Muziekpublique concert in October: a journey that began in XIX century Turkey

12 October 2018 Mauricio Ruiz

Mauricio Ruiz

At eight o’clock the journey began in nineteenth century Turkey. On stage sat four musicians who became the crew on a ship sailing through the seas of melodious tones and rhythms. On Wednesday, October 11^th, 2018, at the Moliere Theater in Brussels, Muziekpublique hosted Arianna Savall (Swizterland), Petter Udland Johansen (Norway), Tristan Driessens (Belgium), and Murat Coskun (Turkey) for a concert that spanned several centuries and distant countries.

After Tristan Driessens opened the concert with a solo oud melody from the Ottoman court of Sultan Aziz the audience broke into applause (the oud is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped stringed instrument with 11 or 13 strings).

There were songs (cantigas) from the times of the Galician-Portuguese kingdom of Alfonso XI The Wise, followed by a melody written by Sufi master and poet Roumi, as well as songs from the Faroe Islands and the west coast of Norway.

The music performed was often syncopated with joyful, sometimes unpredictable rhythms. Murat Coskun displayed his mastery of several types of bendir, and also sang in Turkish (the bendir is a wooden-framed frame drum of North Africa and the Middle East).

Savall played the harp and sang old Sephardic songs in Spanish and Ladino, while Udland Johanssen played both the mandolin and the hardginfele or traditional Norwegian violin

Half-way through the concert the audience was offered a surprise: on stage came Vardan Hovanissian (Armenia), and Emre Gültekin (Turkey), who joined the ensemble to perform a mournful Turkish-Armenian anonymous song. Hovanissian delighted the public with the sounds of his duduk (Armenian oboe), while Gültekin sang with sullen sadness and plucked at his saz (saz or bağlama is a stringed musical instrument commonly played in Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, among other regions). On Friday, October 19^th, Hovanissian and Gültekin will release their latest album, which has been produced by Muziekpublique‘s own record label. To celebrate such an occasion, both musicians will offer a special-release concert at the Moliere Theater on the same day at 20:00.

In October Muziekpublique has lined up several concerts aimed at offering an eclectic mix to the public in Brussels: