By Heidi Trautmann
When Görsev entered the stage in her white long dress embroidered with small roses and stood next to the Bösendorfer to greet her audience with a deep bow, two doves flew across the refectory with a loud salute of their wings. They seemed to say: Hey Görsev, you have our blessings, we will watch over you!
In the many faces of the audience I read anticipation to listen to what Görsev Tepe had to say on the piano on the evening of May 3, some months having passed after her last concert. Many of us in the audience have closely followed her development during the last years, especially since she has been under the magical tutorship of Rauf Kasimov as from 2007. Five international prizes were won, I reported in my website, with the highest achievement being the first prize at the 6th International Istanbul Pera Piano Festival Competition. And only recently, after rigorous examinations by art scholars and music professors at the Hacettepe University in Ankara, she was declared as a highly gifted junior pianist and was granted a scholarship to continue musical education abroad. I felt a shiver of excitement run through my mind.
Görsev sat down on the stool with her hands relaxed in her lap. She bowed her head to open communication with the piano in front of her. …’we play the Toccata Fuge re-minor by Bach now’ and she lifted her hands to meet the keys of her partner the piano. She knows, she has learnt what the composers want to express with their music, having Rauf Kasimov teach her music history which is an important part of musical training. The first part of the concert ended with Mozart’s Sonate KV-309 in three movements. Very static, very strict and you could feel her respect for the great masters of music.
After the interval she freed herself from the reins halting her back like a young lively foal enjoying its freedom. No, not a young foal, rather a temperamental experienced woman who had gone through the heights and depths of life lashing out with all her might. A metamorphosis takes place when this young girl touches the keys, the spirit of music runs visibly through her veins, her entire body, her being, and makes her mature. Passion in its deepest form, a friend, a pianist herself, commented with happy laughter after the performance: ‘her music is like sparkling wine full of body …`. There were wonderful pieces of music for Görsev to put in all her soul: Lacrymosa Requiem by Mozart; Scherzo No. 2 by Chopin; Concert Etude No. 2 “Gnomenreigen by Liszt; Prelude No. 2 ‘Pour piano’ by Débussy and Libertango by Piazolla.
When we went down the quiet lane through Bellapais among the other music lovers to our cars I could hear Görsev’s recital accompany us and the murmur of appreciative words and I heard a Russian friend say: ‘that is the Russian soul that Rauf has taught her and the deep love for music’… there might be something in it, I thought.
The recital was organized by the Lefkoşa Lions Club and the proceeds are going to the Kemal Saracoğlu Foundation for children with Leukemia.