Performances Scheduled in Six Cities This September
Pianist Hyesun Baek to Collaborate on the "Emperor" Concerto
The Belgian National Orchestra (BNO), the official ensemble of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, will be making its first visit to Korea this September.
On July 22, concert agency Labora Arts Planning announced that the Belgian National Orchestra will hold a total of six performances from September 24 to 30. The tour will begin with a concert at the Seoul Arts Center on September 24, followed by performances in Andong, Suwon, Gongju, Daegu, and Goyang.
Pianist Hyesun Baek will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Emperor," as a soloist. The Belgian National Orchestra and Hyesun Baek are scheduled to perform the "Emperor" together in Belgium on September 7 before traveling to Korea.
This collaboration marks Hyesun Baek's first performance with the Belgian National Orchestra in 34 years, since the finals of the 1991 Queen Elisabeth Competition. At that time, under the baton of Ronald Zollman, she performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Patrice Challulau's "To the City of Grief" in the finals. Her fourth-place finish at the time remains, along with Jiho Han's fourth-place finish in 2016, the highest ranking ever achieved by a Korean pianist at the Queen Elisabeth Competition.
Hyesun Baek drew attention as the first Korean pianist to sign with EMI Classics International and as the youngest-ever (at age 29) professor appointed at Seoul National University's College of Music. She is currently the head of the piano department at the New England Conservatory in the United States, where she continues to mentor young musicians. This year, her student, Sehyun Kim, won the Long-Thibaud Competition in France by unanimous decision of the jury.
The Belgian National Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels and traces its origins to the Brussels Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1931. In 1936, it adopted its current name, marking its official founding year. Since 2022, Dutch conductor Antony Hermus has served as chief conductor, succeeding Hugh Wolff, who led the orchestra from 2017 to 2022.
Antony Hermus has conducted all of the major orchestras in the Netherlands, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2015 to 2024, he served as principal guest conductor of the North Netherlands Orchestra, and he currently holds the title of honorary conductor for life. He was also music director of the Anhalt Theatre Dessau in Germany from 2009 to 2015, and was later named honorary conductor for life there as well. This will be Antony Hermus's fourth visit to Korea; previously, he conducted the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016, 2018, and 2019.
The concert will open with Mozart's "La clemenza di Tito." Composed in the final years of Mozart's life, when his creative powers were at their peak, the work continues the tradition of opera seria while showcasing Mozart's unique musical colors. After the "Emperor" concerto with Hyesun Baek, the second half of the program will feature Brahms's Symphony No. 1, a work that combines the formal beauty of classicism with the freedom of the Romantic era.
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