At a press conference on Wednesday in Seoul, (from left) New York Philharmonic President and CEO Matías Tarnopolsky, conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Mast Media CEO Kim Yong-kwan. Photo: Yonhap.
In Wednesday’s (6/25) Korea Herald, Park Ga-young writes, “The names New York Philharmonic, conductor-composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and celebrated pianist Krystian Zimerman alone are enough to capture the attention of classical music lovers…. This week’s performances reveal something deeper: a series of long-awaited reunions between artists, between orchestra and soloist, and between the ensemble and its Korean audience. From Thursday to Saturday, the New York Philharmonic will take the stage before Korean audiences for the first time in 11 years…. The last time Salonen and Zimerman, who have known each other for 40 years, performed together was in Seoul in 2018 … On Thursday at Art Center Incheon and Friday at the Seoul Arts Center, the performance opens with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 featuring Zimerman, followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. On Saturday at the Seoul Arts Center … Salonen leads the orchestra through Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose’ Suite, Debussy’s ‘La Mer’ and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique…. New York Philharmonic President and CEO Matías Tarnopolsky shared his vision for the orchestra’s future, describing it as being at an ‘extraordinary moment’—with a new generation of musicians and a newly renovated concert hall at Lincoln Center, David Geffen Hall,” and the arrival of Gustavo Dudamel as music director in 2026.
