Review: "Sinfonia concertante" with CRR Symphony Orchestra Istanbul

On March 16th, it was a big pleasure to perform Mozart's best-known work in the whole violin & viola duo repertoire, under the direction of Polish conductor Rafał Kłoczko (who also has a doctorate in musicology), and with the talented members of the CRR Symphony Orchestra in Istanbul.

In the second half, the orchestra performed Smetana's Má vlast.

I consider myself blessed and honored to have debuted with the “Sinfonia concertante” with dear Miguel da Silva, who was a founding member of the world-renowned Ysaÿe Quartet. We played the second movement of Mozart's Duo in G major as an encore. Miguel has a very, very personal sound and a deep musical personality. Because of our busy schedules, we could only catch a super early flight to Istanbul on the day of the concert, and immediately going into the dress rehearsal.

I was also happy to see some familiar faces in the audience: apart from many of my dear friends, musicologist Ersin Antep, journalist Evin İlyasoğlu and historian Prof. İlber Ortaylı were also among the audience.

Big thanks to the CRR members for the great performance and their Music Director Murat Cem Orhan, as well as everyone else involved for making this concert possible.