'It’s a very joyful group' - Carlo Tenan on the unique appeal of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra

If anyone would know, it would be Tenan. He’s a regular figure on the podium with many European orchestras, but he’s also principal conductor and artistic director of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. Both orchestra and conductor visit Scotland in April at the start of a five-date tour of the UK, with concerts in Perth and Edinburgh.

And Tenan puts the orchestra’s particular personality – and its remarkable achievements – down to precisely the position of classical music in Turkey. “If you’re not living in a culture where Western classical music plays a large role, if you want to study it and pursue it as a career, you have to be very motivated, actually more motivated than in Western Europe – to travel abroad to study in Europe or the USA, for example. You have to have a particular passion to want to do it.”

Passion is a word that feels particularly appropriate for the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic. The majority of its players are indeed Turkish, and they’re generally young – the orchestra itself is only 26 years old. It was first established as the Borusan Chamber Orchestra in 1993, transforming into the larger Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic six years later. And it forms one part – the central lynchpin, in fact – of a far wider cultural project financed by Borusan Holding, one of Turkey’s leading industrial conglomerates. Borusan Sanat (or “Borusan Art”) also runs the Borusan Quartet, Borusan Children’s Choir and small-scale Borusan Virtuosi ensemble, as well as providing music scholarships, publishing scores and organising a wealth of musical activities in its own Istanbul venue, Borusan Music House. The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, however, is fast building a celebrated international reputation: it opened the 2010 Salzburg Festival, for instance, and made its BBC Proms premiere in 2014 to enormous acclaim.

In Tenan, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic has a fascinating figure as principal conductor. As well as a conductor, he’s a respected pianist, oboist and composer, and his musical passions range from orchestral music to opera, contemporary sounds and even electronic music. Does he plan to take inspiration from those wide-ranging interests in his work with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic?

“I’d love to open our repertoire more and more, but we have to bear in mind our audience and what they might expect, so any changes will be gradual ones. We’ve commissioned contemporary Turkish composers, however, and of course there are many beautiful scores that I’d like to do, mixing together contemporary and traditional music.”

His first concert with the orchestra – or at least a slimline version of the ensemble – was during the dark days of the Covid pandemic in 2021. “We played to about 100 people, but even then, I felt such a strong connection with the orchestra,” he says. “They had a particular passion, and a desire to go deeply into the music with me.”

It clearly went well, since Tenan was appointed to his current post in 2023. “The orchestra’s main quality, I think, is one of passion and discipline, and a desire to work very hard too. But it’s a very joyful group. I remember in a recent concert where we were performing Debussy’s La mer, the cello section was incredible, and the principal cellist was smiling every time he played. I thought: what’s happening? Something like that is very, very rare in other orchestras.”

The UK tour coincides with the release of a new recording, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic’s ninth, though Tenan’s first with the orchestra. He describes its repertoire as “a journey from east to west”, and it’s a cleverly conceived compilation of music by Bartók, Kodály, Enescu and Martinů, all composers from central Europe who drew on their countries’ own musical traditions – though there’s a Turkish connection too, in that Bartók travelled to Turkey to research traditional Turkish music as part of his wide-ranging studies. On the disc, however, music from all four composers is seen through the eyes and ears of an orchestra from even further east. “It was a very exciting project,” Tenan smiles.

For their two Scottish concerts, Tenan and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic are sticking to far more familiar repertoire – Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony, Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, and Saint-Saëns’s dramatic First Cello Concerto, with fiery young Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández as soloist. It’s not the easiest programme for the tour, Tenan admits, but not because of any lack of ability in playing the pieces. It’s more a question of the music’s very familiarity: the works are so well known that their performances will inevitably be judged, Tenan feels, against far higher-profile European and US orchestras. However, it’s a challenge that the conductor clearly relishes.

“When I conduct the orchestra, I don’t feel much difference in their way of playing with other orchestras. They’re extremely talented classical musicians. And to me, the programme reflects lots of contemporary issues – to do with human connections with the natural world, for example, or profounder questions with Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. Is it really unfinished at all? The piece is full of mysteries, but to me, it’s complete as it is, even if we might not understand it as being complete.”

It won’t be Tenan’s first time in Edinburgh as a performer, though his previous visit was in a very different role. “I remember I played during the festival when I was 18 years old, as principal oboist in an Italian youth orchestra based in Florence. It was an incredible experience.”

His return visit, however, will be in front of one of the world’s most interesting and fastest-developing orchestras. And if you do struggle to detect a particularly Turkish accent among its Beethoven, Schubert and Saint-Saëns performances – well, Tenan suggests, maybe you should hang around for a rather more exotic encore.

Carlo Tenan and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra perform Schubert, Saint-Saëns and Beethoven with cellist Pablo Ferrández at Perth Concert Hall on 5 April and at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on 6 April

Feature produced in association with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra