Concerts Fete Chopin’s 200th Birthday

By Lee Hyo-won

Staff Reporter

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederic Chopin, composer extraordinaire and ``piano poet,'' and concerts in Seoul will open up the year of celebrations.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang gave a gala concert in Warsaw last Wednesday to officially launch a year of festivities feting the bicentennial of Chopin. In Seoul, esteemed professor and performer Yoon Chul-hee will give the last two sessions of his Chopin concert series.

Yoon has a recording of the Polish composer's complete piano etudes under his belt and began the five-part concert series last year to coincide with the anniversary. As much as Chopin is reputed as ``the poet of the piano,'' Yoon notes that the beauty of the maestro's scores lies in ``the gentle tempo, which is like that of flowing water.''

On Thursday, at Sejong Chamber Hall, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, downtown Seoul, he will perform Chopin's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, which have been arranged for a chamber ensemble. He will be joined by violinists Kim Pil-gyun and Bae Sang-eun, violist Kang Ju-heui and cellist Na Yoon-ju. They will provide a more subtle interpretation of the original concertos.