One of the leading symphonic orchestras in Turkey, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra (BIFO) is on its 2018 European Tour Dec. 5-13. Warmly applauded during European tours in 2016 and 2017 and praised by critics for their Hong Kong Tour in 2017, BIFO will give three concerts in Stuttgart, Friedrichafen and Aachen in Germany and one concert each in Amsterdam and Paris.
As part of the tour and functioning as a cornerstone for BIFO to become a leading symphonic group in Europe, the orchestra will perform five concerts. For the first concert, under the tutelage of Sascha Goetzel, the orchestra is accompanied by world-renowned violin virtuoso Daniel Hope. Four performances will be alongside Nemanja Radulovic, with whom they have fruitfully cooperated before.
Turkish Capriccio in Paris and Friedrichshafen
BIFO, which accompanied Daniel Hope in the concert at the legendary Beethoven-Saal in Stuttgart on the night of Dec. 5, performed "Islamey" by Mike Balakirev, "Serenade" by Leonard Bernstein and "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov.
In the second concert to be held at Graf-Zeppelin-Haus in Friedrichshafen on Dec. 7, BIFO will accompany Nemanja Radulovic. In addition, "Turkish Capriccio" by Ferit Tüzün, Aram Khachaturian's "Violin Concerto in D minor," "Islamey" by Balakirev and "Firebird" (1945 version) by Igor Stravinsky will be performed.
The third concert will be at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on Dec. 9 where BIFO will perform Khachaturian's "Violin Concerto in d minor" and Stravinsky's "Firebird" (1919) with Nemanja Radulovic. Next, the orchestra will salute music lovers in Germany's Aachen on the night of Dec. 10. In the concert at Aachen Eurogress, "Islamey" by Balakirev, Khachaturian's "Violin Concerto in D minor" and "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov will be performed.
The last stop of the tour is Paris. In the concert at Theatre des Champs Elysees, BIFO and Nemanja Radulovic will perform "Turkish Capriccio" by Tüzün, Khachaturian's "Violin Concerto in D minor," Balakirev's "Islamey" and Stravinsky's "Firebird" (1945).
In 2010 BIFO took the first step on the way to becoming one of the best symphonic groups in Europe with their concert at the Salzburg Festival, which is accepted as the peak of world classical music. In 2014, it was the first Turkish orchestra invited to the BBC Proms. In this context, BIFO was associated with the most prominent symphony orchestras in the world thanks to its concert at Royal Albert Hall in London. Honoring Turkey with its successes, BIFO was highly praised by critics in the aftermath of the two concerts at the Hong Kong Art Festival in 2017.
The program for its first European Tour (2016) saw them tour Germany and Vienna, the city where Sascha Goetzel, the art director and permanent conductor of the orchestra, was born and raised. With their second European Tour (2017) of leading concert halls in Essen, Ljubljana, Vienna and Zurich, BIFO had the ears of both critics and music lovers.