Cumhuriyet Sunday Interview
Aydın Büke, April 13, 2019
The Pekinels’ Treasure Chest
Aydın Büke wrote about Güher and Süher Pekinel’s Treasures project. Büke says, “With this work, the Pekinels present us with an almost incredibly colorful and enormous bouquet.”
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” This phrase from the New Testament (Matthew 6:21) evokes a very different association in the music world than its religious origin. As is well known, after Chopin’s death in Paris in 1849, his body was buried at Père-Lachaise Cemetery, but his heart was taken to his homeland according to his will and placed beneath one of the columns of Warsaw’s Holy Cross Church. In subsequent years, the phrase above was added to that column. The “treasure” that prompted me to reflect on these words again is Güher and Süher Pekinel’s comprehensive project, which brings together the key milestones of their careers.
The box, released under the Arthaus label with the title Treasures, contains 4 DVDs, 7 CDs, 2 Blu-Rays, a booklet exceeding 100 pages, and video interviews published in seven languages. Just as opening a treasure chest reveals a collection of precious items, lifting the lid of this box allows us to witness once again the extraordinary careers the Pekinels have built over the years—and how fully they have put their hearts into it. In addition to concert recordings, the treasure includes interviews with the artists. Perhaps most strikingly, watching these reveals how sincerely they open their hearts to us.
An education that took them to America
Güher and Süher Pekinel continued the piano training they had begun in Turkey in Paris, Frankfurt and the United States. In the mid-1960s, during a period of great vibrancy in Paris, studying music at the city’s renowned conservatoire enabled them to view the world through a different lens. During their years in Germany, they avoided the mistake of limiting their education solely to music by attending both the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and a boarding school in Odenwald. In Germany, they also spent some time attending psychology and philosophy seminars at Goethe University. The student movements at university sometimes led them to question what they did best, and they considered what else they could do to be of greater benefit to society beyond playing the piano. However, they concluded that it was their duty to further develop what they did best—playing the piano—and the language they spoke best—music. An offer from the renowned pianist Rudolf Serkin took them to America. They completed their training as soloists, first at the Curtis Institute of Music and then at the Juilliard School of Music. Whilst initially both had been working with the aim of becoming soloists in their own right, the idea of performing concerts together began to take shape during their time in America.
Developing different methods
The fact that they are twins, and that there is always a unique dynamic and rapport between them, has made it easier for them to make music together. Yet, despite this ease, they have conducted brand-new experiments and developed different methods every day in order to achieve the perfection they sought. In their piano duets, they abandoned the traditional seating arrangement where soloists face each other—a decision of great boldness—and began placing their instruments side by side on stage, with one slightly ahead of the other, and then one behind the other. According to the Pekinels, when playing together, if musicians focus all their concentration on ‘listening’ to one another rather than looking into each other’s eyes, the result enhances the expressive power of the music. Furthermore, having the pianos positioned one behind the other on stage allows both lids to be fully opened, making the instrument’s unique poetic timbre and riot of colours reaching the audience far more satisfying. As they can grasp how the other is playing solely through feeling rather than seeing, this playing position—which others would never dare to adopt—feels utterly natural to them.
A life filled with concerts
For Güher and Süher Pekinel, a life full of concerts began immediately after a successful education. Being invited in 1984 by the renowned conductor Herbert von Karajan to the Salzburg Easter Festival signaled that their careers would continue on a completely new level. Following this invitation, not only the world’s most prestigious concert halls and orchestras, but also the top recording companies sought out the Pekinels. Their rising success over the years allowed them to perform with famous conductors and inspired composers like Penderecki and Bernstein to write works for them. They also reinterpreted Bach’s piano concertos, adapted for them by Jacques Loussier, in a unique style alongside the late artist.
