A tour-de-force concerto that will leave you breathless, Tchaikovsky’s romantic piano concerto opens this inaugural visit from the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra with soloist Sunwook Kim. Programme Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Unsuk Chin Frontispiece for orchestra (2019) Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919) Performers Osmo Vänskä conductor Sunwook Kim piano Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra Sunwook Kim came to international … [Read More]
Performance Group: Seoul Philharmonic
Looking back at 2015: Culture, sport and tourism
In the first of four articles looking back over 2015, we recall some of the culture, sports and heritage stories that made the news. Heritage The historic Baekje sites were listed by UNESCO as world heritage. UNESCO also listed in their Memory of the World register some Confucian woodblock texts and records of the family … [Read More]
Looking back at 2014: Domestic news
Our final look back at 2014: mainly domestic news stories from South Korea: The Sewol and safety culture The MV Sewol capsized on 16 April, causing the death of 304 passengers. A number of factors contributed to the disaster, including lax safety inspections, unsafe modifications, unsecured cargo, overloading, and an inexperienced crew hired on temporary … [Read More]
The Seoul Philharmonic – a young orchestra with “an extraordinary sense of adventure”
On 27 August, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra made its Proms debut, the first Korean orchestra to play at the famous music festival. At the Pre-Prom talk earlier that evening across the road at the Royal College of Music, Michael Fine and Hyunjin Park of the Seoul Philharmonic, and Dr Haekyung Eom of Liverpool University, talked … [Read More]
The Seoul Philharmonic at the BBC Proms – with a Proms Plus intro
The Seoul Philharmonic will be at the BBC Proms under their music director Myung-Whun Chung on 27 August. The programme includes work by Korean composer Unsuk Chin. The Prom is preceded by a free talk in the Royal College of Music, 5:45pm-6:30pm, hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny, focusing on the orchestra and … [Read More]
Seoul Philharmonic records Unsuk Chin for DG
The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Chung Myung-whun were in the recording studio for Deutsche Grammophon last month recording Unsuk Chin’s concertos for Sheng (with Wu Wei), Piano (with Sunwook Kim) and Cello (with Alban Gerhardt – who premiered the work at the BBC Proms in 2009 – LKL review here). The orchestra will be coming … [Read More]
The London Korean Links Awards 2011
The sixth of LKL’s annual unscientific and very personal recognition of the best things of last year. And in the field of film, books and CDs what is encouraging is that there is so much to choose from. There were also plenty of good Korean cultural events in London, Edinburgh and elsewhere, but there was … [Read More]
Edinburgh Festival and Fringe 2011: review round-up
I didn’t make it to all the Korea-related events at the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe, and for one of the events I did get to I didn’t feel like writing a review. So here are some links to the reviews that are out there. For completeness, I include links to my own reviews. If … [Read More]
FT asks for Unsuk Chin
The FT reviews Seoul Philharmonic / Chung Myung-whun playing Debussy and Ravel on DG, a release which coincides with their debut at the Edinburgh Festival http://t.co/Tf9s3on # The playing has precision and delicacy, showcased in the Mother Goose suite, but also the machine-like evenness characteristic of Asian orchestras. La Mer and La Valse are too … [Read More]
Top Korean artists at the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival
Every year we get a range of Korean performers at the Edinburgh Fringe. But the focus of the festival in 2011 is the vibrant and diverse cultures of Asia. Consequently this year we’ve got three top-notch groups who have been invited as part of the main festival itself. So for the first time this year … [Read More]