Morgenland Festival | Bimhuis | Amsterdam | July 2015 :: Photo Gallery

This year (2015) the German-based Morgenland Festival presented its programs in Amsterdam as well. The concerts took place at Bimhuis for three nights (16-17-18 July) and specially first and third night's events were warmly received by the audience.
But I missed Middle Eastern music in this festival which is going to be focused on Middle Eastern music! I will explay more later.

KAYHAN KALHOR's performance was the most authenic part of the festival. This legendary maestro of Persian music and kamancheh recently has performed a lot of concerts in the Netherlands; one of the latest ones was the project "BACH IN PERSIA" with Dutch Wind Ensemble (NBE).

Cemil Qoçgiri played tanbur at the festival. I think not enough time was given to him to present his work. He was born in Germany and becauase of his name I think he has Turkish background. I could hear from the sound of his instrument that he is grown up outside the Middle East.

In the second night of the festival, the jazz pianist from Azerbaijan Salman Gambarov and his German colleague Florian Weber performed an entertaining program. The begining was quite long and then at the end they tried to turn their pianistic dialogue to a kind of commedy show which was intresting for the audience.
I was so eager to hear some melodies from the beautiful music of Azerbaijan by Gambarov but did not perform anything related to his homeland. Actually in my opinion at least 80% of the festival content was in the framework of improvised jazz music, not to the music of the Middle East and it was a bit disappointing for me because the title of the festival is Morgenland.
It seems most of the musicians at the festical were just interested to do strange things instead of transfering the real essence of music to the people.

KINAN AZMEH, a briliant musician from Syria. He was really the star of the festival. The skilful clarinestist was playing with lots of emotion. On Youtube I also find a piece that Kinan is performing with Morgenland Chamber Orchestra in Germany. Unfortunately the name of the composer is not mentioned there but anyway it's magical piece and performance. You may watch it HERE.

A huge part of the festival had been given to AYNUR. I really did not like her voice. She was screaming a lot and even once I had to use my hands to cover my ears! Anyway it seems she is the festival organizers' favorite!

IBRAHIM KEIVO was the most energic part of the festival. The Syrian singer had a powerful charecter and also sense of humor. He was singing and dancing with lots of emotions and created a fantastic communication with the audience. I heard from Syrian friends that Ibrahim Keivo is very popular in Syria.
A few minuets of his performance at Bimhuis can be seen in the below video:

Dariush shines in Holland | De Doelen Repairs Its Image

On 11 Oct. 2014 Dariush, the legendary Persian pop star shined once again in a concert at De Doelen in Rotterdam.

 The venue was full of his fans who were singing with him during the event.

De Doelen before this concert was a hated place for many Persians in the Netherlands. During 2009 pro-freedom demonstrations in Iran which many people were killed by the Islamic goverment in Tehran and other cities, the regime tried to cover up its crime by organizing a so-called "Peace Concert" in Europe. Their agents hired famous venues in big European cities to give this impression that they are culture-oriented. In Holland they hired "De Doelen".

It was quite surprising that how De Doelen decided to accept Iran's Embassy offer to hire the hall in a time that human rights violations in Iran were every day in the news.

 For the concert in January 2010 the embassy sent free tickets to its own people. At the night of the concert a big demonstration was organized by Iranian opposition groups in Netherlands against the event. Inside the hall the embassy's agents attacked the protesters and the concert was remained unfinished.
 See the photos here.

It seems De Doelen just cares about money and nothing else. Anyway it's good that finally a pro-freedom Iranian singer performed there. Maybe an opprotunity for De Doelen to repair its image for Persian-Dutch community.

Parts of Dariush Concert in Rotterdam can be watched here:

(VIDEO)

Persian Music and Poetry @ Bimhuis

Last night, November 3rd  2013, at Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Rumi Ensemble performed a concert that was led by Javid Afsari-Rad . Bimhuis is a beautiful place and indeed a part of Muziekgebouw.

The ensemble performed Afsari-Rad's vocal pieces from Rumi's poetry. Mohammad Motamedi was the vocalist. I did not like his voice when he was singing at high range but the rest was OK.

Afsari Rad's music was fine for max. 15 min. During the rest of the concert, his ideas were just being repeated. I think if he studies more in the field of music composition, the result of his works will become much better. 
Another issue is his santur play. In playing this instrument, controlling the sound reflection is a challenge so the player should be quite concerned about the impact of the mallets. 

It seemed Afsari-Rad not only did not bother controlling this issue but also he was so eager to strike his santur's string with the maximum power!

Anyway the atmosphere was nice but it was surprising that such a concert did not even have a 'guide' so the audience could have an idea what the name of each piece was, in which mode it had been composed, etc.