Projects for young musicians…
Although not included in the Treasures Box, Güher and Süher Pekinel have initiated three complementary projects to nurture young musicians. First, they created the Young Musicians on World Stages project, connecting exceptional talents with the right teachers, instruments, and institutions. This ensures that young musicians can start with the proper foundations and develop careers at a professional global level. Second, at the Turkish Education Foundation İnanç Türkeş Private High School (TEVİTÖL), which educates gifted students from across Turkey, they established the Güher and Süher Pekinel Music Department to nurture these exceptional minds both musically and academically for university life. The third project, Orff Music Education, aims to provide preschool to school-age children in state schools across Anatolia with access to equal opportunities, vision development, and individual problem-solving skills.
Their most characteristic quality…
Having witnessed the Pekinels’ long and illustrious careers, I believe their most consistent and defining characteristic is their ability to draw everyone into the music from the very moment they step on stage. Having observed them countless times, both in the audience and alongside orchestras on stage, it is immediately apparent how dynamic and meticulously analyzed their concerts are. I vividly remember audiences rising in excitement after performances such as Mozart’s KV 365, Concerto for Two Pianos, in Brno during a 1987 tour with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, or Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos in Madrid in the early 1990s. The comprehensive Treasures collection reminds music lovers once more of the Pekinels’ deep-rooted history in the music world and the remarkable figures they have shared the stage with. In an interview, the Pekinels, who were born in Turkey and live across different parts of the world, said they feel like a bouquet of many different flowers—and with this work, they present us with an extraordinarily colorful and abundant bouquet.
Güher & Süher Pekinel – Treasures
Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Jacques Loussier Trio, English Chamber Orchestra, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Radio France
Conductors: Zubin Mehta, Colin Davis, Muhai Tang, Howard Griffiths, Neville Marriner, Marek Janowski
4 DVD, 7 CD, 2 Blu-Ray, Booklet
Arthaus Musik, 2018
Cumhuriyet
Esra Açıkgöz , 04.10.2014
Hearing Colors, Seeing Sounds
Güher and Süher Pekinel’s latest album, “Hearing Colors, Seeing Sounds,” reverses the senses. They say “What determines the future is visual media, the internet. If we can’t catch this process, we won’t be able to see ahead.”
Güher and Süher Pekinel gave their first concert at age six. At nine years old they were playing alongside the Ankara Philharmonic. They fit 22 albums, thousands of concerts, and tens of awards into the years that followed. They’ve played with important orchestras all over the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Los Angeles Philharmonic, British Chamber Orchestra, French National Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic,… Now, they are back with their third international release. “Hearing Colors, Seeing Sounds,” is an album that reverses the senses. It is rooted in the distant past, in their childhood. Hence, they’ve said “Ever since we were little, the active unison of all the branches of art set us on an endless journey.”
The movement of painters’ union Blauer Reiter (The Blue Rider), founded in 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, had great influence on this album. They say, “This DVD could be called a musical documentary of intertwined past artistic and sociopolitical structures. A program that combines classical, impressionist, expressionist, and the beginnings of modernism while showing the flow of similarity and change between them.” Let’s let them tell us…
This album has a title that subverts ones habitual senses: “Hearing Colors, Seeing Sounds.”
This title is as important for those listening to the CD or watching the DVD, as it is for us. Even though they’ve both been released simultaneously, they awaken different emotions. Ever since we were little, the active unison of all the branches of art set us on an endless journey. For those of us who seek unity, this is simply part of an endless stream.
What kind of a relationship do you find exists between colors and sounds?
With thousands of years of evolution humanity has developed an inherent power over the suppositional. However, this can first and foremost be comprehended through personal development. It is impossible to develop the colors of music without hearing it within ourselves first. Even though the colors we discern while playing together are similar, we set off from different perceptions of shade. Mentally reviving his increasingly diminishing and dissolving sense of hearing in an abstract fashion through his internal sense of color and poly-phonic perception of sound, Beethoven would simultaneously put notes on paper by seeing it in some way. The sense of light Rembrandt created in his pieces while working under extremely low candle light is another example of this. The array that meets within Goethe, Scriabin, Delaunay, and Kandinsky’s color theories regarding sound is actually a natural formation bringing together different branches of art.
What is it about the Blauer Reiter movement that draws and affects you?
