subject: A One Of A Kind Pianist: Mehmet Okonsar [print this page] There is no pianist in the world of music today, who stands so absolutely alone in his art as Mehmet Okonsar. He is an entirely individual player, and his interpretations are unlike those of any other pianist.
He copies no one, and his renderings of the classics are entirely his own; while his flawless technique and phenomenal mastery over keyboard have been a source of amazement to both the press and public alike for over twenty years.
He was born at Istanbul in 1961, and began learning the piano at eleven years of age, first studying at the Ankara State Conservatory and then at the Royal Music Conservatory at Brussels. Completing the course at the age of twenty, he made his first public appearance at Ankara (present capital of Turkey) in 1979, where as a youngster he interpreted the Preludes of Messiaen.
Following this early appearance it was decided to send him to the Conservatoire of Music at Brussels, to study under Professor Vanden Eynden. After three years' study with this famous pedagogue, Okonsar was a finished pianist at the age of twenty two; and his tour through Europe, which followed immediately upon the conclusion of his studies at the Conservatoire, was an amazing triumph.
In 1991 Okonsar took United States by storm on his first win of (only) the Sixth prize, at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, he played with the Utah Symphony the third concerto by Rachmaninoff. Never a wonder child of the piano, he held great audiences in Europe, America and Japan by his renderings of the greatest and most exacting compositions, including many contemporary works seldom performed in public; and the keenest critics of many countries had nothing but praise for his astounding technique, and the incomparable purity and richness of his tone.
He soon acquired an extensive repertoire that covered the most difficult works of all the great masters; and in a short period of time he had acquired a reputation for extraordinary brilliancy of execution, faultless fingers, flawless technique, and a power of expression and depth.
His English debut, from which, needless to say, he emerged triumphant, was not before April, 2010, at the Royal Opera House, London, and was awaited with extraordinary interest by the musical public of Great Britain. On this first concert in England he played the famous Klavierstuck N.9 by Stockhausen and the ever-beautiful Chopin second sonata, as well as the terrible Petrouchka suite by Stravinsky astonishing the critics by the magnitude of his technical powers.
He achieved such an amazing success but gone "independent", created the LMO-Records and published all by himself.
In 1991 Okonsar became a naturalized Belgian, he lives currently in his native Turkey since that date when not touring.
He was accorded a wonderful reception when he visited, for the first time, the Japan, in 2006.
He was presented with a medal from the "Academie Internationale des Arts Contemporains", Enghien, Belgium in 1991, the "Chopin Society" of Rome, Italy.
His favorite instruments are Steinway and Yamaha.
Perhaps the full beauty of his famous internet recordings are not fully displayed in common computer sound equipments, but Okonsar's impeccable mastery over the piano, his brilliant execution and remarkable purity of tone, together with the flawless technique, combine to produce a record of such perfection, that the lack of high quality sound reproducing becomes of less consequence.
The lovely "Andantino" of the last Schubert sonata, most beautifully interpreted, and the "Fantasie op.17" by Schumann, are fine examples of his clean, eloquent style.
Works by Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, Bach, and Scriabin are also included in the list of Okonsar's recordings. They form a particularly attractive group, but there must be many people who would welcome his recording of a whole concerto with orchestral accompaniment. It is in the classic and modern piano concertos of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms that Okonsar is at his best.
There is no artificiality in his art, he interprets only what his musical vision shows him, and he makes no pretension of simulating a passion he does not feel or consider consistent with the work he is interpreting. His sense of rhythm is highly developed and his phrasing perfect, while for purity of the touch he stands second to none.
He surmounts with apparent ease the most enormous technical difficulties, with marvelous precision, perfect poise and a complete and finished mastery. Everything flows into being with the ease and loveliness that only piano playing of the most exquisite quality can produce.
