Pianos in harmony with palace halls

The pianos in Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace, which hosted some 1 million people last year, draw great interest from local and foreign visitors for their magnificence and harmony with their surroundings.

National Palace guide Osman Nihat Bi?gin said Dolmabahçe Palace was a Tanzimat (reform-era) palace, adding, "All features of the reform era are clearly seen in Dolmabahçe Palace. This process, which we call the Europeanization and westernization process, made western music enter Dolmabahçe Palace."

He said the palace had a total of 12 pianos, and all of them had ornamentations suitable to the style and harmony of the palace. 

Bi?gin said the palace opened in 1856 and the pianos were brought there nearly at the same time. "The wives of sultans were taking piano education in the palace, particularly in the final years of the Ottomans. There are many pianos and none of them were inactive; all of them were being played," he said. 

He said most of the piano brands in the palace were Hertz, Pleyel, Gaveau and Erard, and that the number of grand pianos was less. 

Speaking of a striking green piano in Zülvecheyn Hall on the upper floor of the palace, Bi?gin said it was a classical Pleyel-brand palace piano. 

"Since the magnificence and glory was dominant in the palace, the pianos draw our attention visually. Their sound is not very famous, but they are very important and famous visually," he said. 

Bi?gin said Zülvecheyn Hall had gilded ornamentation on its white and beige ceiling, adding, "We see enormous harmony between the piano and the ceiling." 

He said the furniture in Dolmabahçe Palace was in its original place, and added, "We can say that the pianos belong to these halls. The pianos in the...