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| Conductor Jaap van Zweden / Courtesy of Wong Kin Chung |
By Park Ji-won
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| The poster for KBS Symphony Orchestra's "Be Your Light" concert / Courtesy of KBS Symphony Orchestra |
Van Zweden was named the 26th director of the New York Philharmonic, one of the world's most famous orchestras, in 2018. In September, he conducted the New York Philharmonic's live concerts at Lincoln Center for the first time since the pandemic and has announced that he will resign beginning in 2024. He will lead the KBS's orchestra's performance of Beethoven's "Symphony No.5 in C minor" and S. Prokofiev's "Symphony No.5 in B flat major" on Oct. 29 at the Seoul Arts Center.
The KBS Symphony Orchestra said in a press release, "Last year, Jaap van Zweden was planning to perform with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the KBS Symphony Orchestra in February and November, respectively. But these events were canceled due to the pandemic … The program will be the same as that which had been planned to be performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra."
The orchestra added that the conductor, who focuses on detailed and strict rehearsals, is planning to present hidden aspects of the two pieces.
S. Prokofiev's "Symphony No.5 in B flat major" is not widely known here, but it aims to describe the nobility and power of the human spirit, featuring a large orchestra with a harp and piano.
The KBS Symphony Orchestra will play these symphonies without guest performers for the first time in the orchestra's regular 2021 concerts.
The first time that van Zweden, who is both a conductor and violinist, led the Korean orchestra, was in playing Richard Wagner's "The Master Singers of Nuremberg" and Bruckner's "Symphony No.8 in C minor" in February 2019.
Born in Amsterdam, before pursuing his career as a conductor, at nineteen, van Zweden was appointed the concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, its youngest ever. He then began his conducting career in 1996.
