On Thursday, AyseDeniz Gokcin, the Turkish pianist/composer/arranger AyseDeniz Gokcin, who combines classical music with other genres, particularly rock music, was in London for the UK Premiere of her Pink Floyd Classical Concept.

Held in the church of St James's Sussex Gardens, the evening made for a wonderful 'concert with a difference' for the packed pews - either for classical music enthusiasts, possibly exposed to the music of Pink Floyd for the first time, or for Floyd fans, enjoying some dramatically different interpretations to what they may be used to.

When AyseDeniz released the Pink Floyd Classical Concept album back in 2013, she gave us some background to the project. "This album initially started with my arrangements of three Pink Floyd songs, written in the form of a fantasia (Pink Floyd 'Lisztified': Fantasia Quasi Sonata) to celebrate Franz Liszt's 200th anniversary. Unlike other 'covers', my arrangements evolved out of the original songs and took their own shape, making the project an 'osmosis' of Pink Floyd's and Liszt's music.

"While these three songs were the seeds of this concept album, the new arrangements have developed quite differently. They are a further departure from the "Pink Floyd 'Lisztified': Fantasia Quasi Sonata" in the sense that they are more daring and experimental. The main driving force behind these arrangements was Liszt’s vision of viewing the piano as an orchestra, which tempted me to explore different sounds, to imitate rock instruments and to create new harmonies by manipulating the existing ones."

The performance certainly included some elements that would have taken the more classically minded by surprise - AyseDeniz would at times reach into the grand piano to pluck strings, or create unusual effects by using, say, a broken record or wooden spoon! It all added up to a hugely successful performance, in a wonderfully atmospheric venue - the high ceilings, pillars and pews all gave the music a resonance and mood to make for a memorable evening.

The set consisted of Welcome To The Machine; Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun; Pink Floyd ‘Lisztified’: Fantasia Quasi Sonata: Hey You / Wish You Were Here / Another Brick In The Wall; Us and Them; Comfortably Numb; On The Turning Away / Chopin; Shine On You Crazy Diamond and High Hopes, with an encore just as diverse, of Linkin Park's In the End and Mozart's Turkish March arranged by Volodos. Liszt, the Floyd, Linkin Park and Mozart... it was that sort of evening!

Hopefully there are plans in the works to bring this to other venues, and as/when this happens, we will let you know.