The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, under Music Director Jaap van Zweden, launched their first US tour in over ten years at Carnegie Hall with a crowd-pleasing program pairing two staples of the concert repertoire with the US premiere of a new work by Jung Jae-il. A genre-crossing composer, Jung is known primarily for his scores for the Academy Award-winning film Parasite and the Emmy-nominated TV series Squid Game. Commissioned by the SPO, Inferno is his first stand-alone orchestral composition. The 15-minute opus was inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities – a postmodern meditation on the problems of urban existence – in particular the final section which asks whether humans can find something beyond the inferno in which they live that will “make them endure, give them space”.
Jung’s highly dramatic piece began with a series of complex metallic clashes that immediately gave way to a long, lovingly evocative melody on the strings. The expressive music increased in speed and intensity as the deeply resonant timpani joined in. A highly propulsive central section, like a train hurtling forward, led into another slower, gentler section in which brief, surprisingly lyrical episodes alternated with more robust passages before the tension eased and the music faded out and ended, unresolved, with soft strokes on the harp. This was an impressive performance of an absorbing, beautifully balanced work.
Bomsori Kim was the soloist in a thoughtful rendition of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. With nicely contoured conducting from van Zweden, the orchestra matched her lyricism throughout. The central Andante evolved naturally, with a flowing cantilena of gentle beauty and poignant feeling, but it was the quicksilver finale – where Bomsori displayed an appealing sense of lightness and fun, and the woodwinds sounded especially lustrous before building to a satisfying culmination in the frenetic coda – that most impressed. As an encore, she played a warm and sparkling version of Fritz Kreisler’s Schön Rosmarin.
Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony put the Seoul Philharmonic on full display. Despite its lyrical splendor, the lavishly scored, hour-long work can come across as excessively long, but van Zweden’s insightful approach shaped a fresh performance that combined bold romantic feeling with an attention to detail that prevented it from seeming maudlin and drawn out. In the opening Largo, the lucidly presented themes unfolded naturally before segueing into the agitated, expansive Allegro moderato section. In the buoyant Scherzo-like, Allegro molto second movement, his animated baton elicited exceptionally fresh playing, most notably from the brass. The Adagio proved a showcase for the silky, well-blended tone of the orchestra’s robust strings, along with the beguiling sound of principal Sang-Woo Lim’s solo clarinet as it gracefully unwound the rhapsodic main theme. A forceful, colorful finale conveyed all the breakneck energy of the music, at once joyful and frenetic. Offered as an encore, a fast and fiery account of one of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, the popular Furiant from the Op.46 set – ended an evening of fine music making on a highly exuberant note.
