This was the first visit of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra to the Edinburgh Festival and they came in full force and determined to please. Myung-Whun Chung was full of praise for Edinburgh and its Festival and endorsed the mutual warmth of the audience.
Nearly all the ninety or so players appeared to be from South Korea, with the exception, interestingly, of the horn, trumpet and trombone players. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1948 and during the Korean War became the Naval Symphony, reverting in 1957. It became the first orchestra to be funded by the Korean government.
Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra was re-launched as an incorporated foundation in 2005 with the aim of becoming a world-class orchestra. They work hard and successfully in Seoul, which has a population of over 10 million. Recently they have ventured out to play in Asia and Europe and have this month been holding auditions in Amsterdam for players.
Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubliées is a gentle but firm composition of religious music, slow in the first and third movements but sprightly in the middle. It was the opener for the Orchestra’s intriguing and solid show piece work written by Composer in Residence since 2006, Unsuk Chin, and called Šu - Concerto for Sheng and Orchestra.
The Sheng is a mouth-blown free reed instrument made largely of vertical pipes. It is played by alternately blowing and inhaling, being able to produce a continuous sound without any pauses. The soloist, Wu Wei, studied the Sheng at the Shanghai Conservatory and has won many prestigious awards for playing traditional Chinese music. As we watched him, out in front of the Orchestra, it seemed hard work but he was very much on top of it. So delighted was the audience that his encore, played without the Orchestra, gave us a real hearing of a versatile instrument in the hands of an expert.
After the interval the Orchestra gave an entirely satisfying Tchaikovsky Pathétique. In the interval a journalist from South Korea told me that Tchaikovsky was very much in favour back home just now. But Myung-Whun Chung did not want to leave us on such a sad, deathly note and promptly gave us a Rachmaninov encore and a second.
A world-class orchestra they certainly are. Please come back.
Event: Wednesday 24 August , 7.30pm
Photo credit: Eoin Carey