Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin captivates audience in Türkiye

By Faruk Zorlu

ANKARA (AA) - The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO Berlin) conducted by Giovanni Antonini amazed the audience in the capital Ankara on Wednesday with an Austrian lyric soprano, Anna Prohaska.

Türkiye's Baskent Culture Road Festival enjoyed a special performance by DSO Berlin, one of Germany's leading orchestras, at the Presidential Symphony Orchestra (CSO) Concert Hall as part of the festival, held by the country's Culture and Tourism Ministry.

With the rich dramaturgy of its concert program, the ensemble was directed by Antonini, an Italian conductor, with a soloist on the recorder and baroque transverse flute and accompanied by the outstanding soprano Prohaska.

The orchestra interpreted Beethoven's Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus; Mozart's La clemenza di Tito KV 621 - Ecco il punto, oh Vitellia - Non piu di fiori; Joseph Haydn's Overture to L'isola disabitata and Scena di Berenice, Hob XXIVa: 10 for soprano and orchestra; and Beethoven's Second Symphony in D major respectively.

Dating back to the post-World War II era, the DSO Berlin was established as a radio orchestra -- the RIAS Symphony Orchestra (Radio in the American Sector) -- in 1946 in West Berlin.

Later, the orchestra was renamed the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin in 1956, and then it received its current name - the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin - in 1993, reflecting the reunification of Germany in 1990.

In 2011, The DSO Berlin won a Grammy Award for the premiere recording of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's opera L'amour de loin conducted under Kent Nagano.

Aiming to introduce Ankara's cultural, architectural and historical heritage to the international arena, the Capital Culture Road Festival will host 560 events attended by 5,971 artists, 179 academics and historians.

In addition to DSO Berlin, Latin Grammy Award-winning singer Concha Buika, Salif Keita, one of Mali's most beloved singer-songwriters, and Bosnian-Herzegovinian artist Dino Merlin took the stage in Ankara as part of the festival, which runs until June 12.

The Turkish State Polyphonic Choir is also set to play the works of Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Samuel Barber and Peteris Vasks at the CSO ADA Ankara concert complex.