KBS Symphony with 90-Year-Old Maestro Inbal Highlights Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich
Creatrip Team
a month ago
On Jan. 28 at Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall, the KBS Symphony Orchestra will present its 823rd subscription concert themed “Soul of Russia,” conducted by 90-year-old maestro Eliahu Inbal. The program explores 20th-century Russian music’s engagement with human tragedy, beginning with Rachmaninoff’s symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (inspired by Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin), which evokes life, death and inner solitude in a 5/8 rhythm. The main work is Shostakovich’s large-scale Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar,” featuring a bass soloist and male chorus; the piece sets Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s poem commemorating the 1941 massacre of Jews at the Babi Yar (a ravine near Kyiv) and confronts anti-Semitism and the dignity of victims. Bass soloist Grigory Shkarupa and a combined male chorus from Seongnam and Yongin will perform. The orchestra says Inbal’s long experience with Shostakovich—he previously conducted Symphony No. 11 with KBS—will bring a powerful, historically aware interpretation. Tickets are sold out, with any cancellations posted on NOL and the Arts Center website.
