In the first half of this concert, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the Japanese-born American conductor Toshiyuki Shimada, is to accompany the young Turkish pianist Emre Şen in Brahms’s three-movement Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor, completed in 1858 – five years after Brahms had met Robert and Clara Schumann and impressed them with his piano pieces. After the interval, the orchestra will play Schumann’s Symphony No 1, also known as his ‘Spring Symphony’, a work composed in 1841 with the encouragement of Robert’s wife Clara (née Wieck), whom he had married the previous year.
Emre Şen, a native of Ankara, began his musical training at the Hacettepe University State Conservatoire, subsequently studying at the Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts. He then received further tuition in Rome, Paris, New York and London. His career was launched when he won the 5th Rome International Piano Competition in 1995. Emre Şen’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1, recorded in Istanbul with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Outside music, his major interest is Gestalt psychotherapy, a subject in which he has received training.
This is one of the Denizbank Concerts series.
Issue 67, December 2024
Beauty in the Wilderness
