Impressive concerts await audiences in 2015

Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel will bring his orchestra to Seoul in March. / Korea Times file

By Kwon Ji-youn

An impressive concert line-up awaits audiences in 2015, with world renowned maestros set to visit Korea accompanied by equally esteemed orchestras. Also on the list are recitals and performances by top-notch musicians and dancers. Here’s a preview of what to look forward to next year:

Orchestras

The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, with Polish conductor Marek Janowski and violin virtuoso Frank Peter Zimmerman, will steer in the line-up with authentic German performances on March 13. Two weeks later, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and 33-year-old Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the very person who put his country’s musical ensembles on the map, will perform for the first time in Korea.

In April, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will perform all of Beethoven’s symphonies over four days, a first in Asia. Prominent Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer will guide the orchestra from April 20 through 23.

Summer will ring in with a performance by the lesser known North German Radio Symphony Orchestra in May. The orchestra, acclaimed in Europe for its performances of core classical and romantic repertoire including Beethoven and Bruckner, will be accompanied by Korean pianist Son Yeol-eum and German violinist Arabella Steinbacher.

The Dresden Philharmonic will then follow in June with traditional string performances under the guidance of German conductor Michael Sanderling, son of respected conductor Kurt Sanderling, and in July, Russian pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev will bring the Russian National Orchestra to the Korean stage.

Later that month, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with conductor Peter Oundjian will perform Mendelssohn’s Overture “Fingal’s Cave,” among others, with Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti.

Fall will welcome the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach, who will both play the piano as well as conduct, bringing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, Symphony No. 40 and Symphony No. 41 to Korean audiences in October.

Later that month, the BBC Philharmonic will take to stages in Korea, followed in November by the Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the world’s oldest orchestras. Its first-ever principal guest conductor Chung Myung-whun will join it.

Just a few days later, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform for the third time in Korea, and Paavo Jarvi is once again expected to stun audiences in December with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Ballerina Kan Sue-jin performs a scene from “Onegin.” She will perform “Onegin” with the Stuttgart Ballet for the last time in November 2015 before her planned retirement in 2016. / Korea Times file

Soloists

In September, distinguished Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky and his daughter Lily will hold a recital in Korea. Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra consisting of young talented musicians from Baltic countries founded by Kremer himself, will follow in October. Violinst Itzhak Perlman will perform in November.

A good number of chamber orchestras are also set to appear on Korean stages next year. The Sixteen, a United Kingdom-based choir and period instrument orchestra, will stage a performance in March, and the Pavel Haas Quartet, a Czech string quartet founded in 2002, will perform in June.

Clarinetist Sabine Meyer and the Trio Di Clarone will visit Korea for the first time in September.

Ballerina Kang Sue-jin will perform “Onegin” with the Stuttgart Ballet for the last time in November before her planned retirement in 2016. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s contemporary dance company Rosas will also perform in Korea in May.

Follow Kwon Ji-youn on Twitter @jennajykwon