The ‘U2 alternative’: National Youth Symphony Orchestra

The National Youth Symphony (Ulusal Gençlik Senfoni Orkestrası), a training and performing program founded in 2007, is composed of students in the state conservatories of Ankara, İzmir, Eskişehir, Adana, İstanbul, Mersin and Bursa. Auditions are held every year for a two-week “camp” at Sabancı University, where they prepare under Mansur’s guidance for a European concert tour. The Sabancı Foundation, with 10 other sponsors and, this year, the 2010 European Capital of Culture (and the endorsement of the Prime Minister’s Office of Cultural Affairs), pool their money to support the housing, transportation and daily expenses of the program. It’s a “school of democracy” as Mansur calls it, as it involves inculcating discipline, respect and communication through fine music-making. But it also takes Turkey’s best and shows it to the West.

Fine music-making

At times during the performance, I wasn’t even aware that the orchestra was composed of college kids with an average age of 20. The remarkable level of individual proficiency and collective acumen was better than many professional orchestras I’ve heard, which allowed me the luxury to cease critical thinking and just enjoy the grandeur of the music. U. C. Erkin’s piece, “Köçekçe” (which seems to be mandatory here in Turkey for any orchestra), I’ve probably heard 10 times in two years. This rendition, between the strings’ exotic sweep and the wind players’ many evocative solos, provided the kind of prowess necessary to regard it anew as a highly entertaining composition that distills an old orientalist fantasy in modern language.

As a centerpiece of the program, Italian violinist Salvatore Accardo played the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, enabling the orchestra to learn how to be a sensitive accompanist. There are plenty of opportunities for the basics: not playing too loudly as to drown out the soloist, being acutely aware of the soloist’s tempo changes and instinctively knowing the difference between being an accompanist and a soloistic body of sound. And Accardo’s way of playing was that of a paternal pedagogue; his body was almost turned toward them as if to lead the troops and show them the way. Thus, synchronicity was assured. His encore was one of his countryman’s finest: from Niccolo Paganini’s famous Violin Etudes, for which Accardo’s dazzling technical wizardry still shines at age 69.

The second half of the program pulled out all the stops. All 98 students were onstage for “Scheherazade,” a three-part suite in which almost everyone had a solo moment or a glorious sectional display of blazing rhythms and voluptuous melodies. Particularly stunning were the flutists’ virtuosity, the precision of the triple-tonguing trumpets, the violins’ lush sonority in the second movement, the strength and solidity of the bassoon and harp soloists and the vibrantly shimmering and emotionally imbued solos of the concertmistress that evening, Lale Askerova.

The finest students

For Beril Demirçelik, a trumpeter from Hacettepe University, this was her second year with the orchestra. “It’s so much fun! All of us when we meet are total strangers; then after, we’re all best friends,” she exclaims. Though she’s talking about the social aspects, her ensemble skills were doubly sharpened, as reported by horn player Volkan Kartal, also from Hacettepe. “This is a big, big orchestra experience,” he explains. “We grow so much from this opportunity to play a major repertoire in a big group.” Ditto, agrees Şerif Bagirov, a clarinetist from Edirne’s Trakya University. “The Maestro loves all of us, and that makes it so exciting,” acknowledging the supportive environment for exciting young talent.

Violinist Askerova, a recent graduate of Eskişehir’s State Conservatory and now effectively “graduating” from the Youth Orchestra’s program, will go to Moscow next week to begin studies at the famed Tchaikovsky Conservatory. And horn player Kartal, also finishing his second year with the program, is leaving for Berlin very soon for further professional study.

So many millions...

Some U2 ticket buyers stood in line all day on Monday and then were on their feet all evening for the entire concert to participate in the thrilling cylindrical music/video extravaganza. In my opinion, U2’s audience was unwittingly part and parcel of İstanbul’s desire to be regarded as hip on the world’s pop culture map, and they helped pay the huge tab, too: 2.5 million euros from the 2010 Capital of Culture committee and more support from the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Art (İKSV) partially paid U2’s obscenely high fee of 4 million euros for its presence here. And the audience’s deep pockets paid the rest.