The 47th İstanbul Music Festival, organised by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and centred around the theme 'Darkness of Being, Lightness of Being', made its opening with a concert by the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lütfi Kırdar Convention and Exhibition Centre on the evening of 10 June. The Tekfen Philharmonic is in fact to give the opening concerts of the next three İstanbul Music Festivals as well.
At the opening concert of this year's festival the orchestra, conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov, accompanied the 24-year-old South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1 in C major, Op. 15. Described by the world's classical music authorities as 'poetic and appealing', Seong-Jin Cho was the winner of the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 2015. After the performance, he received a standing ovation lasting several minutes.
The Tekfen Philharmonic gave is going to give its second concert during the festival on 17 June, yet again at the Lütfi Kırdar. On the programme are Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6, the magnificent 'Pathétique' and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No 1, in which the soloist is world-famous German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott.
"Cho is truly wonderful: music flows from him so easily and with such elegant perfection that one happily accepts his interpretations."
- BBC Music Magazine