Above: Jaap van Zweden
~ Author: Mark Anthony Martinez II
Monday October 27, 2025 – The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra came to perform at Carnegie Hall tonight under the baton of their conductor and music director, Jaap van Zweden. This was a sort of return home for van Zweden, as he was the music director of the New York Philharmonic from 2018 to 2024.
I love Carnegie’s series this year, “International Festival of Orchestras II,” because you really get to see how each orchestra operates and performs. Even when playing the same classics, it is fascinating to see how different cultures approach music and performance.
On this particular night, there was a strong contingent of Koreans in the audience, which would make sense because of the orchestra, but it was also the U.S. premiere of South Korean composer Jung Jae-il’s new piece.
Right when the concert started, the entire orchestra stood up to greet their maestro as he made his way to the stand. The large orchestra, all in concert black, cut an imposing figure as they all waited for van Zweden to arrive at the podium before sitting down. As someone who grew up in Korea, it reminded me of students standing for a teacher when they entered the classroom. This was one of those interesting cultural moments that was on display beyond just the music itself.
Above: composer Jung Jae-il
The orchestra went directly into their first piece, Inferno, by Jung. Jung is not a classical composer by training, but has had some amazing merits to his name already. Jung composed the music for not only the Korean movie Parasite, which steamrolled the Oscars several years ago, but also Squid Game, which took the world by storm in 2020 and this past year as the series concluded.
I was curious as to how the music would sound coming from a primarily film composer. I had some expectations because I always thought that if someone like Mozart were alive today, he would be writing for Hollywood and Broadway instead of just the symphony.
The piece started off cacophonous, in a similar soundscape to his television work. I might have been biased because I am a fan of the Squid Game series, but the violence of the sound felt very much in that world. The music itself felt more like tone painting than the more cerebral or academic sort of modern music that I’ve heard more frequently. I quite enjoyed the music, even though I have a penchant for more melodic or tonal pieces.
It was interesting that there wasn’t much of a melody in the work. It really felt like a film score in that sense, where the music was describing a mood. There were several distinct sections to the piece that didn’t have too much relation to each other, sort of like a movement. Unlike some other classic examples of tone paintings, which have their own movements, these sections were demarcated by distinct moments of silence between each other. This is almost assuredly a product of being a film or television composer instead of a classical one. Where, say, in La Mer, there are distinct sections within the movement that blend into one another, here it felt more like track 2 of a movie soundtrack, which then moved on to track 3 right afterward. This is not a detraction from the piece itself, though! It is just a note on how the world of music is adapting to how it’s used. I’m sure when Monteverdi first wrote Orfeo, people noticed how differently the music was used since it was a work for the stage instead of just the court.
There were moments where the percussion actually had the main role, which was very interesting because I feel like that doesn’t happen too often. And if it is used by composers like Rachmaninoff as the focal point (who would come later on in the program), those instruments are the more melodic kind, such as the glockenspiel.
After the piece ended, the composer came up from the audience and embraced van Zweden. He took several bows in every direction of the audience. I’m sure it was a wonderful moment for him.
After the composer and maestro left the stage, the orchestra set itself up for a diametrically different piece. Bomsori Kim (photo above) came out to the much-reduced orchestra in a beautiful yellow dress and took center stage.
The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto is such a beautiful gem, and it was a great bridge to move back into an earlier sonic world. The piece was well played by Kim as the soloist. As such an iconic piece, there is little room for error, but it was executed very well. The first movement felt a bit uninspired in the beginning, but by the end, Kim was fully involved in the piece and really giving a show.
After the concerto ended, Kim received a very spirited ovation and, after a couple of curtain calls, played a Kreisler solo violin piece marvelously.
After the intermission, the orchestra increased in size again and was ready to play the behemoth that is Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony. The symphony was longer than the entire first half of the concert and quite technically demanding. To be able to navigate a modern piece, an early Romantic, and a late Romantic piece in one concert showed the ability of the orchestra as well as the conductor.
The Rachmaninoff was sublimely played. Most of the time, I was lost in the soundscape that was so reminiscent of other Rachmaninoff pieces in the most pleasant ways. You can hear shades of his piano concertos in his symphonic writing.
After the symphony drew to a close, I thought the concert must surely be over, but there was an encore! It was the Slavonic Dance No. 8 by Dvořák. I could only imagine how tired the orchestra was after such a long night of demanding music, but I left a happy concertgoer.
~ Mark Anthony Martinez II
Oberon's Glade 