Soprano Jo Sumi and Cellist Han Jaemin Accompany
'Schumann Specialist's' Schumann Symphony No. 4
The National Symphony Orchestra embarks on a European tour. They will perform in the Netherlands and Slovakia on October 1 and 3. This is their first overseas tour with Artistic Director Davit Rylandt. The National Symphony will visit Slovakia for the first time in nine years and will perform on stage in the Netherlands for the first time.
The concert venue on the 1st, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is known as one of the world's top three concert halls with outstanding acoustics, alongside the Boston Symphony Hall in the United States and the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. It is the home hall of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, where great conductors such as Bernard Haitink and Mariss Jansons have passed through.
On October 3, they will take the stage at the 'Bratislava Music Festival.' The National Symphony was invited to this festival in 2015, marking its 30th anniversary. This year, they have been invited alongside prominent orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony led by Petr Popelka and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Franz Welser-M?st.
The Bratislava Music Festival is considered one of the most important music festivals in Eastern Europe, along with the Prague Spring International Music Festival. It originated from the 'Bratislava International Festival' in 1950 and is celebrating its 74th anniversary this year.
Soprano Jo Sumi and cellist Han Jaemin [Photo provided by National Symphony Orchestra, (c) Sujin Lee, (c) Shin-joong Kim]
In both performances, the National Symphony will open with Mozart's opera overture 'The Magic Flute.' Then, soprano Jo Sumi will join the stage to perform arias from operas such as Bellini and Donizetti, including 'Casta Diva' from the opera 'Norma.' Jo Sumi will also convey the beauty of Korean art songs with Im Geung-su's 'Like Spring Coming Across the River.'
At the Concertgebouw performance on the 1st, cellist Han Jae-min will join for a collaborative stage featuring Tchaikovsky's 'Variations on a Rococo Theme.'
The finale of the two European performances will be Schumann's Symphony No. 4.
Rylandt, the Artistic Director of the National Symphony, is expected to deliver an outstanding performance as a 'Schumann specialist,' being the second 'Schumann Guest' appointed after Mario Venzago by the D?sseldorf Symphony Orchestra with a 400-year history.
Artistic Director Rylandt described Schumann's music as "like an unsent love letter and a journey of the heart drifting without GPS." He said, "I have high expectations to stand at the heart of European classical music as a representative orchestra of Korea on this first overseas tour with the National Symphony," adding, "Together with Korea's leading soprano Jo Sumi and the next-generation musician Han Jae-min, we will widely promote the depth of Korean music to the world."
Before the European tour, the National Symphony will also perform Schumann's Symphony No. 4 at the regular concert held at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall on the 26th. The first piece of the concert will also be Schumann's 'Manfred' Overture. This piece was inspired by Byron's dramatic poem 'Manfred,' which fascinated Schumann in his childhood, and was composed in 1848 as a 'music drama' consisting of 16 pieces. It tells the story of the protagonist Manfred being saved after meeting the spirit of his former lover 'Astarte.'
The concert will also feature the domestic debut collaboration with violinist Dmytro Udovychenko, the winner of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Udovychenko, from Ukraine, will perform Sibelius's Violin Concerto on this stage.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
