Sala: Seoul Arts Center: Concert Hall

Ahead of a European tour, the Seoul Philharmonic still have work to do on their Beethoven 9. 

Seong-Jin Cho’s premise in Prokofiev is compelling – to reconcile Russian gravitational attack and monumental construction with clarity, colour and contrapuntal legibility.

Yeol Eum Son’s Britten Piano Concerto formed the evening’s centre of gravity, played with lucid line, structural command and sudden fire. In Brahms’ Second Symphony, Sakari Oramo found conviction, proportion and a warmth that felt earned rather than applied.

Ludovic Morlot conducts the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in three classics from the Romantic era: Berlioz, Chopin and Schumann. 

Yunchan Lim seldom seeks the spotlight in a reflective, conversational account of Schumann's Piano Concerto, conducted by Myung-whun Chung. 

At the Seoul Arts Center, Jaap van Zweden treats Beethoven’s disputed metronome marks less as provocation than instruction, trading bloom for voltage in a driven Beethoven Ninth Symphony.

Daniel Harding and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia choose proportion over spectacle as their Asian tour reaches Seoul. 

A tightly focused and cohesive Bruckner Fifth Symphony at the Seoul Arts Center as Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic continue their Asian tour in compelling fashion.