Symphony brings young star

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Symphony brings young star

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If simply having the London Symphony Orchestra come to Seoul for the first time in 10 years isn’t enough to pique the interest of music fans, they should see who’s coming with the 102-year-old orchestra. In addition to its “spiritual conductor,” the Korean maestro Chung Myung-whun, the orchestra will also feature the famed Chinese pianist Yundi Li.
Li, 24, was the winner of the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw, Poland, in October 2000. The competition is one of the world’s most prestigious musical contests and is held every five years. Li’s win was all the more significant because the competition had not had a winner for the previous 15 years. Moreover, Li was 18 years old at the time, becoming the youngest winner and the first Chinese winner in the competition’s history. On the roster of Deutsche Grammophon since 2001, he has also set a record in sales, selling 30,000 copies of his debut album on Chopin only 10 days after its world release in December 2001.
In the Seoul concerts, Li will perform Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, the piece he played to win the Chopin competition. The piece is also the last one Chopin composed in Poland before he left his homeland in 1830.
The London Symphony Orchestra will also play Musorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” at tomorrow’s concert and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor on Sunday. Chung conducted Mahler’s symphony with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra last year.


by Park Sung-ha

The London Symphony Orchestra under Chung’s baton will perform at two venues during its Seoul visit: It will play at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, and in the Concert Hall of Seoul Arts Center at 6 p.m. on Sunday. Ticket prices vary from 55,000 won ($56) to 275,000 won. For more information, call (02) 518-7343, or visit www.cmikorea.co.kr.
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