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| Conductor Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul, Sunday. Courtesy of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts |
By Park Ji-won
It was a very special night for classical music fans. The prestigious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) led by Riccardo Muti performed Mozart, Schubert and Johan Strauss at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul on Sunday.
Expectations were high even before the performance, because it was the most-anticipated and biggest performance in Korea by an overseas ensemble since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The 100-minute program included two classic Austrian orchestral masterpieces, Mozart's "Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385," (the Haffner Symphony) and Schubert's "Symphony No. 9 in C Major" (the Great).
As a result, even though the ticket price was relatively expensive for a classical concert here ― the most expensive VVIP seat was 430,000 won ($364.5) and the cheapest seat was 80,000 won ― 2,000 tickets were sold out within a day after sales started on Oct. 6. An additional 400 tickets were available after the introduction of eased COVID-19 social-distancing rules about two weeks ago, but they were also sold out immediately.
As the orchestra finished consecutive concerts in Japan from Nov. 3 to Nov. 8., there were still concerns about the acoustics of the art complex as it was not specifically designed for classical music concerts.
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| Conductor Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra stand up after finishing their performances at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul, Sunday. Courtesy of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts |
But the maestro's conducting and the VPO's ensemble did not let fans down and proved why they are said to be one of the best orchestras in the world.
"The performance was a masterpiece and the essence of Austria's classical music," Nah Sung-won, a classical music critic, told The Korea Times. "They didn't try to impress people and their performance was like eating traditional quality Korean food made without any preservatives. Austrian classical music is very tuneful, melodic, elegant, humorous and warm-hearted. It is distinctive in terms of changes but it just flows. The performance was a textbook example of the classical Austrian pieces performed in a brilliant way."
Nah added that the maestro, who excelled in grasping the characteristics of music halls, controlled his conducting and adjusted sounds according to the space and well expressed the details of the classical works.
"As he is an Italian conductor, we expect dramatic or energetic performances from him; he is actually very active when conducting expressive music like Italian operas. We were able to see that in the performance in some places," he said. "But to maintain the balance of playing the Austrian music according to the space, which is extremely tough, he strictly and accurately conducted the orchestra and controlled his conducting gestures … There were some mistakes at the beginning of the scherzo and the finale of 'the Great,' where the orchestra was not able to start playing in perfect order, but the conductor didn't miss any details of the pieces and maintained the balance throughout the performance. That is way we call him one of the best conductors in the world."
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| Conductor Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul, Sunday. Courtesy of Sejong Center for the Performing Arts |
Most orchestra members took off masks when they performed. Before beginning the show, some of the members appeared to be excited, slowly looking to the audience and even smiling.
During their performance, audience members of all age groups quietened down and tried not to make any noise. Between the movements, audiences coughed all at once as if they held it in during the performance. At other times the music hall was so silent that even the sound of turning pages of the program booklet could be heard.
After Schubert's work, audiences shouted "bravo" and applauded for more than 3 minutes and Muti, who left the stage, returned two more times. After performing the two planned works, the maestro exclaimed, "Johann Strauss' 'Kaiser Walzer'" as an encore. After the encore, many listeners stood up from their seats and applauded for a further 2 minutes and 20 seconds. The maestro left the podium, but came out to bow to the audience twice while the applause continued.
The maestro and the VPO will perform at Daejeon Arts Center on Monday; at the Seoul Arts Center on Tuesday and at BEXCO in Busan on Wednesday.
Tuesday's performance in Seoul was planned to be joined by business invitation, but WCN, the organizer of the orchestra's schedule, decided to open it to the public. The members of the art center can buy tickets starting at 11:00 a.m. and non-members can buy tickets starting at 1:00 pm.
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