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Romance and the symphony: Beethoven music, conservatory teacher to be featured

Beethoven music, conservatory teacher to be featured

Courtesy photo Violinist Soovin Kim, who is also a teacher at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, will be the guest artist at the Altoona Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Mishler Theatre.

When Teresa Cheung was a conductor at the prestigious Bard Music Festival in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., in 2010, a young violinist caught her eye and ear. Soovin Kim was effortlessly playing a difficult piece.

“When I saw him, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness,'” said Cheung, the conductor today for the Altoona Symphony Orchestra. “He’s a very young violinist, but he’s full of depth with his playing.”

Kim, now a teacher at the renowned New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, will be the guest violinist at the upcoming ASO concert called “King of Romance” at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 29 at the Mishler Theatre. Tickets are $13 to $15 for students and $30 to $35 for adults.

Kim headlines an evening of Beethoven music: Coriolan Overture, or Op. 62, Fourth Symphony in B-flat major, or Op. 60, and Violin Concerto in D major, or Op. 61.

Cheung acknowledged that it is unusual for a concert to include three opus numbers — even if they’re not in order. But there was a method to her madness.

“I thought it would be interesting to look at Beethoven up close and at a particular time in his life,” she said, noting that the three pieces were written over a matter of months during 1806-07.

Beethoven had written his Third Symphony in 1803 and was “in a very dark mood at the time because of the French Revolution,” Cheung said.

Three years later, he was in a lighter mood and wrote the three opuses that will be played at the ASO concert. His “great symphony about life,” Beethoven’s Fifth, came next, she said.

Cheung noted that Opus 62 was written for a play; Opus 60 was part of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony; and Opus 62 was written for a friend and colleague, who was a violinist.

“All three had different purposes,” Cheung said. “It’s actually a very creative period for (Beethoven). All of it was done in a matter of a few months.”

It also was his movement toward Romanticism.

“In many ways, we don’t think of Beethoven as a Romantic composer,” Cheung explained. “You don’t get into the Romantic period until 1830s, 1840s. … But what happened is that he was already on the path to being this figure that is taking a different stand rather than being someone who is working for the nobleman. He was becoming a very individualized character and voice. It was more of an attitude rather than a timeline.”

When Cheung was putting together the music, she realized that Kim would be the perfect player on the violin concerto.

“Sometimes I spot an artist long before finding the right time and the right piece,” Cheung said. “I wanted someone who has a lot to say with his playing. I found that in Soovin.”

Kim said the piece generally is considered one of the two greatest violin concertos ever written, along with that of Johannes Brahms.

“And it does happen to be one of my absolute favorites, both to listen to and to play,” he said. “It is unusual for Beethoven’s larger-scale works to be so drama-free. This concerto has remarkably little drama and struggle in it; it is about joy, tranquility, peace, thanks and celebration. There are shadowy suggestions of more troubled feelings, but the more positive side of human nature overwhelmingly wins. As in virtually every great Beethoven work, the craftsmanship for the orchestra and the solo violin part are sublime.”

Kim, now 40, began playing the violin when he was 4, and he said he owes his love of music to his parents who listened to classical music at home and took him to occasional concerts.

“Nobody thought I would become a professional musician at that time,” he said. “But as I grew older, it became apparent that I had an unusual love for this music, even among serious musicians.”

Beginning at age 15, he studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, followed by the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. At age 20, he won first prize in the Paganini International Competition, one of the most respected violin competitions in the world.

He went on to win other awards and became a teacher, first at Stony Brook University and the Peabody Institute. He also is the founding director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival and is a member of the Johannes String Quartet.

He joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory in 2014.

“That is a very, very reputable school,” Cheung said. “Some of the best violinists in the world have studied there.”

Mirror staff writer Cherie Hicks is at 949-7030.

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