[INTERVIEW] Inspired by Korean dramas, Swiss classical flutist initiates soundtrack project

Flutist Philipp Jundt / Courtesy of Irene Zandel

Award-winning classical musicians join K-drama soundtrack CD project

By Park Ji-won

Philipp Jundt, a flutist and professor at Neuchatel Conservatory in Switzerland, has become a huge fan of Korean dramas during his 12 years of living in Korea from 2008 to 2020 as an exchange professor. He first began to watch the TV series to improve his Korean language skills as well as to learn about Korean culture. But soon he found himself addicted to them, and watching dramas has become inseparable from his life.

His friends teased him for his rare hobby, calling him "ajumma," a term that refers to a middle-aged woman. The nickname fits, as in Korea, such women are often the most loyal audience for dramas.

"My friends always make fun of the fact that I watch so many Korean dramas," he said during a Zoom interview with The Korea Times on June 30. "I think Korean TV dramas have such a high standard. The quality (of K-drama music) is incredibly good. I think American TV series have really high standards but we don't have such high-quality dramas in Europe."

While watching dramas, the flutist naturally came to take an interest in soundtracks.

He said that Korean drama music shows a well-mixed combination of American and German storytelling as well as Italian melodic music styles

"I would say that in Germany and America, film music is very focused on storytelling. And in Italy, it has a more melodic style. Korea kind of combined the two a little bit and developed its own style. In the 90s, Korean drama music had a pop music style, so there were a couple of fantastic pieces," he said.

He decided to release a CD featuring selected works from Korean drama soundtracks.

So, he and composer Marco Hertenstein began to review some 3,000 soundtracks and made a shortlist of the quality tracks that could be included on the CD. The criteria for the shortlist was that the tracks had to feature strong compositional characteristics and be compatible with the expectations of classical music listeners, while on the other hand showing characteristics of Korean culture being emotional. It took months.

Jundt said, "It was a very long process," and that they narrowed down the list based on the criteria that "it needed to be a good composition so that it has development in the piece while working well on traditional classical instruments. And we wanted to have pieces from different eras."

"I think that Koreans show their emotions so much quicker and they are more intense ― like love, happiness or anger. This (kind of emotion) shows through not only in TV dramas but also in the music. I really love this music. It goes in very different directions."

He and his colleagues not only put their best into playing the well-known songs, but also tried to make the best arrangements possible so that the music and instruments themselves could stand alone as strong musical statements.

Flutist Philipp Jundt / Courtesy of BOM Arts Project

The cover image for "Shades of Love: Korean Drama Soundtracks" / Courtesy of Universal Music

Their hard work bore fruit. On July 9, Deutsche Grammophon, the prestigious classical label under Universal Music, will be releasing the CD. It features famous K-drama soundtracks played by award-winning classical musicians, such as Grammy-winning violist Richard Yongjae O'Neill.

Titled "Shades of Love: Korean Drama Soundtracks," the album contains 15 popular soundtracks, including that of: "Crash Landing on You," "Guardian: The Lonely and Great God," "Descendants of the Sun," "Mr. Sunshine" and "Reply 1988." There are additionally two new pieces performed by viola virtuoso Richard Yongjae O'Neill, flutist Philipp Jundt, composer David Philip Hefti, violinist Daniel Hope, oboist Albrecht Mayer, pianist Sebastian Knauer, flutist Sir James Galway, flutist Lady Jeanne Galway and the Zuercher Kammerorchester. The album covers soundtracks made between the 1990s and very recently. Jundt is also set to be performing the list of songs in August in Seoul.

Jundt said that the CD is his personal statement of gratitude to Korea and Koreans who make him feel at home whenever he visits the country. He also said that the CD project is reciprocal.

"For me, this CD is like a bridge between Korea and Switzerland. So I wanted Western musicians to play Korean music, because Korean musicians always play Western music. It is a 'thank you' to the Korean music world for giving me a home … Everyone on that CD needed to have two things. They needed to have a closer connection to Korea and to me in Korea. I have either played these artists in Korea or we have stories in Korea. I didn't want anyone to play on the CD who is just a musician who didn't like or love Korea. That was important for me."

Stressing that the release announcement and pre-release of some tracks attracted many young K-drama lovers in Europe and that Korea is really "trendy" in Europe, he said that the combination of genres seen in the CD is representative of a "classic" process in the music world, in which "popular" melodies and music are adopted in new works.

"Many people think that classical music is something serious and intellectual. But if you look at Mozart, Schubert or Schumann, they took street music, beer house music or popular music. They took these melodies and combined that with their oeuvre. This is the core of classical music, which is very popular," he said. "That kind of combination of forms of art happened some 300 and 400 years ago, which is a good thing … I think maybe for people who don't listen to classical music usually, this will be kind of a bridge to the music."

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn