As an educator, Aldemir found sponsorship in Istanbul last year to start the Efes Anadolu Music Academy where he taught scores of young students alongside one of Istanbul's esteemed violinists, Ayla Erduran. That fostered his ambition to undertake similar projects in Berlin. “I want to go to the Turkish Ambassador to discuss designing a teaching program for Turkish children in Berlin. I wish for orchestral principal players to have the opportunity to build bridges between the Turkish community and the classical music community. I think Turks here are still too shy to come to hear classıcal concerts.”
In Berlin, Aldemir continues to distinguish himself in the Konzerthaus' schedule of chamber concerts that are part of a busy season that lasts until the end of June. On November 29, he will team up with two other string colleagues for a trio concert of Beethoven, Martinu, and Schubert. Until then, Aldemir is happy to bring the Konzerthaus -- and his special viola -- to Istanbul to share a touch of Berlin.