Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra Performs Mendelssohn's 'Scotland' and Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3

Berlin Staatskapelle Concertmaster Lee Ji-yoon Collaboration... November 1 at Lotte Concert Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) will hold a concert on November 1 at 5 p.m. at the Lotte Concert Hall, conducted by Music Director Osmo V?nsk?.

This concert is titled "Osmo V?nsk?'s Mendelssohn Symphony 'Scottish'." The SPO will perform Donghoon Shin's "The Hunter's Funeral," Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 "Scottish," and violinist Jiyoon Lee will collaborate on Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3.

Music Director V?nsk? will join the SPO's live concert stage for the first time in over four months since the "Osmo V?nsk?'s Mahler and Sibelius ①&②" performances held at Lotte Concert Hall on June 18-19. After completing his fourth self-quarantine following June and August, V?nsk? is scheduled to conduct this concert.

The first piece, "The Hunter's Chorus," is a funeral march composed by Donghoon Shin, a composer active mainly in London. Shin, who received the "Young Composer Award" from the British Critics Association in June, is a composer gaining attention on the global stage. Shin grew alongside the SPO. From 2007 for about seven years, he studied under composer Eun-Sook Jin, who resides in Germany, through the SPO Masterclass, and his works were performed on the SPO's "Ars Nova" stage, Asia's representative contemporary music program.

Shin borrowed the title "The Hunter's Funeral" from the woodcut by Austrian painter Moritz von Schwind, which inspired Mahler when composing the third movement of his Symphony No. 1, and expressed the impressions he received from this work in music.

Mozart was famous as a keyboard player but was also proficient in violin and viola. In his later Salzburg years, he frequently appeared as concertmaster and violin soloist of the court orchestra. Mozart's five violin concertos and four short pieces were mainly composed during his Salzburg period (1773-1776). Violin Concerto No. 3 is a piece that, as Mozart declared, "I am not a person who likes difficult things," emphasizes transparent beauty, a sense of balance, and musical logic rather than flashy virtuosity.

Violinist Jiyoon Lee, who will perform Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3, is currently the concertmaster of the Berlin Staatskapelle.

Jiyoon Lee has proven her skills early on the international stage by winning the Oistrakh International Competition (2013), Carl Nielsen International Competition (2016), and placing in the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2015) and Indianapolis International Violin Competition (2014). The Berlin Staatskapelle, a prestigious German orchestra with a 450-year tradition led by Daniel Barenboim, appointed Lee in 2018 as the first Asian and female concertmaster in the orchestra's history. Lee will perform Mozart's violin arias using the 1970 violin "Carlo Landolfi (C.F. Landolfi)."

Mendelssohn traveled extensively at the age of twenty through England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. During a three-week trip to the Scottish Highlands, he was deeply impressed and sketched a 10-bar motif that later expanded into Symphony No. 3. "Scottish" is close to a symphonic poem in that all movements proceed without pause, and compared to the classical "Italian" symphony, it has a stronger programmatic character. The first movement begins with a mysterious introduction; the second movement features the rhythm of Scottish folk music known as the "Scotch snap"; the third movement Adagio is Mendelssohn's finest slow movement; and the fourth movement starts darkly but concludes with a bright and vigorous "happy ending."

This concert program was changed from the original plan considering the health and safety of the audience and performers. Accordingly, previously booked tickets were canceled and new tickets were released. The concert will be operated with "distanced seating."