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Requiem for Chung Ju-yung: Jaejoon Ryu’s Sinfonia da Requiem at the Cadogan Hall

Jeajoon Ryu’s Sinfonia da Requiem was composed to commemorate the Chung Ju-yung, founder of Hyundai, who died ten years ago, and the generation of Koreans to whose lot befell the task of rebuilding Korea in the wake of the 1950-1952 war. Premiered at the 12th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, Warsaw, in March 2008, it was hailed as “a masterpiece” by Krzysztof Penderecki and enthusiastically received by the Festival audience with a ten-minute standing ovation.

You get the opportunity to hear it at the Cadogan Hall on Tuesday 12 April. Don’t miss the 6:30pm pre-concert talk by Edward Seckerson, chief classical music and opera critic for The Independent and regular reviewer for Gramophone.

Jaejoon RyuRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra
Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Jeajoon Ryu

Grzegorz Nowak conductor
Chloe Hanslip violin
In-Hye Kim soprano
Philharmonia Chorus

Programme:
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.2
Ryu: Sinfonia da Requiem ‘Ju-yung Chung’ (London premiere)

Written in just three days, Shostakovich’s Festive Overture is full of bombast and glittering orchestral sounds, from its blazing fanfare to the sparkling melodies dashing across the orchestra. Another Russian classic, but in an entirely different mood, is Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, full of enigmatic twists and turns.

Composed to commemorate the late Ju-yung Chung, Jeajoon Ryu’s intense and powerful Sinfonia da Requiem was hailed by fellow-composer Penderecki as ‘a masterpiece’.

6.30pm: Meet the Artists. Free pre-concert talk presented by Edward Seckerson.

Links:

(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.

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