A Quartet of Concertmasters Join Sejong Soloists at Zankel Hall
It's not unheard of for concertmasters of major orchestras to take a brief leave from their positions to perform as soloists, or even fill in for other orchestras in need (see Cleveland and, until recently, Boston.) Which is understandable, given the prodigious talent these violinists exhibit on a nightly basis, often at the expense of a solo career. But, to have four prominent concertmasters performing together on the same stage? Unheard of.
But, that's exactly what took place on May 22, when the concertmasters of the Met Orchestra (David Chan), NY Philharmonic (Frank Huang), Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Andrew Wan) and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra (Daniel Cho) joined forces with the chamber orchestra Sejong Soloists for their 30th anniversary concert at Zankel Hall. It made slightly more sense to have such a starry collection of violinists when I learned that all four performed with the Sejong Soloists earlier in their careers, and studied at Juilliard with Sejong founder Hyo Kang.
But, what does one do with four concertmasters? The repertoire of music featuring four violin soloists is - well, nonexistent. So, naturally, Sejong commissioned a new work for the occasion: Texu Kim's with/out for four violins, strings and percussion. (In recent years, Sejong has commissioned more than a dozen new works, including Tod Machover's Overstory Overture (2023) and August Read Thomas' saxophone concerto Haemosu's Celestial Chariot Ride (2024). with/out, which Kim says is about the alienation pervasive in contemporary society, featured evocative names for each of its three movements: "lonesome and fluorescent" was soft and plaintive; "subdued and imploding" felt anxious and Bartòk-creepy, while "festive!!" was bright and cheerful, with the four soloists digging in. (Kim must not be a fan of capital letters.)
Prior to intermission, the four concertmasters joined forces on Mendelssohn's Octet, which is just about the only work from the standard repertory that prominently features four violins (alongside a pair each of violas and cellos.) Written at the absurdly young age of 16, Mendelssohn's Octet is light and effervescent, making up in energy what it lacks in drama and depth. Here, Chan acted as lead, which must have been a bit odd for the other three concertmasters; for me, it was particularly strange to see Huang, such a charismatic leader over the past decade at the Phil, play "second fiddle" on the other side of the stage.
The program opened with Unsuk Chin’s “Puzzles and Games”, a collection of arias from her celebrated opera Alice in Wonderland which she arranged for Sejong. American soprano Juliana Zara, who's spent much of her career in Europe, delivered a wild, no-holds-barred performance that reminded me of Barbara Hannigan singing Ligeti. (Incidentally, Unsuk Chin studied with Ligeti in Hamburg.) The music was playful, dissonant, occasionally haunting, often unhinged. While the Sejong players (conducted by Earl Lee) were uniformly excellent, Zara stole the show; keep an eye out for her on an opera stage near you.
More pics on the photo page.