Bach to get Eastern interpretation at Emirates Palace

The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is about to receive an innovative eastern spin at Emirates Palace.

The Bach Reloaded concert pairs acclaimed musicians Burhan Öcal, the Turkish percussionist, and Ukrainian pianist Alexey Botvinov, as they provide a unique interpretation of the work of the 18th-century composer.

Tomorrow night’s show revolves around their dizzying take on Bach’s seminal masterpiece the Goldberg Variations. Dating from 1741, the complex composition features an aria and up to 30 separate variations. Since debuting the work in 2010, Bach Reloaded has been performed across Europe including at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival.

Öcal says the duo are relishing the prospect of their Middle East debut. “It is very exciting to come here for the first time,” he says. “I hope that all of us, the performers and the audience, will enjoy the show. We hope that we will be able to play more shows in the Middle East in the near future.”

How did you and Botvinov come up with the concept of Bach Reloaded?

I’ve been dreaming about this project for 15 to 20 years. However, as you know Bach is such a prominent composer in the western classical-music world that it was very risky to even play his non-religious compositions and not a lot of people were courageous enough to do this. So, it was not easy for us to revise his compositions with Turkish percussion and play it live.

We feel that we need to show the audience that these compositions are not for the sole purpose of being religious compositions, but are actually very [musically] successful in their nature. We’ve played these shows in Kiev, Zurich, Paris, Istanbul and at the Montreux Jazz Festival and the audience was mesmerised, so we hope that we can connect the same way with the audience in Abu Dhabi.

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Bach to get Eastern interpretation at Emirates Palace