Thanks to Hyun-ho Khang for letting me know about a Korean performance by the Royal Philharmonic at the Fairfield Halls on the Mayday bank holiday. And absolutely no marks to the organisers of Think Korea 2006 and the Fairfield Halls for not publishing the programme. The RPO’s website doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of the concert, but then Private Eye always used to accuse them of being a virtual orchestra who could be found playing several venues simultaneously. The title of the concert is Korea Fantasy, which suggests to me that they might be playing the Fantasia by Ahn Eaktai (안익태) from which the national anthem is taken. But your guess is as good as mine.
A google search on “Think Korea 2006” revealed no home website, but did highlight a Kayagum concert on May 24. Cunningly designed to clash with the Korean Film Festival. ARRRGHHH! Is there no planning or coordination? A similar clash occurred on 24th February, when an embassy-sponsored talk & buffet clashed with a must-see concert by Hwang Byungki. End of rant.
And for the record, the details, which I eventually found out, are as follows:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Korea Fantasy
Fairfield Hall, Croydon
Monday 1 May 2006, 7:30pmProgramme
Ahn Eaktai: Korea Fantasy
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 (soloist: Richard Joo Hyung-ki)
Songs from 6th and 7th albums – Lee Soo Young
Traditional Korean songs – Kim Young Im
(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.