Open up a world of Turkish inspiration with a Cornucopia digital subscription

Buy or gift a stand-alone digital subscription and get unlimited access to dozens of back issues for just £18.99 / $18.99 a year.

Please register at www.exacteditions.com/digital/cornucopia with your subscriber account number or contact subscriptions@cornucopia.net

Buy a digital subscription Go to the Digital Edition

The magnificent four

The Borusan Quartet

John Shakespeare Dyson begins a new series on the stars of the Turkish classical music firmament. The Borusan Quartet take centre stage. Photograph by Monica Fritz

I first listened to the Borusan String Quartet on a snowy December day five years ago. The venue was the Süreyya Opera House in Kadıköy, an agreeably retro cultural mini-hub dating from the 1920s. What impressed me about the quartet was their discipline: in Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet they allowed themselves no more than the merest smidgeon of rubato, keeping strictly in time throughout. It crossed my mind that it might be the influence of Gökhan Aybulus, the Moscow-trained pianist they were accompanying, that was restraining them from any untoward display of beat-defying emotion. I soon realised, however, that their playing was of such high quality that it did not need to wear its heart on its sleeve, but was content to let the composer speak with no intrusive interpolations from intermediaries. I was hooked.

Other Highlights from Cornucopia 65
Buy the issue
Issue 65, January 2023 Roman Roads
£15.00 / $18.90 / 667.20 TL
Cornucopia Digital Subscription

The Digital Edition

Cornucopia works in partnership with the digital publishing platform Exact Editions to offer individual and institutional subscribers unlimited access to a searchable archive of fascinating back issues and every newly published issue. The digital edition of Cornucopia is available cross-platform on web, iOS and Android and offers a comprehensive search function, allowing the title’s cultural content to be delved into at the touch of a button.

Digital Subscription: £18.99 / $18.99 (1 year)

Subscribe now