By Zeynep Altay

A brilliant performance by Aldemir

The night before yesterday, Atilla Aldemir, accompanied by the Israeli pianist Itamar Golan, took stage in “Cemal Reşit Rey” concert hall in Istanbul, where he performed the “Devil’s Trill Sonata, Op. 1” by Giuseppe Tartini and Edvard Grieg’s Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano, and in the concert’s second part, the “Märchenbilder” by Robert Schumann and the “Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 120” von Brahms. The artists paid back the audience’s ovations by encoring with Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz” and the “Hungarian Dance” by Brahms. In August of 2008, Aldemir had won the 3^rd prize among 75 contestants for his viola performance with the “Sonata for Viola and Piano” by Brahms at the 15^th International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria, as well as the award for best interpretation of a contemporary work.

Aldemir’s performance together with pianist Itamar Golan, who has been working with renowned musicians of our time for almost two decades both as soloist and as accompanist, turned into one of the unforgettable concert experiences at the CRR not least because of the instruments he plays, a J.B. Vuillaume violin from the year 1840 and a Zanetto Peregrino viola from 1560. Among the raptured listeners were also Aldemir’s former instructors – State Artist Ayla Erduran and Prof. Çiğdem İyicil – plus a large number of tutors, students and performers of this discipline, including violin professors Gönül Gökdoğan and Ceyda Uzgören, and concert violinist Özcan Ulucan. While Erduran praised the concert as “superb”, İyicil and Uzgören used the following words to voice their delight: “We listened with great pleasure to each and every second of these magnificent notes and his exceptional musicality. Aldemir’s handles both instruments as confidently as he commands the stage; to express everything he wants, and to communicate it on to his audience comes naturally to him. He mastered the programme, which consisted of sophisticated works, with flying colours, both in terms of technique and musically. Furthermore he was accompanied by an outstanding piano talent: Itamar Golan has the rare ability to support and sustain a violinist in the best possible way.”