On Sunday November 20, 2016, I attended another great concert of our local Thalwil Chamber Orchestra (KOTh).

This orchestra was established in 1941 and is essentially an amateur string orchestra. The orchestra mostly plays pieces by well-known composers from the baroque and romantic era. However, it also regularly performs premieres of compositions.

Maya Wenger, who has been conductor of the orchestra since 2000, is a very enthusiastic and has a lot of impetus, on account of which she is able to release the full potential of the Orchestra.

Famous musicians are regularly invited to participate as guests. That Sunday’s guest musician was flute player Murat Cevik. Besides playing classical music, Murat Cevik also plays music??(Tzara Ensemble) as well as jazz bands (Ararat Quintet). Although I love wind music (I play both the clarinet and saxophone myself), I do not like the sound of traverse flutes very much, because I generally find their tone too shrill. Murat Cevik proved me completely wrong however. He produced a beautiful, powerful and full-bodied sound.

The evening started with the “Lyrical Andante” by Max Reger. This was followed by the lively Concert for Flute and String orchestra in E-flat by Saverio Mercadantea, that Murat Cevik performed together with the orchestra. The audience appreciated this performance so much, that they continued with their applause until Murat Cevik came back to the stage to play an encore (solo). Next followed a moving rendering of the musical piece ‘Crisantemi’ by Giacomo Puccini. Last but not least ‘La Bouffonne’ was played, the Overture suite in C-Major (TWV 55:C5) by Georg Philipp Telemann. This finale really showcased the power of the orchestra in all its strength: the piece was played very dynamically with great pizzicato parts.

It was a beautiful evening – I am looking forward to the next performance!

All pictures taken with the Sony RX100 (mark I) using the standard low light setting the camera offers. Despite the fact that this setting only generates jpeg files, it is a very powerful setting. The only disadvantage is that processing the pictures take a lot of time, this means it can easily last 10 seconds before the next picture can be taken.