It’s been a month since I had watched these incredible musicians play infront of me. It was a pity that I did not get a chance to rant about these talented group of men. Well, not I do.
The concert I went to watch was called the MIK, taking place in Seongnam Art Center; with four of the Korea’s best musicians to perform on the stage. To elaborate those on the main stage were, Julius-Jeongwon Kim, the pianist, Young-Hoon Song, the Cellist, Sang-Jin Kim, the Violist, and finally Soovin Kim, the Violinist. All these four young man had gone through top class education, and can be referred to as the pinnacle of the Korean classical music industry. Julius-Jeongwon Kim, as a musical prodigy entered and graduated from the Austria Vin National School of Music as the youngest to ever achieve the level. The Cellist, Young-Hoon Song had went to Julliard School of Music after his Debut, and the violinist Sang-Jin Kim winning the “Auszeichnung” as the very first Korean, and with the highest possible points ever. Their actual performance was also amazing, verifying their eminent past, and current.
The Concert was divided into three parts, all of them written by different composers, and with different themes. The First Group of piece was written by Jean Francaix, a renowned composer of France; as the master of discords, he incorporated his talent very well in the piece. Rather than sounding like a “classical” music, it was more modern. With quick beats, and abrupt dynamics, it really put life into the music. In the “Trio pour Violon, Alto et Violoncelle,” piano parts did not show up, the seat was empty the whole time until the next repertoire. I especially liked the Andante, which was fused with melancholic melody yet fast; an unusual approach to the music. The Rondo was also one of the more interesting parts of this recollection. It cleared up the previous emotional changes into a quick, dolce feeling.
Next up was the famous, “Beethoven Piano Quartet in E flat major Op. 16.” As the concert folded into Beethoven, it was rather more relaxing than the first. For it was a piece written by Beethoven, this piece was the very first song to have a pianist join the trio of strings. It gave more comfortable feeling to the sound, and many times, the piece was constant, and nothing was very abrupt. Each instrument synced with each other very well. To be honest, the piece grew to become a little tiring, and continuous that it caused me to doze off a bit. As the piece went on to Rondo Allegro ma non troppo, it was a new start to the whole repertoire. It was fast, strong, and mostly grandioso. According to the pamphlet, when Beethoven had played this piece in front of the audience for the first time, he played it, but largely playing as an impromptu. When the many critics and other musicians realized that it was impromptu, they criticized Beethoven for his non-uniformity. Yet due to many of his audiences had given him such applause for the piece, his talent had shined and kept his reputation over these critics.
Finally the concert was approaching its end. As the musicians came back to their seats after the intermission, they started right away with a new movement. The new movement was called “Schumann Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op.47. This was my favorite out of all three movements in the whole concert. Beginning slowly, the piece gradually increased to a lively concert. Schuman, the incomparable Romantist, wrote it and out of the entire piece he had ever written similar to this, it was the most popular and the most famous. Finale was what took my interest the most. It was an onslaught rush of emotion through out the whole 5 minutes. The speedy movement of both arms and fingers truly invoked my interest, and kept me hanged on to the piece till the end with a refreshing Staccato, to sum it all up. Out of all three movements, this piece was the most euphonious with all the instruments that were playing on the stage.
MIK was distinguishably different from many musicians I have seen up to now. The collision of each other’s instrument was successful without fail; it was an amazing performance. Not to mention the Encore performances that they had. Even though both pieces were very famous, I was curious to find out their titles, since I had no idea what it was. The first encore was the Libertango, a piece which you would have heard of at least once in your life time. Quite ironically, the encores aroused up the audience more than it had on the body of the concert itself. The second encore was called “Por Una Cabeza,” also famous from the movie “The Women’s Scent.” For I have already seen the movie, I was already burning with passion to hear the music, and let the notes flow through my body. The encore was a hit; it was played with such passion that it was hard to distinguish where I was. I happened to be lucky at the time for not leaving the second the members stood up and ran out the door; or else I wouldn’t have experienced this feast of emotion.
Ultimately I believe the concert was extraneously well played. Not to mention their unity as one; I thought our whole orchestra missed out on one essential skill that they had. It was unity, and without it none of use would be capable of playing any song. These four men had larger, and more firm sound than our whole orchestra had; it was amazing how they had transferred their sound to even the very back of the room. The only part that did not seem to catch my liking was that there were too many songs unfit to my taste, especially those, which consisted of continuous slow and depressed notes.
Pictures from: http://blog.naver.com/jakpoom1215?Redirect=Log&logNo=130036406924
