Anyone who has been reading our posts for a while will know that we are fans of classical music. Every now and then we are drawn to concerts when we are travelling. However, we haven't really found what we're looking for in Turkey yet. Is it because we don't speak the language or because the programme is not immediately obvious to us?
In Batman, with our friends, we finally have time to enquire. Tamer quickly sends us a link. On Friday, there will be a concert with a choir and one or two tenors to mark the 100th anniversary of Puccini's death.
Well, if that's nothing to go on. I click through the Turkish-language ticket page, understand only the train station and find exactly two contiguous seats in the cheapest category. The website warns me that the seats are very high, so anyone with a fear of heights should think twice. (I think about it for a moment, don't tell Gerd and book). We pay CHF 4.02 including ticket fee for two seats. The more expensive rows directly in front of the stage wouldn't have been much more expensive either, but the whole concert is sold out.
In the evening, we walk down the hill from our hotel into the city, admire the Melike Hatun Mosque in the evening light and a little later stand in front of the Philharmonic Hall, glistening and brightly lit by the rain.
The project for the Presidential Philharmonic Hall in Ankara began in 1992 with an architectural competition, from which the design by Semra Uygur and Özcan Uygur emerged as the winner.
The architecture of the Philharmonie is characterised by striking and dynamic Euclidean (???) forms. A central feature is the huge, egg-shaped domed roof that spans the symphony concert hall with 2,000 seats and a smaller, spherical dome for the chamber music hall with up to 500 seats. Both halls are part of a triangular prismatic foyer, which was designed as an "urban space" and is open to the public. It is said that the entire complex looks like a crater lake and out of this world.
Although we are more traditional architecture fans, we feel very much at home here. What's funny (and a little reminiscent of Berlin Airport) is that the construction took place over a period of 29 years, during which five presidents, ten prime ministers and twenty different ministers of culture were in office. Due to changing government priorities, the project was revised several times, with new technologies and current construction progress being integrated into the design.
In any case, we want to have dinner in the bistro, watch the people and immerse ourselves in Ankara's cultural life. We sit down at a table with a gentleman and the hour and a half until the concert flies by. Our conversation centres on the differences between Ankara and Istanbul, the Turkish school system, final exams for teenagers, the world conquest of 3D printers and the dream of riding a Vespa all the way to Italy. Perhaps the last topic is due to the fact that our neighbour at the table also happens to be the chairman of the capital's Vespa club. Who knows?
The bell rings and everyone pours into the Mother Hall, as it is called here. We are impressed by its size and climb up the steps to our seats. It's quite steep up here, but not bad at all. We have a good view, the concert is sold out. No more free seats!
Wow, and then it starts, a dream of acoustics, almost perfect music, unfortunately many pieces unknown to us. But the pleasure remains. Conductor Andrea Solinas, tenor Gianluca Terranova and baritone Sergio Vitale perform together with the TRT Ankara Radyosu Choir under the direction of B. Elnara Kerimova. The programme includes works by Giacomo Puccini, including pieces from the operas "Le Villi", "La Boheme", "Manon Lescaut", "Gianni Schicchi", "Suor Angelica", "Madama Butterfly", "Turandot" and "Messe de Gloria".
And I realise that I don't know what I like best about an evening like this. The well-dressed and always friendly people, the glittering instruments, the evening dresses and tails of the musicians, the unspeakably harmonious music or the choir, which is simply impressive. Everything together is just so overwhelming.
During the interval, we try to send a thank-you message to Tamer, our friend in Batman. Unfortunately, all phone signals have been jammed during the concert, no call goes out, no call comes in. Well, not a bad idea.
Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the concert ends far too soon after just under two hours. We walk back through the rain-soaked and shiny city and trudge one last time to our hotel, which, clever of us, is centrally located and has the best view, but on a fairly high mountain. Once we reach the top, it's pouring with rain and we're just glad that we got to the concert on dry feet and not like wet cats on the way back.
Sources: https://www.archdaily.com/970760/the-presidential-symphony-orchestra-concert-hall-and-choir-buildings-uygur-architects & https://www.e-architect.com/turkey/the-presidential-symphony-orchestra-concert-hall-ankara & https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-news/emhzp/uygur-architects-completes-presidential-symphony-concert-hall-and-choir-buildings-in-turkey.html & https://csoadaankara.ktb.gov.tr/tr/event/detail/6102/6117/-cumhurbaskanligi-senfoni-orkestrasi-puccini-nin-olumunun-100.-yil-donumu-ozel-konseri
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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