[Contents]

[Dedication]

Krzysztof Penderecki

[Commission]

[Program Note]

Jeajoon Ryu’s Violin Concerto (2006), was premièred in December 2006 during the 13th International Festival ‘Laboratory of Contemporary Music’, at the Witold Lutosławski Concert Hall of Polish Radio in Warsaw, by the Korean-born British violinist So-Ock Kim and the Symphony Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic conducted by Piotr Borkowski. Despite the composer’s use of modern expressive devices, this is a work of truly Romantic provenance. Jeajoon Ryu seems to have been inspired by the music of his eminent teachers and mentors, as well as by the European musical tradition, particularly of the turn of the nineteenth century, employing the best features of that legacy while treating them in a creative way…The Violin Concerto is proof of Ryu’s exceptional talent, his sensitivity to orchestral colour and texture, his concern for dramatic pacing and his command of architecture. The work is notable for its exquisitely scored, almost Mahler-like climaxes, its slow, meditative introduction and its depth of expression, as well as the beautifully lyrical solo violin part…It is also characterized by an imaginative interplay between soloist and orchestra, which allows for both a virtuoso display from the soloist (albeit without the typical violin ‘pyrotechnics’) and spectacular sounds from a large symphony orchestra. 

Adapted from a review by Professor Marian Borkowski, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music, Warsaw

*Jeajoon Ryu’s violin concerto was dedicated to his formal teacher, Krzysztof Penderecki’s 70th birthday, and he use some element from Penderecki’s violin Sonata No.2 as respect and admire to his teacher. 

[Media]