Classical from the Beethovenfest - Tanman: The Traffic
October 4, 2012
Beethoven ile Bulusma 1
Mehmet Erhan Tanman:
The Traffic for orchestra
Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Cem Mansur
MP3 recorded by Deutsche Welle (DW) in the Beethoven Hall on September 19, 2012
"Beethoven ile buluşma" (Encounters with Beethoven) was the motto for the 2012 Orchestra Campus co-sponsored by Deutsche Welle and the Beethovenfest Bonn, in which DW commissioned a work from Mehmet Erhan Tanman.
23 years old at the time of the premiere of "The Traffic," Erhan studied piano and composition in Istanbul. "Life as a composer in Istanbul is wonderful," he said. "It has everything: the Bosporus, the traffic - so many impressions."
But in this work, he chooses not to take up the theme of Istanbul's beauty.
"Instead, I was more inspired by what the residents there experience in day to day life," he explained. "We live in a gigantic mess of traffic between the Occident and Orient."
"The Traffic" offers an account of impressions of a bus ride through Istanbul, from Barbados Boulevard to the Bosporus Bridge: turbulent, clamorous and almost threatening. The audience in the Beethoven Hall celebrated this world premiere with enthusiastic calls of "Bravo!"