Seoul Philharmonic takes on new challenges in Jaap van Zweden's 4th season

Beethoven's 200th death anniversary sits at the center of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra's 2027 season. But the orchestra is also using the year to try things it has never done before.

For the first time, the orchestra will perform the same program three times, something CEO Jung Jae-wal said Korean orchestras have not dared to do given the size of the market. Only three programs get the extended run: Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in March, a concert performance of Beethoven's only opera, "Fidelio," in October and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, "Choral," in December.

"It's a kind of gut feeling," Jung told reporters Monday. "But I can feel firsthand that demand for our performances is growing considerably."

He called the runs a test of whether the market has grown enough to fill three nights. "If the results are good, I think I can be certain that demand in Korea's classical music market is really growing," he said, adding that talk of classical music having a high threshold "seems to be a thing of the past."

"Fidelio," coproduced with the SeAH Woon Hyung Lee Foundation, also anchors the season's keyword, freedom. Music director Jaap van Zweden pointed to the opera's story of liberation from prison and to Beethoven's own struggle with deafness. For an orchestra, he said, freedom comes through discipline: "You are only free on stage when you are really prepared, when you really dig into the music."

The orchestra is also reviving its artist-in-focus program, last held in 2022 with violinist Augustin Hadelich. Shin Donghoon, who grew as a composer through the Seoul Philharmonic's contemporary music series, Ars Nova, will hold the title for two seasons, 2027 and 2028. The orchestra will give the Asian premiere of his new piano concerto with Cho Seong-jin on June 24 and 25, which will also mark the pianist's return with the orchestra after 11 years.

Returning soloists include violinists Augustin Hadelich and James Ehnes, violist Tabea Zimmermann and cellist Alban Gerhardt, while pianists Park Jae-hong and Sunwoo Yekwon take on Rachmaninoff's third and second concertos. Pianist Mao Fujita and violinist Randall Goosby make their debuts with the orchestra. Violinist Himari, born in 2011, opens the year at the New Year's concert on Jan. 9. Van Zweden called her "probably the biggest sensation that we are hearing in the last half century for violin."

Guest conductors include Tugan Sokhiev, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, David Robertson and former principal guest conductor Thierry Fischer, alongside a younger generation led by Roderick Cox, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian and Holly Hyun Choe. Earl Lee and Choi Soo-yeoul also return.

Touring abroad has become a fixture under van Zweden. The orchestra played Carnegie Hall and Oklahoma's McKnight Center in 2025, then spent August 2026 in Europe, performing in Amsterdam, the Italian town of Merano and San Sebastian in Spain.

Next year's tour goes further. The orchestra will open the 82nd Prague Spring International Music Festival with Smetana's "Ma vlast," or "My Homeland," on May 12, becoming the first non-European orchestra to do so. Audiences in Seoul get an early hearing on April 22-23 at Lotte Concert Hall, where the orchestra will perform all six symphonic poems of the cycle. The tour also stops at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Rome's Santa Cecilia.

The invitation grew out of van Zweden's appearance at the festival with the Chicago Symphony two years ago. "They asked me to come back, and I said I want to come back, but I only come back with Seoul Philharmonic," he said. "So they said, okay, that is your demand, then we also have a demand for you. You have to open the festival with 'Ma vlast.'"

He has never conducted the work, but he's looking forward to it. "To be honest, I wish I could start tomorrow," he said.

Reflecting on his first three years, van Zweden said the orchestra has developed into "a chameleon," a quality he has often said an orchestra needs. "We play Mahler, but we can also be a very great classical orchestra that knows how to play Mozart," he said.