Alla turca v. 1

Ah, Berlin culture, you certainly can't fault the place in this respect. Last night, the Philharmonie presented an East-West cultural dialogue; this explains the resultant odd bedfellows when the spotlight is on Turkey (series entitled Alla turca: Ein kultureller Dialog). The evening began, oddly, with a septet from France, Ensemble Organum Paris, doing Gregorian chants from the twelve century. The performance was great but I definitely felt a disconnect between what I expected and what I was seeing. The real reason I went was a first chance to see Dervishes; although they are advertised as tourist attractions in Cairo and Istanbul, I couldn't bring myself to go as a tourist to something intended to be devout and spiritual. Since this group, the Galata Mevlevi Ensemble from Istanbul, was coming to Germany specifically to perform, I felt more comfortable. Still the clapping at the end felt strange to me. At any rate, the next performance in the series will be Nov. 26th; tickets are as low as 12 euros each. http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/details/646/