We’re in our final days here in motherland. As AMAZING as this trip was, I do admit that I’m ready to get back. My e-mails have been piling up and I’ve been thinking about school and getting back to reality…although I’m proud to say that I’ve been doing NO work related STUFF while in motherland! I also miss the conveniences of American life that I’ve taken for granted…ie, a comfortable BED! However, I will miss a lot of motherland, especially the food :)
Monday, we started out as the entire Han clan, but quickly had to go our separate ways when my brother got called away for an appointment. I went with him and the parents went off to shop. Later on in the evening, my brother and I decided to meet Jin and his sister to hang out a bit more because we had such a GREAT time in SurAk mountain the past weekend. Jin and his sister knew many places in MyongDong to eat and hang out and they did not disappoint! I’m so happy to have become friends with these two!
Tuesday morning, my brother Ji went back to the US. I think I have officially become a girl because I choked up a bit saying goodbye to my brother. I’ve cried way too much on this trip! It was such a great time reconnecting with him and hanging out.
Most of the afternoon was spent more shopping and visiting with my mother’s childhood friend one last time. Then, it was time for THE KOREAN NATIONAL SYMPHONY!
The symphony performed at the Seoul Arts Center (예술이전당). This arts center is a lot like the Lincoln Center in NY. It houses an opera house, concert hall, theatre, and couple of recital halls. I was SO proud of KOREA for having built such a beautiful facility, I was in AWE! UNFORTUNATELY, the orchestra performance was very mediocre...Here’s the review:
The orchestra, conducted by Hee-Chuhn Choi started with the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major with soloist Nam-Yun Kim. I thought about my friend Karel Butz throughout the entire performance because I remembered him performing this concerto amazingly well at one of his recitals at IU. Hee-Chuhn Choi has had an amazing career and seems to be very well respected in Korea so I was excited to hear her. However, from the first note she started to the very last, she struggle A LOT with her intonation. I realize that intonation is always the easiest (and at times the most lame) criticism to make, and I don’t like picking on this topic when reviewing a concert, but her struggle was so noticeable I could not look past it. Very unfortunate because I wanted to love the performance very much. In addition to her intonation struggles, the performance was very also very uninspired, unmusical, and in short, very BLAH. I would’ve MUCH rather hear Karel perform this again…sorry Ms. Choi. Nonetheless, she received FIVE curtain calls and couple of “Bravo!” from the audience...
After the intermission the orchestra performed Shostakovich Symphony No. 8. The orchestra performed it well, however, my mother put it best when she said: “It seems like they lack passion in their playing”. I too felt this way about their performance. Technically they were clean with very few slips, but I wished it was more organically soulful and more ANGST, and……you know what, I don’t like writing negative reviews so I think I’ll stop here. Bottom line, the entire performance was disappointing. Mom kept falling asleep and asked if we could leave early, so we left after the 2nd movement. It was still awesome to see the Seoul Arts Center and hope to be back to see more performance in the future!
Tomorrow is the last day in motherland!!
