Sol Opera Company has just been on a European tour, and before it goes back to Korea it came to the Korean Cultural Centre to present some arias. Sol O pera Company is based in Busan, and was introduced to the audience by the ROK ambassador, himself a Busanite. Sol has been going for seven … [Read More]
Category: Live music reviews (page 8)
Review: Youn Sun Nah and Ulf Wakenius at the Vortex
There weren’t many people who knew what to expect at the Vortex on Sunday night. Time Out had given a useful taster in their listings column, while one or two Korean fans (including the ambassador’s wife) knew Youn Sun Nah’s music well. Probably most of the audience were there because they are Vortex regulars – … [Read More]
A celebration of young Korean talent
A somewhat ponderous performance of Shostakovich’s Fifth by an international maestro marking a fifty-year association with one of London’s orchestras might seem to be an odd occasion to choose to celebrate young Korean talent. But when the companion piece is the same maestro’s Music for Cello and Orchestra played by the young star cellist Han-na … [Read More]
Concert notes: Jasmine Choi’s Wigmore debut
In the first few moments of a concert you can often tell whether the next hour and a half is going to be enthralling or simply pleasant. With Jasmine Choi’s opening notes of Debussy’s Syrinx, you knew it was going to be the former. Being an item for solo flute, the lights could be dimmed … [Read More]
Dulsori gets Chichester jumping to the beat
Jennifer Barclay meets Dulsori at their performance in Chichester’s Festival Theatre, 24 January 2009. I’m not sure the theatre staff were quite prepared when the drummer troupe led the audience dancing into the foyer, bashing gongs and drums in a frenzied finale to an energetic evening. Young and old, the Chichester crowd jumped, laughed and … [Read More]
Concert notes: Baramgot at St Giles — event of the year?
It was a typical wet autumn evening in the Barbican, and inside St Giles’s church it was a little bit chilly. The audience was a touch thin on the ground – some of the regular followers of Korean cultural events will have been at the gala opening of the Korean film festival 5 minutes walk … [Read More]
English church, Korean choir, great concert
What is aural image is conjured up when you hear of a Civic Chorale? Perhaps a worthy amateur choral society, used to performing madrigals with rather too many singers and too much vibrato, plodding through an annual Messiah at Easter time? Think again when it comes to the Suwon Civic Chorale. This forty-strong choir from … [Read More]
Music at the 2008 Dano Festival in Trafalgar Square
Saharial wraps up on our coverage of the 2008 Dano Korea Summer Festival, and launches the LKL YouTube Channel with exclusive live video footage from her camera. Its now a week on from the Festival, but the memories still linger very happily. Of course, there was more going on than Noridan, with three musical sets … [Read More]
Yoon and Tall Lee crowd-surf in Kingston
Saharial reports from the Yoon Band’s gig at The Peel, Kingston, 6 June 2008 Arriving at 5.30pm, Y.B. (Yoon Band) was almost instantly swamped by the dozen or so Korean youngsters that had been lurking for a while, and amiably chatted to them whilst posing for photos and signing autographs. I chatted briefly to Lee … [Read More]
We Love Kim Soo Hee (she said)
Two of your regular LKL writers were so taken with Kim Soo Hee’s concert on 26 January that we both felt moved to write about it. Here’s Jennifer‘s take. Kim Soo Hee, we love you! Especially when you make that heart shape with your arms above your head and blow a kiss. Please come back … [Read More]
We Love Kim Soo Hee (he said)
Two of your regular LKL writers were so taken with Kim Soo Hee’s concert on 26 January that we both felt moved to write about it. Here’s Philip‘s take. “They turned up this afternoon and asked us where our sound system and lighting was,” confided the House Manager at St John’s Smith Square as I … [Read More]
Concert notes: Choi Jin at SOAS
Concerts at SOAS always seem to have a good turn-out. Monday (19 November) was no exception when Choi Jin and colleagues presented a programme of modern compositions and arrangements of music for traditional Korean instruments. Keith Howard provided some informative introductions to the music to be performed, which provided useful context as well as some … [Read More]
Sejong Soloists at the Cadogan Hall: what live music is all about
Sejong Soloists: Three Moments in Time – Cadogan Hall, Sunday 10 June Go along to a standard orchestral concert, and what do you see? Ranks of musicians sitting inertly and gazing intently at their music stands. The baton is maybe a flash of white just visible in the corner of their eye, but from the … [Read More]
Lim Hyung-joo: dreaming in marble halls
In the first half of the St John’s recital on Thursday, Lim Hyung-joo concentrated on the more classical end of the popera spectrum. There was a microphone on stage, and Lim stood behind it, but up until the interval the evening was un-miked. Having heard a couple of his performances on YouTube I was wondering … [Read More]
Does hybrid music work?
I looked in briefly at St John’s Smith Square on Sunday for the Thames Philharmonia concert. Hee-jo Kim’s Kayagum Concerto in A minor was the first item on the programme. Here is an extract from the programme notes, written by John Morrison: This concerto is based on the most traditional sanjoh with its classic and … [Read More]
Dulsori celebrates New Year in New Malden
The lunar new year came to a girls school in New Malden yesterday with more than a few bangs. Samulnori percussion group Dulsori visited Coombe Girls School in Clarence Avenue for a spectacular one hour concert in front of an enthusiastic audience of pupils and visitors — including the mayor of Kingston. The audience didn’t … [Read More]