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

Myung-whun Chung and the KBS Symphony Orchestra

Leonidas Kavakos, Myung-whun Chung and the KBS Symphony Orchestra

By SangKwon Lee, 19 January 2026

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“roomy tempi and saturated overtone bloom”

Reviewed at Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul on 16 January 2026

Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35

Beethoven, Symphony no. 3 in E flat major "Eroica", Op.55

Leonidas Kavakos, Violin

KBS Symphony Orchestra

Myung-whun Chung, Conductor

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

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

SangKwon Lee, 22nd May

By the close of the performance, one sensed that the audience’s exhilaration stemmed less from polished execution and more from a shared immersion in the music’s dramatic arc—elements that lingered as the defining memory of this eventful evening.

****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

Schumann from the inside out: Yunchan Lim and Staatskapelle Dresden

SangKwon Lee, 1st February

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

*****

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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.