Wrapping up 2019 with year-end concerts

Lotte Concert Hall presents its year-end concert at 8 p.m. on Dec. 31. / Courtesy of Lotte Foundation for Arts

By Anna J. Park

With only a few days until the end of this year and the start of 2020, what better way to celebrate than to attend a year-end concert with loved ones? Seoul's major classical concert halls have prepared concerts to be held on the evening of the last day of the year.

Seoul Arts Center presents its New Year's Eve Concert on Dec. 31 at 9:30 p.m. at the Concert Hall of Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul. Courtesy of Seoul Arts Center

The Seoul Arts Center (SAC), home for classical music aficionados and arts lovers in the nation, has aptly named its year-end concert, "New Year's Eve Concert," hoping to highlight wishes for the upcoming year through the concert.

The 130-minute concert will start at 9:30 p.m. and when it ends around 11:40 p.m., the audience can enjoy a New Year's countdown starting at 11:59 p.m. in the art center's open square.

Fireworks and balloons will jointly welcome the New Year as people send their wishes for 2020.

Those who did not attend the concert can still join the celebration.

Under the baton of Chung Chi-yong, music director and chief conductor of the Korean Symphony Orchestra, the concert starts with Weber's "Aufforderung zum Tanz, Op.65."

Pianists Cho Jae-hyuck and Park Jong-hoon will perform Poulenc's "Concerto for 2 pianos in D minor" with the Korean Symphony Orchestra.

After the intermission, the second part of the concert will begin with the overture of Verdi's opera "La Forza del Destino," followed by beloved arias performed by tenor Chung Ho-yoon and soprano Hwang Su-mi.

The two stellar opera singers will perform representative opera numbers, such as "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" and "Che gelida manina," from Puccini's opera La Boheme and "La donna mobile" from Verdi's Rigoletto.

Lotte Concert Hall presents its year-end concert at 8 p.m. on Dec. 31. Courtesy of Lotte Concert Hall

Lotte Concert Hall, another major classical music venue in Seoul, also presents its year-end concert on the night of Dec. 31. The 100-minute concert starts at 8 p.m. on the last day of the year.

Audience members will have an opportunity to write a postcard, which will be provided at the lobby of the concert hall; to be sent a year later ― on the last day of 2020 ― to the addresses written on the submitted postcards.

Program-wise, the concert will be hosted by Kai, a well-known musical actor, and will begin with DITTO Orchestra playing Berlioz' Overture from "The Carnival of Rome, Op. 9," as 2019 was the French composer's 150th anniversary year of his death back in 1869.

Violinist Kim Bomsori will perform Wieniawski's "Violin Concerto No.2 in D minor, Op. 22."

After the intermission, the second part of the concert will begin with organist Choi Ku-mi, the winner of the first prize at the prestigious Saint Albans Competition in the U.K. this year, performing the final movement of Saint-Saens' "Symphony No. 3 in C minor, op. 78 Organ" to audiences.

Choi will present Lotte Concert Hall's iconic Rieger pipe organ's solemn and deep sounds of grandeur to audiences.

Following on, soprano Im Sun-hae will perform Handel's most loved and well-known aria "Lascia ch'io pianga' from opera "Rinaldo." She will sing two other opera pieces.

Kai, the host MC of the concert and musical actor, will perform famous musical number "This is the moment" from musical "Jekyll and Hyde."

The concert ends with the final movement of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7, Op. 92," commemorating Beethoven's 200th birth anniversary that falls on the next year.

The tickets for these year-end concerts can be purchased through various ticket reservation sites in Korea, such as Interpark and Ticketlink, as well as the official websites of the concert halls.

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