Notes on the Culture
Probably more than any other arts institution in the city, it’s been an incredibly hectic couple months for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and all its permutations. In February, they released their first four recordings with James Levine, big booming works from Mahler and Brahms and lyrical suites from Ravel and Bolcom, all which sound blissful in HD Surround.
Then they announced the Pops and Tanglewood series, highlighted immediately on Tuesday by the Pops’ performance at the Red Sox home opener at Fenway. Why? Well, it’s nicely conciding with their Red Sox Album just out. And yes, it was inevitable that Keith Lockhart would start melodiously tweeting away on Twitter.
But amid all this shuffle and bustle, it’s important to notice that the BSO can still surprise by showcasing new talent, as they will for a weekend run starting this Thursday, April 9. That’s when assistant conductor Shi-Yeon Sung makes her debut leading Boston’s Classicalest though a rich and varied repetoire, and from all accounts, we have a treat in catching a rising star at the beginning of her ascent.
Last week, I sat down with Sung to talk about her background, her flourishing career, and her upcoming concerts.
Born in Pusan, South Korea, Sung was raised in Seoul where she took up the piano and soon was looking to the Continent for inspiration. Germany, to be precise, and soon she launched on a love affair with a then-distant land that still plays a large role in her professional life. “When I was 11 years old, I would read a lot of music magazines,” Sung said, “and that’s where I learned the best music college in the world was the UdK [Universität der Künste, or University of the Arts] in Berlin. I read about many pianists I admired who taught there, like Claudio Arrau, and so I wished I could go there to study.”
By age 18, she was off to Zürich to study piano, and in 2001 she moved on to the German capital and earned her master’s in piano from that very same UdK (though she did not get to meet Arrau, sadly). Conducting was in her blood, though, and within a year, she was leading a performance of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. By this point, she was also getting imbued with her adopted country’s artistic tradition, learning all about German culture and German literature. And though stressing her catholic tastes, she admits a leaning towards the Romantics and epically Teutonic classical works–Mahler, Johann Strauss–and a goal that in the future she’ll be able to add their broad, expansive, complex works to her repertoire once she gets more experience.
Now 33 years old, Sung has been attaining that experience at a rapid pace around the globe. In the past few years, she’s continued to conduct all over Germany (Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Nürnberg, Thuringia, back to Berlin). She’s also guest conducted in Rotterdam, Milwaukee, Los Angeles (with the Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl), and at Tanglewood. Prizes haven’t been scant either, such as first place in the 2006 International Conductors’ Competition, named after no less an eminence than Sir Georg Solti, and winning the Bamberg Gustav Mahler competition the following year.
One of the more momentous concerts in Sung’s informal world tour was when she returned home in 2008 to conduct the opening show of the Seoul Philharmonic’s opening season, even if that came with its own pressures. “In our country,” she said, “if you go away and then come back, people expect you to have a special interpretation that you can bring back to Korea. They get so excited for you, but you do feel the pressure.” The concert was a success, and now she continues to hold an associate conductor position there as well.
Of course, the pressure for a journalist when interviewing Sung is the elephant in the room, that as a woman she’s a rarity in a male-dominated field. After all, she was the first woman to win the Solti competition. So I admit: I bit and asked about it. Predictably Sung was ready and candid:
“It’s a big responsibility. I get this question a lot, and the first time, I didn’t like this question. But I can’t avoid the social situation that exists now, and I do find that [reporters] are interested in how I feel. But I can tell you honestly that when I’m conducting, I don’t feel like I’m a woman–I’m only feeling the music.”
Sung thought a moment and chuckled, telling about the first time that she saw a male harpist and immediately thought it was an odd sight, as that instrument is so often played by female musicians. She soon reflected that it was nice, not odd, to see a male harpist, and how her situation is similar: “I thought to myself, ‘You can hate this question, but you can also understand why it’s there and be proud of yourself that you can make a way for the next generation.’ So I’m now proud of that point, but in the end I just go my way.” When I told her that she’s on her way to making that question go away herself, she laughed and sighed, “Yes, in another 50 years!”
Now on the eve of making her big Symphony Hall debut with the BSO, she acknowledged that she’s feeling a different kind of pressure, one that every young conductor feels, especially here in the Hub: “It’s an honor to stand here and be in front of this orchestra, in this incredible hall. I like the Boston audience: they hear very carefully, and I can tell when they’re very enthusiastic about a certain piece of music or part of the performance. The other side of it that is not easy is that I waited more than one year to do this, so the pressure is to have a great concert and to show my connection with the music.”
As for that music, she’ll conduct Sibelius’s harp-laden The Bard, Copland’s joyous Appalachian Spring, and Bartók’s challenging ballet score, The Miraculous Mandarin. (Brazilian pianist Nelson Freire will also perform Grieg’s Piano Concerto.) A ruminative Finn, a boisterous Yank, and an avant-garde Hungarian–basically, it’s an eclectic, intriguing assortment.
The selection process started with Sung’s initial meetings with BSO artistic administrator Tony Fogg, where she proposed the Bartók: “I first thought of the Mandarin, because it’s an amazing piece of music, and I was really happy to get a chance to do it with a great orchestra. It’s very difficult technically, but also musically to get and feel the impression of the story. I wanted the chance to do it with the BSO.”
Then she thought about how Bartók’s reputation then and now, and how he is now established as the great composer of Hungary. So she started thinking of other composers whose personae or specific works are so wrapped up in their countries’ identities. Ergo the Sibelius and Copland, with all three pieces yielding a general feel of expression both of spirit and of the land from whence that spirit came.
As for where Sung is going next, like most music professionals, she does have other gigs in addition to her Boston and Seoul duties. Among others, she has upcoming concerts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and back in Germany with the Bamberger Symphoniker. The big project that looms is her first chance to conduct opera as a professional, which she’ll do in February 2010, when she conducts Glück’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Royal Swedish Opera.
Fortunately, though, we’ll still have her back in Boston regularly for the next couple years at least, which is also an appealing proposition for her: “I like Boston very much. The Europeans told me that it’s the most European city in America, and they were right. You can experience many cultures here and the arts tradition and history has impressed me. In Boston, there’s just so much around you.” She stopped and thought. “And I enjoy Restaurant Week.”
Shi-Yeon Sung makes her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall this Thursday, April 9, with shows also on April 10, 11, and 14.
