Seoul Phil needs to look beyond Chung

SPO music director Chung Myung-whun

By Do Je-hae

In 2005, then Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, who later became president, invited Chung Myung-whun to lead the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) with the aim of making a Korean orchestra of international renown.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon appears as enthusiastic about Chung. During a recent meeting with city editors, Park said there was no other alternative than Chung to lead the SPO at the height of Chung’s duel with CEO Park Hyun-jung. Park resigned.

Chung has been put under scrutiny for a wide range of irregularities outside the concert hall, on top of his big annual salary of 1.5 billion won. Despite the controversy, Seoul is ready to renew its contract with him.

Here are points of consideration for Seoul, before re-signing.

Only superstar conductors like Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony, get paid that much for a regular post with an orchestra. But the SPO is no Chicago Symphony and Chung, while undoubtedly one of the best Asia has produced since former Boston Symphony music director Seiji Ozawa, is no Muti on a scale of musical achievement.

During Chung Myung-whun’s 10-year tenure, the SPO has done things a Korean orchestra has never done before ― gained a contract with the prestigious recording label Deustche Grammophon and performed at mainstream venues such as London’s BBC Proms.

As Chung’s tenure has built a strong foundation for the SPO, it is high time for a fresh leadership ­― at a more reasonable cost ­­― to take over.

When Chung renewed his contract in December 2011 after a round of controversy about his salary, Seoul mayor said he would ask the orchestra to prepare for a post-Chung era.

After three years, the orchestra still seems overly dependent on Chung and shows no intention of parting ways with him, and this is serving as an impediment to its sustainable growth.

A glaring problem with the SPO has been that the orchestra is too dependent on its music director.

The SPO has adopted a more refined sound and has added explosiveness to its brass and percussion that wasn’t there before Chung arrived. However, some of the key players of the orchestra concurrently serve as concertmaster or principal at Chung’s French orchestra, and are not solely devoted to the SPO. Chung himself only spends about two months with the SPO.

Chung may have won the heart of orchestra musicians and some music classical music lovers, but he has alienated himself from the public due to a haughty attitude unfitting of someone on the Seoul City’s payroll. For instance, he refused to show up at a Seoul City Council hearing about the SPO’s administrative affairs in November 2014. “Chung has collected about 14 billion won from the city, but he has not even once presented himself at a city council meeting when his presence was required,” a council statement said.

Chung, who is in Europe for a series of concerts, has yet to make any kind of apology for the misuse of funds that were recently confirmed through a special audit by the city government.

As always he has hidden behind administrative staff and has distanced himself from the press, claiming that he has “nothing on his mind but music,” which he seems to believe is a good reason for his alleged ignorance of non-music affairs in his orchestra.

Generational transition

The SPO’s obsession with Chung goes against one of the biggest trends in classical music; a changing of guard in major music conductor posts. Some of the world’s foremost orchestra in the U.S. and Europe have chosen youthful leadership to usher in a new era for their organizations.

Younger conductors tend to be forthcoming about having a place in the community off the podium, and bringing innovation to programming. Under Chung, the SPO has been rather conservative in its programming, focusing on traditional favorites Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Mahler.

Many conducting posts in Korea are still led by veteran musicians who have been in the profession for more than 30 years such as Gum Nan-se, who was recently been appointed music director of the Seongnam Philharmonic based in Gyeonggi Province.

While Korea has produced many talented instrumentalists, it is still rare to find a young Korean on the podium. But outside Korea, the prevalence of young conductors is becoming more evident.

In a statement, the Philadelphia Orchestra announced last week that it had renewed its contract with Yannick Nezet-Seguin, 39, through the 2021-2022 season. “Heralded for inspiring and revitalizing the Orchestra in his early tenure, Nezet-Seguin has developed a deep connection with the musicians of the ensemble that has resulted in thrilling performances,” the orchestra said in a statement.

The Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the oldest in the U.S. had formerly been led by legendary conductors Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy. In 2012, Nezet-Seguin turned heads with the Philadelphia appointment that has given him a mission to revitalize the orchestra as it makes a comeback from bankruptcy protection.

Andris Nelsons, 36, succeeded the legendary maestro James Levine at the Boston Symphony last year. The Boston Symphony, formerly led by greats Serge Koussevitzky and Seiji Ozawa, made headlines when it appointed the Lativan a successor to Levine, more than twice as old as Nelsons. Gustavo Dudamel, one of the most popular conductors on the stage today, is even younger at 33. The music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is immensely popular, not just in the U.S., but also Europe.

If the SPO is willing to spend as much as it has on Chung, it could bring in a world-renowned conductor to take the orchestra to a higher level. The NHK Symphony, one of the best in Asia, has built its reputation under maestros Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Andre Previn. Working extensively with conductors of similar stature will greatly benefit the SPO musicians.

There is also the choice of adopting a completely different system of leadership.

Rather than relying on a single music director, the SPO could adopt a system of rotating musical leadership among a pool of several young and seasoned conductors of global stature. This would be good training for the SPO members, while giving the audience a varied concert experience. This system had been adopted by the Russian National Orchestra, an ensemble that has something in common with the SPO in that it has become a representative orchestra of its homeland in a relatively short time.