A night of bold strokes: Orozco-Estrada and Josefowicz in Seoul

Andres Orozco-Estrada, Leila Josefowicz and the KBS Symphony Orchestra

By SangKwon Lee, 24 May 2025

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“an evening of lively contrasts and swift dramatic shifts”

Reviewed at Seoul Arts Center: Concert Hall, Seoul on 22 May 2025

Berlioz, Le Carnaval romain, Op.9

Stravinsky, Violin Concerto in D major

Strauss R., Don Juan, Op.20

Strauss R., Der Rosenkavalier, Op.59: Suite

Leila Josefowicz, Violin

KBS Symphony Orchestra

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Conductor

Myung‑whun Chung launches a new KBS Symphony chapter in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 16th January

In Myung-whun Chung’s first concert as the orchestra’s tenth Music Director, Leonidas Kavakos’ account of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is built on exposure rather than varnish.

***11

Mao Fujita’s Mozart and Myung‑whun Chung’s Fantastique in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 29th August

An evening at the Seoul Arts Center in which clarity matters as much as volume and the most telling virtuosity comes from a refusal to grandstand.

****1

Markus Stenz conducts three monumental 20th-century scores in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 18th July

Propulsive Prokofiev from pianist Dmitry Shishkin between Ravel’s hypnotic minimalism and Schoenberg’s late-Romantic complexity.

****1

Unity in Sound: Myung-whun Chung leads KBS and Tokyo Phil in Mahler 1

SangKwon Lee, 3rd March

Like the grainy intensity of a high-contrast black-and-white photograph, these rugged edges accentuated Mahler’s expressive extremes, reaffirming the conductor’s innate flair for crafting a grand aesthetic narrative within the symphony’s expansive architecture.

****1

Redemptive Mahler 2 from Myung-whun Chung in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 21st February

Myung-whun Chung and the KBS Symphony Orchestra tackle Mahler’s monumental Resurrection Symphony at the Seoul Arts Center.

***11

Chaos in the Underworld: Andriy Zholdak directs Fidelio at DNO

Eleanor Knight, 5th June

The Ukrainian director's “revisioning” of Beethoven's only opera plunges it into an incoherent underworld in Amsterdam.

*1111

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SangKwon Lee

SangKwon Lee is a Seoul-based classical music critic whose writing focuses on concert performances and recordings. A contributor to Gramophone and a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, he covers the classical music scene in Korea and internationally.

A night of bold strokes: Orozco-Estrada and Josefowicz light up Seoul Arts Center