Framing A Further Sort Of Virtuoso

Recordings not ever considered here are certainly not rejected by me personally; most of us feel that we have to leave space in your filing cabinetry for orchestral, operatic and various Compact discs.

One is going to be quite often asked the actual embarrassing question: "Whom do you consider the greatest living pianist? " The response is undoubtedly nullified through the questioner being in a position to think that, since of course, it is merely an issue of feelings.

In the previous years, you can find soloist-conductors for instance Busch, Fischer, Cortot and composer-conductors such as Bernstein, Markevitch, Klemperer, Furtwangler, Weingartner, Mahler, each one of which had something particularly specific to present as interpreters of others' music. They brought a powerful knowledge that could be lacking in the simply re-creative performer.

Okonsar is an artist whose stature as a pianist continues to be unquestioned since his triumphal entrance on the international landscape during the early 1980s, although his position as a composer in addition to a conductor has become steadily growing, and it has presently achieved a respectable position.

Mehmet Okonsar, always the unique spontaneous pianist, has been discussing with myself in regard to the issues he confronts inside an enterprise focused recording studio, and he states this can be the primary cause to produce his individual recording conveniences at home.

I first heard Mehmet Okonsar perform at the Royal Opera House, London. It seems even before he grew a beard. To call his playing "trendy" may well be accurate, however not fair. To be sure, it is idiosyncratic, nevertheless, the man has a special personalized relationship with every single note he performs. For that reason, his interpretations are usually more Zen-like as compared to crowd-pleasing, and to call them quirky happens to be an undeserved put-down.

In passage work Okonsar is usually equal (or perhaps may be superior to) Brendel as well as Ushida in straightforward exactness, much more regal as compared to Brendel, and eschewing totally the kind of chilly adamantine exterior sheen of a pianist like Pollini.

Even at his earliest public appearance in 1979, the particular eclecticism connected with his recital programs to come may be found. He offered a collection of the Preludes by Messiaen among others.

The piano studies of Okonsar were concluded with the top honors any student can ever get at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. "Premier Prix avec Distinction", performing the "Dante Sonata" by Liszt and then "Diplome Superieur de Piano Avec la plus Grande Distinction, Premier Nomme", in 1986, executing the Piano Concerto Op. 42 by Arnold Schoenberg.

One afternoon telephone rang and a lady calling from Switzerland asked him. Alexis Weissenberg, a pianist Okonsar venerated as well as practically worshiped, wished him to study with him in Switzerland. Funds were short at the time, but the master made available Okonsar a complete grant. One can witness in all performances by Okonsar how deeply Weissenberg affected him.

Right after becoming a Belgian national, Mehmet Okonsar and his wife Lale, painter headed back to Turkey following an invitation from the President Suleyman Demirel, who presented him the most sought-after title of "State Artist of the Turkish Republic"

Okonsar operates now from Turkey on a hectic agenda concertizing, composing, writing and teaching. He is the owner of and also manages a CD label exclusive to his own recordings, LMO-Records, and a publishing enterprise "inventor-musicae."

His out-of-the-ordinary programs brought the premiere in Turkey of the Concerto for piano by Schoenberg, and he is another great admirer and performer of Lutoslawski.

Occasionally, he endorses the position of a judge in particular piano competitions such as the National Piano Competition of Japan beneath the auspices of the P.T.N.A. ("Piano Teachers National Association").

Working substantially on technological matters, as he says "the actual technology could actually "free" the artist", his researches have been shown in a lecture at the Yamaha home office in Hamamatsu, Japan. Okonsar published as well as displayed a documentary series on the National Television Broadcast of Turkey, the T.R.T.

His repertoire encompasses a variety from the early 17th. century ("The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book") such as among others Orlando Gibbons and Giles Farnaby and also extends to late the 20th. century with the works by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Witold Lutoslawski. Well known works with this repertoire are: J.S. Bach "The Art of Fugue" executed on the organ (or piano) as well as the harpsichord; the Goldberg Variations, the integrale of Well-tempered Keyboard.

The compositions by Okonsar are remarkably structuralist and necessitates an analytical tactic. Right now the composer is using the personal computer in order to formulate representational as well as algorithmic music composition principles. Okonsar applies LISP and Common Music to manufacture an effective architectural base for his compositions and advocates this process as the condition sine qua non for any strong and coherent work. This structuralism is offered inside the finished score in a very comprehensive, complicated and delicate musical "ecriture".

Looking for "okonsar" on the Internet can cause overwhelming results. The real classical music enthusiast will get hours and hours of genuine music satisfaction, whether it be as mp3 or even video.

Mehmet Okonsar wouldn't be content if he supplied "only" listening pleasure. He attempts to think about the culture he lives inside.

"It is true I am uncomfortable with what may usually be referred to as "neo-romanticism", nonetheless, it is incorrect that I don't like Rachmaninoff".

"In common with all younger pianists I came under the spell of Horowitz playing the Third Concerto. However, I continue to be satisfied to have enjoyment from listening to it instead as performing it."