Penderecki Showed Me the World: An Interview with Jeajoon Ryu

sinfonia varsovia 1_6511726.jpg, default, Penderecki Showed Me the World: An Interview with Jeajoon Ryu , Musicians of the Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra who recorded the album 'Möbius' with compositions by Krzysztof Penderecki and Jeajoon Ryu., center

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Korean composer Jeajoon Ryu and pianist Mackenzie Melemed tell Culture.pl’s Filip Lech what are the discussions with Poles like, what is special about Polish music and how Jeajoon Ryu’s Piano Concerto sounds.

Jeajoon Ryu graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków and from 2011 to 2012 was a composer in residence of the Gorzów Philharmonic Orchestra. He is the artistic director of the Seoul International Music Festival, which often presents Polish classical and contemporary music. He was awarded the Gloria Artis medal for promoting Polish culture abroad. At the opening of this year's Seoul International Music Festival, the Korean audience will have a chance to hear Krzysztof Penderecki’s St. Luke’s Passion performed by Korean Broadcast Symphony Orchestra. The festival will also feature works of Witold Lutosławski and Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 3 ‘Polish’).

On 9th April 2019, the audience of the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival at the Warsaw Philharmonic listened to Jeajoon Ryu’s Piano Concerto performed by Mackenzie Melemed and the Korean Broadcast Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yoel Levi.

Filip Lech: Why did you choose Poland to study composition?

Jeajoon Ryu: I was driven by the need to discover new horizons for my compositions. Previously, I had been under the influence of Western European music and avant-garde composers such as György Ligeti or Brian Ferneyhough. On the other hand, there were Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Alfred Schnittke. I knew many Polish composers: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Witold Lutosławski and of course Krzysztof Penderecki, and I wondered what made their music so special, incomparable to anything else. Their music also has the potential to enter the mainstream, to be listened to by a wider audience, not only by a narrow group of contemporary music fans.

My decision was greatly influenced by Maestro Penderecki's Symphony No. 5 ‘Korean’, a piece commissioned by the International Cultural Society of Korea for the 50th anniversary of my country’s liberation from the Japanese occupation. During the Maestro’s visit to Korea, I had the opportunity to meet him. I approached him and said: ‘I would like to study with you’. At first he refused, claiming that I was not yet ready to become a composer. I finally managed to go to Kraków after two years of working hard in Seoul.

FL: What is Krzysztof Penderecki like as a teacher?

JR: It’s hard for me to answer this question. I would say that Krzysztof Penderecki was my master rather than a teacher. He didn’t teach me composing, but gave me a chance to get to know the world around me. He took me with him to many places, introduced me to people. When I was writing my first Cello Concerto (2001), he introduced me to Mstislav Rostropovich. It’s extremely important to be able to ask some questions to such a great artist. I had the opportunity to meet many great artists, authors, even politicians and businessmen. While studying with Krzysztof Penderecki, I understood that music is not just about studying scores.

FL: How did you feel after arriving in Kraków? It’s a city very different from Seoul.

JR: Kraków is different from any city I have ever seen in my entire life! People there are very proud of their history, have their own customs and way of life. The strangest thing is that everyone seems to know each other there! I always try to familiarize myself with a new place, not to confine myself to a dorm room and lecture halls, as many foreign students do. Kraków is my second home.

FL: What are your favourite places in Kraków?

JR: The Main Square, you can find anything there (laughing). I really liked visiting Nowa Huta district. It used to seem like a dangerous neighbourhood, but it has changed now. I had many friends there with whom I would engage in heated discussions that lasted all night and sometimes turned into arguments. We were young and, besides, Poles tend to get very involved in discussions.

FL: You are the artistic director of the Seoul International Music Festival. In 2013, on the occasion of Krzysztof Penderecki’s 80th birthday, you organised a week-long festival dedicated to his work. It was then that the Korean audience heard for the first time Seven Gates of Jerusalem conducted by the Maestro.

JR: I always try to include Polish music in the programmes of my festivals: Penderecki, Górecki, Szymanowski and other artists, such as the Kraków-based composer Marcel Chyrzyński. After all the years I lived there I consider it my duty.

FL: Can the audience find any traces of Polish music in your works?

JR: Of course! For example, I often refer to the mazurka rhythm, which can be heard even in one passage of my Piano Concerto.

FL: What in Krzysztof Penderecki’s music appeals to you most?

JR: His compositions have the deepest passion the music can contain. Each sound conveys a thought: some of them derive their meaning from Professor Penderecki’s personal experiences, others originate from Polish history and culture.

FL: Contemporary music is considered ‘difficult’ art, incomprehensible to an average listener. In your music, as in the music of Maestro Penderecki, we can find many references to the past.

JR: I know only one artist who was fully modern and whose work is completely detached from the tradition, I mean John Cage. The avant-garde has become a label, a musical genre that doesn’t bring anything new.

I express myself through my compositions, but I always think about my audience and even about the performers. If musicians from the orchestra performing my music don’t like something about it, how can they do it with commitment, how can they convey my thoughts? Of course, I live in the 21st century, so I use other means of expression than Beethoven or Mozart.

FL: How was your Piano Concerto performed at the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival created?

Mackenzie Melemed, photo: press materials

JR: I composed it when I was suffering from cancer. Writing down the sounds I wanted to express my will to survive.

Mackenzie Melemed: We can hear dances and marches in it, tonal and atonal passages, inspirations with romanticism and baroque.

FL: Was it hard for you to learn it?

MM: Yes, it’s a very difficult and complex work. The soloist plays for about 90% of the piece’s duration and the orchestra part is very dense, rhythms are constantly changing. In the first movement the world of atonality is intertwined with tradition, somewhat like in Maestro Penderecki’s music. The second movement is neo-baroque; Jeajoon gave musicians very precise instructions regarding the rhythm (parts of woodwind instruments are particularly demanding). The cadence near the end of the second movement is crazy!

In terms of form, it is – at least from my perspective – a very original work. It refers to many classical forms, for example a sonata, but they are just motifs that help our perception to structure this piece. It lasts over thirty minutes, so we need something familiar to hold on to. The sound, harmonies, melodies, the relation between the orchestra and the pianist – that’s what distinguishes this concerto.

In autumn 2019, the Warner label will release Möbius, the album with works by Krzysztof Penderecki and Jeajoon Ryu performed by Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of Grzegorz Nowak. The project is carried out by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Sinfonia Varsovia and the Seoul International Music Festival. The Polish-Korean record will mark the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Poland.

Originally written in Polish, translated by AW, 13 Apr 2019

Tytuł (nagłówek do zdjęcia)

Link URL

Watch It Bloom

Language English

polish culture in asia

polish contemporary music

krzysztof penderecki

jeajoon ryu

plkr30