Hearing colors also encompasses seeing sounds. We were heavily influenced by two of Kandinsky’s books, “Punkt und Linie zu Fläche” (Point and Line to Plane) and “Das Geistige in der Kunst” (Concerning the Spiritual in Art), during our high school years. While this point of transformation for painting started around 1911 brought along important formations such as “Blauer Reiter” and “Bauhaus” in Germany, it was simultaneously preparing a foundation for diverse movements in need of innovation and new formations combining music, art, and literature in France. Although art history may have experienced its most rapid transitions during the Renaissance period, the changes reached today have always been present. What is important is how deeply an artist follows surrounding movements, and how they are influenced by and choose to relay them.
We know that you made use of your free time by painting while you were living in Munich between the years of 1970 and 1985…
At home, there was not only a deep interest in music, but also in painting, which, in time, turned to passion. Art lessons were among our favorites. Our deep interest in Kandinsky started during our time in Munich. The fact that after having moved into the Lenbachhaus with the ‘’Blauer Reiter’’ movement, the trio consisting of Kandinsky, Klee, and Franz Marc also formed a musical trio, directed us towards the constant events and seminars that were taking place in those days. We had also recorded the sonata-turned-concerto by Bartok, who was influenced by Kandinsky during this period, with two valuable percussionists of the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic orchestras. Later on, while at the Julliard School in New York, we’d spend our remaining free time on Saturdays at the “Student Art League” painting course. As the concerts began to accumulate, museums started to become our only escape and a place we could nourish our souls. We only later noticed that we had started to influence our managers in this direction. Even though they viewed it is an atypical request, this extra day that we’d spend after important concerts were highly productive. When we look back, we believe that all of the elements that came together to create this atmosphere are what brought us here today.
This is your third internationally released DVD. How did you create its contents?
First of all, what’s currently defining our future is visual media, the internet. If we can’t catch this process, we aware that, as musicians, it will become difficult for us to see ahead. A DVD is a great responsibility. Beyond documenting a program, it is also closely related to what message you want to send the world. We could call this DVD a musical documentary of intertwined past artistic and sociopolitical structures. A program that combines classical, impressionist, expressionist, and the beginnings of modernism while showing the flow of similarity and change between them. For example, the Debussy – Bartok relationship and the “Bartok, Infante, Saygun triangle” are all exceedingly interesting conjunctions. While Bartok, who was an ethnographer, was researching the development of Balkan folk music, he came to Turkey in 1936 and conducted research on Turkish folk music in Anatolia with Adnan Saygun; eventually selecting 67 of the close to 136 folk melodies and songs he collected and utilizing them in his compositions. As such, there is currently a Bartok museum in Turkey. Our DVD also contains an analysis that we personally wrote on this subject. In short, as with each of our DVD and CD’s, these special concerts were filmed in concert halls that were determined by us, through rigorous research conducted alongside world-famous firms Arthaus and Unitel and a great team. Meanwhile, the concert that was filmed for our DVD took place at a newly opened opera hall in Italy with fantastic acoustics to the accompaniment of Zubin Mehta and the Maggio Musicale orchestra.We utilize our experience for newcomers
You have received recognition for your work involving young musicians. Why is it important for young musicians to be supported?
While studying in Germany and in the U.S., we received great support not only from important musicians, but also from managers and record labels in the following years. The help we received through the mentorship of reputable conductors like Maestro Karajan, Zubin Mehta and Sir Colin Davis influenced our lives greatly in terms of music. We use the opportunities that were given to us at the time and our experiences to discover superior talents through various projects and to train them in becoming world class artists. They will be shaping the future of music and will make Turkey’s presence felt in international platforms. Being a musician and an artist is a great responsibility and they need to be equipped in every respect in order to culturally enrich society. We utilize our time and all manner of contacts and relations in order to ensure this equipage. In addition to steering them towards renowned teachers and schools, we also try and ensure that they work with the best instruments. In order to remain in the program, the talent that we select are required to prove themselves by competing in an international competition each year. Then, having their names heard throughout these various platforms, unexpected future opportunities can also come their way.