Vivaldi in Turkey!

The Kölner Akademie is going on a journey! We are looking forward to a very special concert on June 16, 2023, the day we serenade the “Italian Baroque legend” Antonio Vivaldi on his 345th birthday, when the evening’s program will revolve entirely around his music.

To this day, Antonio Vivaldi is considered the quintessential Italian Baroque composer. The Venetian, who hardly ever left the city of his birth, was very well connected in these circumstances, and also knew and admired, for example, the music of his German contemporaries. He himself was known far beyond the borders of Italy, as can be seen, for example, in arrangements of his works by Johann Sebastian Bach. His musical oeuvre is almost inexhaustible, which tempts some critics to claim that his works all sound the same. The fact is, however, that Vivaldi, through his pedagogical activities at the “Ospedali”, Venice’s orphanages for girls, where great emphasis was also placed on musical education, composed constantly and not infrequently wrote the music to the girls’ bodies.

The high quality of the musical performances in the Ospedali was soon known far beyond the borders of Venice. In its concert in Ankara, the Kölner Akademie exploits the full range of Vivaldi’s instrumental output as well as the capabilities of the members of the Kölner Akademie. In instrumental concertos as well as symphonies, the orchestra appears partly as a whole, while the soloists, for example in Vivaldi’s famous flute concerto “Il gardellino”, also come from the ranks of the Kölner Akademie. As a special guest, the mandolin superstar Alon Sariel will travel together with the Kölner Akademie.

Philharmonic hall, not jazz podium; Mozart festival not cult TV rock program – back then, Alon had not foreseen how things would develop: back then, in 1994, when his music teacher told the eight-year-old that the mandolin and the electric guitar were “basically the same thing”. This was a momentous deception that was to deliver to the world of music one of the most versatile mandolin players, lutenists and ensemble directors of the present day. In his concert programs, Alon uses the lute, Baroque guitar, oud and other plucked instruments to give his audiences the most diverse musical experiences. The mandolin, which has survived the centuries and found its place in the most varied of music styles and cultures, occupies a very special place in his heart.

We are very happy to join him in bringing the music of Antonio Vivaldi to Ankara!