Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra Online Performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 'Choral' on the 20th

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) will perform Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral" at 5 p.m. on the 20th at Lotte Concert Hall. The concert will be held without an audience, and the live performance will be broadcast worldwide via SPO's Naver TV and YouTube channels, as well as Seoul City's YouTube channel.

Marcus Stenz, the principal guest conductor of the SPO, will conduct an arranged version of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral." The performance features soprano Park Hyesang, an exclusive artist of Deutsche Grammophon (DG); tenor Park Seungjoo (Mario Park), who debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 2019-2020 and is a Metropolitan Opera Young Artist; mezzo-soprano Lee Ahkyung, a professor at Kyung Hee University; bass Park Jongmin, a resident singer at the Vienna State Opera; and the National Chorus of Korea.

Every year-end, the "Choral" symphony, which requires a large-scale ensemble including a choir, resonates in concert halls worldwide. Last year’s SPO performance of the "Choral" included about 200 performers on stage, including SPO members and the choir.

This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale ensembles are not possible, so the SPO arranged the "Choral" symphony for a chamber music-sized ensemble that allows for social distancing on stage to ensure the safety of performers and participants.

The arrangement was done by Finnish composer and violinist Jaco Kusisto. This year, only 64 performers will be on stage, including one conductor, four soloists, and 24 choir members. While the original score of Beethoven's "Choral" includes 19 wind players, Kusisto's arrangement features only eight wind players.

Beethoven's final Symphony No. 9 "Choral" stands at the pinnacle of the dynamic transition from the Classical to the Romantic era. With the addition of new instruments, the sound expanded and the timbre became richer. The number of brass instruments increased, and percussion parts, which originally included only timpani, were supplemented with triangle, cymbals, and bass drum. Beethoven introduced the "human voice" into the symphony genre, which had been regarded as purely instrumental, presenting a new kind of symphony and opening the path to Romantic symphonies that allow unlimited freedom.

Many composers before and after the Romantic period were influenced by the groundbreaking structure and free form of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Influences of Beethoven's Ninth can be found in works such as Bruckner's Symphony No. 3, Mahler's Symphony No. 1 "Titan," and Dvo??k's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World." Brahms even referred to his first symphony as "Beethoven's Tenth Symphony." Beethoven's pioneering idea of incorporating vocals into the symphony was notably inherited by Mahler and Shostakovich.

Jaco Kusisto, who arranged the "Choral," has been the chief conductor of the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Finland since 2018. He served as concertmaster of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland, where Osmo V?nsk?, music director of the SPO, was chief conductor from 1988 to 2008. Kusisto has released about 40 works including chamber music, vocal symphonies, and operas, and is also active as an arranger.

The SPO's online concert on the 20th will be available for free viewing worldwide for about 65 minutes from 5 p.m. on SPO's official Naver TV channel, YouTube channel, and Seoul City's YouTube Live Seoul channel. No replay service will be provided after the broadcast ends.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.