Mozart in Turkey Part 2
Further information about the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’
On Monday 30th September BBC4 showed Elijah Moshinsky’s film ‘Mozart in Turkey’, made in 2000 with a soundtrack by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and SCO Chorus, conducted by Charles Mackerras, performing ‘Die Entführung aus den Serail’. I wrote that I could remember an Usher Hall concert performance of the opera, possibly as part of one of the SCO’s seasons around that time.
I’ve now seen the film which I would highly recommend. It shows lengthy scenes from the opera, filmed inside the Topkapi Palace with a commentary by Elijah Moshinsky about Mozart’s writing of the opera, some brief history of the harem, and documentary footage of the filming in Istanbul. The colourful costumes and interiors are vivid, and the sound quality is excellent.
Thanks to Tom, one of our regular commentators, and Theresa Schick from the Marketing and Communications department at the SCO, I’m now able to provide further information about the SCO, Mackerras, and Istanbul. Tom remembered “a wonderful Usher Hall performance by the SCO and Mackerras at the start of a new playing year, but was it really 24 years ago?” and “a beautiful autumn evening, with a spectacular sunset behind the dome of (former) St George's Church on Charlotte Square as I headed along George Street to the Usher Hall.”
The venue and the season were correct, but the performance was even earlier, in October 1995, when as part of Charles Mackerras’ 70th birthday celebrations, there were two concert performances of ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’, in the Usher Hall and the Theatre Royal Glasgow. The cast was Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Belmonte), Rosa Mannion (Constanze), Stafford Dean (Osmin), Peter Bronder (Pedrillo), Lillian Watson (Blonde) and Nigel Douglas as the Pasha, while the orchestra, led by Ruth Crouch with Greg Lawson in the second chair, contained players who were on stage last night for the Mozart Gala, including Fiona Alexander, Sarah Bevan-Baker and Niamh Lyons violins, Su-a Lee cello, Adrian Bornet, double bass, Robin Williams, oboe, Alison Green bassoon, Peter Franks and Shaun Harrold, trumpets. I’m sure these details will jog some memories.
Theresa Schick also sent me an extract from the ‘SCO’s Year Book 1995-1996’ about 1995 performances in Istanbul. "Direct from playing in the St Magnus Festival on Orkney, the Orchestra travelled to Istanbul with Sir Charles Mackerras to take part in the Istanbul International Music Festival. Sir Charles conducted three performances of Mozart's ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’ in the Topkapi Palace, with the Orchestra making a rare appearance in the pit." There was an additional performance in Istanbul in 1996; however, this was with conductor Richard Hickox.
While in Istanbul, as Eimar Anderson explained in her programme notes for the October 1995 concert performances, Charles Mackerras went to hear one of the Janissary bands which still played daily at the Military Museum, and “persuaded the SCO percussionists to get out there and comb the city for just the right kind of drum! They found it, haggled for it and even got an impromptu lesson from a man who runs a nearby clothes shop: that drum which you hear tonight gives, for the first time in Scotland, a truly authentic Turkish sound to the music.”
Enjoy the film and if anyone in the audience, the orchestra or the chorus has any further memories of the SCO’s performances of Die Entführung, please leave a comment.
