Piano Recital at Bellapais

by Gűlseren Sadak

By Margaret Sheard

Last year I missed the concert given at Bellapais Abbey by Gűlseren Sadak as I was on holiday at the time so I wanted to make sure I attended her piano recital this year which was held on Saturday 26th October. A lot has happened in the life of Gűlseren since her last concert as her husband (Ali Yaliman) died suddenly earlier this year, leaving her totally devastated, and she has had to re-build her life again, which she seems to have done very successfully, but I think this recital must have been a very emotional one for her.

There was a large audience at the Refectory of the Abbey and we were not disappointed. Gűlseren makes the piano sing and we were treated to a Schumann Arabesque, A Debussy Arabesque and, from her favourite composer Chopin, Nocturne in C minor, Valse in C minor, Mazurka in A minor and Etude “Revolution”. There was a standing ovation at the end of the Recital and we were then treated to an encore – Gűlseren’s rendition of “Yesterday” a popular Beatles classic which, played by Gűlseren on a grand piano, was beautiful.

I have known Gűlseren for around 10 years from the time when she and Ali lived in a house at the rear of my property in Ozanköy. All of the properties on our development were at that time owned by British people and so Gűlseren became Rosa to some of us. Later they moved to Bellapais so I only saw Rosa on a few occasions after that. I was always saying I want to come to a concert and hear you play and now I have.

In fact I have had the privilege of 2 recitals this week as Rosa asked a few people to come to a mini recital at her home a couple of days before her Bellapais Recital and we sat and heard her play The Fire Dance by Falla, Spanish Dance by Granados, and Chopin’s Valse and Etude “Revolution”. It was a short but brilliant recital and the choice of pieces was exactly to my taste as they were all familiar to me.