Nikolai Demidenko at the Istanbul Recitals
By John Shakespeare Dyson | November 24, 2019
© Marco Boggreve, Courtesy Istanbul Recitals The second of the season’s Istanbul Recitals was given last Friday by the Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko at The Seed, in Emirgan (photograph by Natalie Lafranchi). And what a contrast to the previous performer, Valentina Lisitsa! Where Ms Lisitsa was flamboyant, Mr Demidenko was...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
A new book from France on Istanbul’s ‘Latin Quarter’
By Rose Shepherd | November 10, 2019
Just a day before the long-anticipated opening of the spectacular new Arter in Dolapdere – relocated from its original home on bustling İstiklâl Caddesi – a French-language book,
Istanbul Rive Gauche, by Timour Muhidine, hit the bookstores, a timely reminder, should we need one, that Istanbul’s subversive Left Bank has...
By John Shakespeare Dyson | November 2, 2019
© M. Boggreve, courtesy Istanbul Recitals And so the new season gets under way in the Istanbul music scene.
Hayırlı olsun (‘May it be productive of good’ – and no broken fingers, cracked clarinets, or wrecked pianos.) 2020 is a real snorter of a year from the astrological point of...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
By John Scott | October 20, 2019
Koranic Instruction, signed and dated Osman Hamdy Bey 1890, is the latest painting by unmistakable Orientalist, pupil of Gerome and founder of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum to come to auction In London in the past few weeks. The estimate is £3–5 million. The setting, meticulously drawn, is the Yeşil Cami...
The Wandering Ney, by Drake Mabry
By Lauren Davis | October 5, 2019
Two new albums of original compositions adapted for the ney have been released by musician Drake Mabry. Mabry studied under the famed neyzen and teacher İsmail Hakkı. The ney, a end-blown long reed flute, has a long history that spans at least 3000 years and is a traditional component of...
By Cornucopia | September 29, 2019
In a recent BBC radio programme,
Istanbul's Factory of Tears, Isabel Finkel examines the story of Arabesk, kitsch, melancholy, popular, sad. Strongly recommended.
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Music & Performing Arts, Talks and Lectures
Clement Dodd, 1926–2019
By David Barchard | September 1, 2019
Clement Dodd, the veteran British political scientist who wrote about Turkey and Cyprus for over half a century, was fond of saying that he had taken up the study of politics after an initial career as a civil servant because he had noticed that in the Middle East politics killed...
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Obituaries
By John Scott | August 31, 2019
With so much amazing talent around, such as the show-stealing Elif Çağlar, it is hardly surprising that Turkey takes its jazz seriously. There are two major festivals in Istanbul alone: the Istanbul Jazz Festival in July and the autumn Akbank Jazz Festival. And there is plenty on offer elsewhere in...
The Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra is born again again
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 31, 2019
The Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra permformed at the Türkiye İş Bankası megatower concert hall in Levent on Sunday, July 21. The orchestra’s main sponsor is the Sabancı Foundation: the need for a sponsor resulting from the fact that the Turkish State does not support it. In spite of the refusal...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
The Istanbul Jazz Fest
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 21, 2019
The New York-based band Snarky Puppy gave a concert at the UNIQ Open-Air Stage on Tuesday July 9. The supporting group was Shake Stew, an Austrian outfit. Whether the music was jazz-rock, or funk, or groove, is immaterial: in any case, I would not be able to tell you, for...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
Turhan Selçuk smiles satirically, almost vaguely, and you find yourself joining him – Yaşar Kemal
By Luke Frostick | July 12, 2019
And that, as the great novelist said, is what great art is about. Minimalism is the key to Turhan Selçuk’s art – his drawings all bold black lines and harsh angles. However, as is so often the case with the best artists, simplicity can be deceptive. His torpedo passing through...
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Exhibitions, Fine Art, Literature
If you ask Chick Corea, it's Aydın Esen
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 12, 2019
There are some concerts – not many, just a few – that leave you with a feeling of euphoria, allowing you to forget everything that makes life a burden for just a few precious hours. The concert by the jazz pianist and composer Aydın Esen and his group on Friday,...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
The 2019 Istanbul Music Festival's sell-out finale
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 5, 2019
Sunday, June 30 was the last day of this year’s İKSV Istanbul Music Festival, and the occasion was marked by a concert in which the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and Fazıl Say performed at the Lütfi Kırdar Concert Hall. There were very few empty seats in the auditorium, though whether this...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
With the viola legend Yuri Bashmet on the menu along with a new piece by Alexander Tchaikovsky, you’d expect the works… Hmmm
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 30, 2019
In the second week of the İKSV Istanbul Music Festival the Moscow Soloists and viola-player Yuri Bashmet gave a concert at Hagia Eirene on Thursday, June 20. Sitting in the grassy area between this venerable Byzantine pile and the inner gate of Topkapı Palace before the concert began, I watched...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
Farewll to the inspirational founder of The World of Interiors
By John Scott | June 30, 2019
So soon after Norman Stone, it is heart-breaking to learn that another much-loved contributor to
Corncuopia has just died. Min Hogg was the founding editor of the most beautiful magazine in the world and a huge inspiration to many.
The Times published a fine obituary this week for the 'flamboyant...
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Obituaries
The story of the carpet connoisseur's essential companion
By Daniel Shaffer | June 29, 2019
This week, HALI magazine marked its 200th issue with a series of celebratory London-based events, including lectures, book launches, an antique carpet and textile art fair, exclusive group access to museum storage and private collections, and a post-event HALI tour of significant English collections of antique carpets and textiles. There...
Celebrating 40 years and 200 editions of the magazine
By Cornucopia UK | June 27, 2019
HALI is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the 200th edition of HALI magazine with an exhibition of antique rugs, textiels and tribal art at the Mall Galleries in London, the first time it has held an event at the venue. As always the show is full of panache and charcter...
Online edition free to subscribers
By Cornucopia UK | June 27, 2019
The latest issue of
Cornucopia, No 59, is just out, and it marks the start of a new phase for the magazine, as it goes online. From now on, all issues will be available for subscribers to scroll through the elegant pages not just of the latest issues, but back...
A fond tribute to the the historian Norman Stone, a fearless advocate of Turkey, who died at his home in Budapest yesterday
By David Barchard | June 20, 2019
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If Norman Stone and Professor Ali Doğramacı, then rector of Bilkent University, had not shared a flash of inspiration during an international conference in Ankara in 1995, the love affair between the country and its most famous international academic friend might never have begun. Norman was in Ankara, at a...
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Obituaries
Daniel Müller-Schott and the Tekfen Philharmonic at the Istanbul Festival
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 19, 2019
The Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra gave its second concert of this year’s İKSV Festival in the Lütfi Kırdar Concert Hall on June 17. As with their Spring Concert on March 21, it was the day of a full moon, and once again the spacious terrace outside the building was an ideal...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
