With its rich history and meticulously preserved original tradition, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, one of the world's most respected orchestras, welcomes the audience on the second evening of its special programme for the 54th Istanbul Music Festival, featuring the charismatic cellist Kian Soltani as soloist.
Shaping and developing the world of classical music for 125 years, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which forms a unique bridge between the past, present and future of classical music culture, is a guest at the festival with two concerts under the baton of its permanent conductor Petr Popelka. For its second concert, the orchestra reunites with soloist Kian Soltani, with whom it has maintained a close collaboration and who performed the world premiere of Marcus Nigsch's Cello Concerto No. 1 together last January.
An extraordinary soloist, effortlessly lyrical and touchingly sincere... The finest live performance of this work I have ever heard – The Guardian
An extraordinary cellist with a tone of heartfelt beauty and completely pure intonation – The Times
Iranian-born, Austrian-raised Kian Soltani, who has won the hearts of music lovers in Istanbul as well as around the world with the depth and originality of his interpretations, his technical virtuosity and his stage charisma, burst onto the international scene in 2013 in Helsinki and received the Leonard Bernstein Award and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2017. With his solo album Cello Unlimited, which explores the wide expressive range and cinematic power of his instrument, he also won the 2022 Opus Classical Innovative Listening Experience Award. This season, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra