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| The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) / Courtesy of the SPO |
By Park Ji-won
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| The poster for the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO)'s third season, from September to December / Courtesy of the SPO |
The SPO has announced that the concert, titled, "And The Winner is ...," conducted by Wilson Ng, associate conductor of the SPO, will be performed. During the concert, the SPO will be also playing, "Elgar, Symphony No. 1, Op. 55."
It will be the first time for the SPO to perform with the winner of the international piano competition. After pianist Cho Seong-jin won the competition in 2015, the competition, which has been held every five years since 1955, was set to pick a new winner in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it to 2021. From Oct. 2 to 23 in Warsaw, up to 96 pianists, including seven South Koreans ― Choi Hyoung-lok, Ka Joo-yeon, Kim Su-yeon, Lee Hyuk, Lee Jae-yoon, Park Jin-hyung and Park Yeon-min ― will compete in the finals.
The announcement came along with other programs set to be performed during its third and last season, which lasts from September to December of this year, and where the SPO will present 11 orchestral music presentations and two chamber music recitals.
The SPO is planning to open its third season with the German-born conductor of Japanese heritage, Erina Yashima. Yashima, assistant conductor at the Philadelphia Orchestra, will conduct the orchestra for the concert titled, "Ecstasy and Serenity." In the show, the SPO and clarinetist, Kim Han, the second solo clarinetist of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, will play four works, such as: "Wagner's Tannhauser: Overture & Venusberg Music" and Mozart's "Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622."
Also, cellist-turned-conductor Lee Earl, assistant conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, will first perform with the SPO, with Dvorak's "Symphony No. 7, Op. 70" at the Seoul Arts Center, from Oct. 15 to 16 with pianist Shin Chang-yong.
Meanwhile, pianist Cho Seong-jin will hold a recital tour in five different cities in Korea from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7, with Chopin's full Scherzos, Janacek's "Piano Sonata 1.X.1905" and Ravel's "Gaspard de la nuit." Starting in Busan, he will perform in Incheon (Sept. 2), Jeonju (to be determined), Daegu (Sept. 5) and Seoul (Sept. 7). It will be the first performance series he has organized since the cancellation of an encore concert in Seoul in November of last year, due to the spread of the coronavirus. His upcoming Deutsche Grammophon album, "Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 Scherzo," is set to be released on Aug. 26.
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