I can’t help feeling slightly disappointed at Seong-jin Cho’s performance of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto at the Barbican at the end of March. There was no shortage of virtuoso filligree fingerwork and moments of poetry, but somehow the performance as a whole lacked passion and fire. Perhaps part of the problem was rapport between orchestra … [Read More]
Venue: Barbican Centre (page 2)
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Little Forest screens at the Barbican as part of Chronic Youth Film Festival
One of my favourite films of 2018 gets another London screening this month in the Barbican. Well worth a second viewing. Little Forest – Chronic Youth Film Festival 2019 Dir Yim Soon-rye (2018, 103 min) With Kim Tae-ri, Ryu Jun-yeol, Jin Ki-joo, Moon So-ri 24 Mar 2019, 16:00, Barbican Cinema 3 | Book tickets Korean … [Read More]
Seong-jin Cho plays Rachmaninov at the Barbican
Hear from the teenage Shostakovich in this all-Russian programme with conductor Gianandrea Noseda. Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto opens quietly enough, but this simple and beguiling beginning quickly gives way what is in fact one of the most technically demanding concertos in the classical piano repertoire. Its lush and romantic elegance is followed by Balakirev’s Islamey, … [Read More]
World Premiere: Donghoon Shin’s Kafka’s Dream
The second Donghoon Shin world premiere this month is Kafka’s Dream, a commission for the London Symphony Orchestra via the Panufnik Composers Scheme, generously supported by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust. LSO Futures Sunday 24 Mar 2019 6.00pm – 8.30pm Barbican Hall, London | Book tickets DAVID LANG the public domain * (UK premiere) … [Read More]
Kim Hyelim in The Third Orchestra @Barbican
There’s not much Korean-ness about this event, but it’s going to be so good that it’s worth bringing to your attention given the amazing work that Peter Wiegold does with Club Inégales – about which I’ve enthused on several occasions over the past couple of years. Kim Hyelim (pictured) is one of 22 performers taking … [Read More]
Screening: Comrade Kim Goes Flying
If you pop along to the House of Illustration to see Nick Bonner’s current exhibition, you can pick up a DVD of Comrade Kim Goes Flying. You can also find copy of Centre Forward (reviewed here). Both disks are on the pricey side. But for less than half the price of one of them, you … [Read More]
Unsuk Chin: Alice in Wonderland — a UK premiere at the Barbican
Don’t miss this opportunity to experience Unsuk Chin’s sparkling opera live at the Barbican on 8 March. Book on the Barbican website now. Unsuk Chin: Alice in Wonderland Multimedia staging by Netia Jones (UK Premiere) 8 March 2015 / 19:30 Lewis Carroll’s beloved, dreamlike stories are re-imagined in this UK premiere production of Unsuk Chin’s … [Read More]
Concert review: National Orchestra of Korea gives K-Music 2013 a triumphant start
The UK debut of the National Orchestra of Korea at the Barbican on 14 June launched the 2013 K-music festival. In his interview with LKL the day before, the orchestra’s musical director Won Il had promised sounds that a British audience had never heard before. And the orchestra certainly delivered on that promise. The 60-piece … [Read More]
K-Music: The National Orchestra of Korea at the Barbican, 14 June
The 2013 festival of Korean music starts with a prestigious appearance of the National Orchestra Orcestra of Korea. The orchestra was formed in 1995 and plays modified Korean traditional instruments, performing concerts which combine Korean and Western music in both new and traditional compositions. K-Music: The National Orchestra of Korea Friday 14 June, 8:00PM Barbican, … [Read More]
Crossroads of Youth – a constantly-evolving performance of Korea’s earliest silent film
Crossroads of Youth is one of Korea’s earliest silent films, which would have at the time had narration by a byeonsa (the Korean equivalent of the Japanese benshi). The function of the byeonsa was to tell the story in the absence of diagetic dialogue (which in Western cinema was told through intertitles), in addition to … [Read More]
Crossroads of Youth: Korea’s oldest surviving silent film, at the Barbican
While the South Bank is getting much of the attention this weekend Korean culture-wise, don’t forget a repeat performance of Korea’s oldest surviving silent film. It was a big hit at the Thames Festival last year, and it returns to the Barbican on Thursday 2 August. Crossroads of Youth The Oldest Surviving Korean Silent Film … [Read More]
Sarah Chang plays Shostakovich at the Barbican
What a shame. Whenever Sarah Chang comes to London she seems to play Bruch. But this month, she’s playing Shostakovich 1 with Valery Gergiev and the LSO. Great programme. But it clashes with the E J-yong Q&A at the Apollo Piccadilly. Gergiev’s Pathétique, and the prospect of how he might approach the Sea Interludes, almost … [Read More]
Sarah Chang to play the Barbican: check out her shoes
Sarah Chang is a fairly regular visitor to London – she was at the Barbican in February this year doing a chamber music recital as part of the Great Performers series. She’s also a fairly regular soloist with London orchestras. She has just been on tour in Korea with the London Philharmonic. She’s returning to … [Read More]
Aigoo! Yu Hyun-mok, master of Korean realism, is so depressing
When asked to look back at his career, Yu Hyun-mok, one of the four greatest directors from the golden age of Korean film, said that he was proud of two achievements: That he was always an innovator; That he never filmed a melodramatic love story. In the latter achievement lies the key to Yu, as … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival 2009
The schedule is up on the Barbican website, and it’s a great range of the latest hits together with a retrospective of one of the classic directors. Text from the Barbican website, where you can also buy tickets: Thursday 5 Nov, 7pm: Park Chan-wook: Thirst, with introduction by the director. I think this is the … [Read More]
Korea’s least-known best films?
Mark Morris from Cambridge University’s Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies discusses two films shown at the Barbican on Sunday. The International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) chose the Barbican Centre for its venue between 7-17 May. Two remarkable Korean films stood out among an eclectic mix of documentary and narrative films. The 1949 Hometown … [Read More]