Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra set for last season of 2021

The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra has shared its plans for the third and last season of the turbulent 2021.

The SPO’s third season is to run from September to December. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and any possible disruptions, the orchestra divided the year into three, instead of releasing the program for the whole of 2021 at the end of last year.

In the third season, there will be a total of 13 performances, consisting of 11 orchestral music presentations and two chamber music recitals.

Seats will be left vacant between audiences who did not come together to comply with the government’s social distancing rules.

The third season will kick off under the baton of Japanese German conductor Erina Yashima. Yashima, assistant conductor at the Philadelphia Orchestra, will lead the orchestra for Wagner’s Tannhauser: Overture & Venusberg Music and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Clarinetist Kim Han, the second solo clarinetist of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, will present Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major.

From Oct. 15-16, Earl Lee, assistant conductor at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, will have his debut with the SPO, presenting Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7, Op. 70. Up-and-coming pianist Shin Chang-yong will perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55.

At the end of October, music director Osmo Vanska will take the baton for the Asian premiere of Kafka’s Dream, written by London-based composer Shin Dong-hoon as a commissioned piece for the London Symphony Orchestra in 2019. Violinist Lee Ji-yoon, the concertmaster at the Staatskapelle Berlin will take the stage for Nielsen’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 33.

On Nov. 27, the winner of the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition will take the stage with the orchestra, presenting Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 or No. 2.

The SPO will end the year with Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125 “Choral,” on Dec. 16 and 17, under director Vanska. Soprano Kathleen Kim, mezzo soprano Lee A-kyeong and bass Sim Ki-hwan will perform a chamber music arrangement of the work which the SPO presented last year amid the pandemic.

Tickets for the performances will open on Aug. 31. It will offer a 10 to 30 percent discount for package tickets. For more information, check the SPO’s website or call 1588-1210.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)