Although composer Jeajoon Ryu is Korean, he studied with Krzysztof Penderecki in Krakow, and Naxos' Jeajoon Ryu: Sinfonia da Requiem appears to be the debut of his music on disc. It features Ryu's ambitious choral-orchestral Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 11 (2008), paired with his Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 10 (2006); although soprano soloist In-Hye Kim in the Sinfonia da Requiem and violinist So-Ock Kim are both Korean, everyone else in this production -- conductors, choruses, and orchestra -- are Polish. Certainly the music ...
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Although composer Jeajoon Ryu is Korean, he studied with Krzysztof Penderecki in Krakow, and Naxos' Jeajoon Ryu: Sinfonia da Requiem appears to be the debut of his music on disc. It features Ryu's ambitious choral-orchestral Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 11 (2008), paired with his Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 10 (2006); although soprano soloist In-Hye Kim in the Sinfonia da Requiem and violinist So-Ock Kim are both Korean, everyone else in this production -- conductors, choruses, and orchestra -- are Polish. Certainly the music sounds more Polish than Korean, but the situation to which the Sinfonia da Requiem is addressed altogether to Ryu's mother country; it is written in honor of the generation of Koreans to whose lot befell the task of rebuilding Korea in the wake of the 1950-1952 war. The Sinfonia da Requiem is accomplished and impressive; Ryu has learnt well from Penderecki, although this is even more conservative overall than Penderecki generally is. At times, its harmonic palette is reminiscent of...
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