Big Orchestras to Hit Seoul Stage in 2010
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Classical music buffs should be prepared to mark their 2010 calendars. This past year, the world financial crisis resulted in the cancellation of several local tours by top international ensembles. Fans however can look forward to a long lineup of orchestral performances in the new year.
Several of Britain's top orchestras will visit Korea in the spring and fall seasons, and concertgoers will be able to see some of the country's most popular musicians appear as soloists.
The London Philharmonia, led by the Russian master pianist-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, will take the stage at Seoul Arts Center on May 3 and at Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Complex on May 6. Prodigy pianist Kim Sun-wook will play with the orchestra. The BBC Symphony will perform on May 16 at Seoul Arts Center, joined by violinist Chee-Yun.
On Sept. 17, the London Philharmonic Orchestra will perform at Seoul Arts Center. Star violist Richard Yongjae O'Neill, who played with the ensemble last year, will reappear as a soloist. Also set to appear is talented violinist Stefan Jackiw, O'Neill's fellow member of the chamber group Ditto. The following month, on Oct. 16, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will play for fans with Yang Sung-won, the cellist-professor who won a couple of the country's most prominent classical music awards this year.
A strong whiff of continental Europe is expected to sweep through the local music scene when the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam gives performances. The Dutch ensemble is not as well known among the general public here as the Berlin Philharmonic. But the orchestra took second place, after the Vienna Philharmonic, in a ranking chart of European orchestras compiled by prominent music magazines such as the United Kingdoms' Gramophone and France's Le Monde de la Musique. Latvian Maestro Mariss Jansons will conduct in the performances slated for Nov. 12 and 13 at Seoul Arts Center.
The Royal Concertgebouw's Nov. 13 performance coincides with another much-anticipated event at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Jongno, featuring the Zubin Mehta-led Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and esteemed pianist Paik Kun-woo. This will be a special treat for those who were disappointed when the maestro was unable to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in Seoul recently. There will be two more performances, Nov. 14 and 15, at the Seoul Arts Center.
A couple of the most beloved North American ensembles will also make their way here. The Philadelphia Orchestra will give concerts on April 30 and May 1 at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts. Many fans were disappointed that violin virtuoso Chung Kyung-wha, who had been suffering from an elbow injury for the past few years, could not make her comeback here with the Philadelphia Orchestra as planned. However, in light of the orchestra's successful tour here in 2008, which was the first after 30 years, fans can look forward to what will undoubtedly be a couple of unforgettable evenings.
The Cleveland Orchestra, which is reputed as possessing ``the most European'' sound among American ensembles, will perform on Nov. 21 at Seoul Arts Center. Rising young Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Moest is set to take the baton. The soloist has not yet been chosen.
For more information, visit www.sac.or.kr (Seoul Arts Center), www.sejongpac.or.kr (Sejong Center for the Performing Arts) or www.artgy.or.kr (Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Complex).