Composer who broke taboos makes Korean debut at Seoul music festival

2026 Seoul International Music Festival opens Oct. 8

Karłowicz premiere, Noras-Kim 50-year legacy, 23-piece chamber ensemble among four bold bets

Ryu Jae-joon, artistic director of the Seoul International Music Festival [Seoul International Music Festival]

He left behind only 14 works and vanished one day into the snowy expanse of the Tatra Mountains at the age of 32. Polish composer Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876–1909) carried forward the late Romanticism of Wagner and Richard Strauss while fearlessly plumbing the darkest recesses of the human psyche and the taboos of his era. This year, on the 150th anniversary of his birth, his music will be heard in Korea for the first time.

"When you hear the performances, you'll be genuinely astonished," said Ryu Jae-joon, artistic director of the Seoul International Music Festival. "The pieces are so romantic and magnificent — and yet, strangely, not a single one has ever been performed in Korea. Every one of them is a masterpiece."

Now in its 18th edition, the Seoul International Music Festival (Oct. 8–16, Seoul Arts Center and Lotte Concert Hall) has turned its gaze toward this "ill-fated genius." Ryu said Karłowicz "would have become the greatest Polish master since Chopin had he lived just a few more years."

For 150 years, he remained a forgotten composer — his music too full of taboos for his own era to embrace. Ryu said Karłowicz "explored dark themes of the human interior that audiences shied away from, such as incest, and was so gloomy that he was thought to have lived his entire life alone." He added that the composer "was extreme in his views — championing Wagner and Richard Strauss while openly disparaging Brahms."

As times changed, that extremism acquired the value of avant-garde art. "In the past, it was natural for C to follow A and B," Ryu said. "But Karłowicz would suddenly produce something completely unexpected after A and B. What seemed bizarre in his day now comes across as dazzling variety."

He went on to say that "it is only now, in the 21st century, having matured through countless artistic experiences, that we are finally ready to receive his original melodies naturally."

This year's festival theme is "Bravo My Life" — an offering of comfort and blessing to audiences enduring the strains of daily life amid war, disease and social upheaval.

"Rather than throwing serious subjects at people, I wanted to create a festival where listeners could find hope and draw strength for their everyday lives," Ryu said. Under that warm banner, the festival stakes its reputation on restoring what he calls "the essence of classical music," obscured by commercialism — an uncompromising musical wager sustained across nine days.

The first bet is on people: the historical rehabilitation of Karłowicz and a solidarity of the arts. At the closing performance Oct. 16, his signature tone poem "Stanisław i Anna Oświęcimowie" will receive its Korean premiere. Krzysztof Urbański, artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic, will make his first visit to Korea to conduct the SIMF Symphony Orchestra. The festival will also hold academic lectures at Korean universities in close cooperation with the Polish Embassy in Seoul.

There is also a stage where human bonds — between performers across generations — take center stage. Ryu named the duo recital by Arto Noras and Kim Gyu-yeon on Oct. 14 as the performance he personally anticipates most. Noras, an 84-year-old Finnish cello master, performed alongside Lee Kyung-sook, a pioneering first-generation Korean pianist, half a century ago. Now he completes a two-generation ensemble with Kim Gyu-yeon, Lee's daughter. "Music is ultimately made by people, and beautiful memories and stories accumulate in layers, even unintentionally," Ryu said. "Given his age, I find myself deeply moved by the thought that this could be his final performance in Korea."

SIMF Orchestra [Seoul International Music Festival]

The second bet is on a sense of public mission. The "Serenade" concert (Oct. 10, Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall) will feature no fewer than 23 musicians in a single chamber ensemble, presenting Mozart's "Gran Partita" and Brahms' "Serenade No. 1" on a scale approaching a small orchestra. "This is a program that would be in effect impossible without the Seoul International Music Festival," Ryu said. "It is a stage that could never be mounted if you only looked at ticket sales." He added that, as a festival supported by Seoul city tax revenue, "we pushed ahead with a sense of mission — that citizens should be able to hear this great music at least once in their lives."

The third bet is on broadening the reach of wind instruments — brass and woodwinds — to shake up a landscape dominated by keyboards and strings, and on a feast of world-class soloists. Wind instruments feature in every piece on the opening program, "Breath, and Life" (Oct. 8), and masters including horn virtuoso Radovan Vlatković and trumpet legend Sergei Nakariakov will take the stage across four consecutive days.

"In Korea's music scene, which is heavily skewed toward piano and violin, the brass and woodwinds that form the backbone of an orchestra need to reach a wider public," Ryu said. "I hope that through the extraordinary artistry of these world-class masters, the base of wind-instrument players in Korea will grow considerably."

Elina Vähälä [Seoul International Music Festival]

"Virtuoso Night" (Oct. 11) boasts an equally dazzling lineup. Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä — who made headlines around the world after a conductor's hand accidentally sent her 10 billion won ($7.22 million) Guarneri violin flying through the air and smashing to pieces mid-performance — will take the stage alongside violist Lee Han-na.

The fourth and final bet is on an education and solidarity platform for promising young musicians trapped in the race for solo stardom. Following violinist Kim Seo-hyeon last year, cellist Lee Jae-ri, violinist Lee Hyeon-jeong and other young musical talents will this year sit alongside seasoned professionals as full members of the festival orchestra.

Ryu spoke candidly about the complicated feelings he has watching these young musicians. "Every time I see these young people, I feel so proud and moved — and at the same time, my heart aches," he said. "Because I can already see the envy they will face as they grow, and the countless times their pride will be bruised along the way."

His reason for placing young talents on this stage is a desire to show them music in a broader world. "Most young performers are trained only as soloists and have almost no opportunity in their entire lives to experience how an orchestra actually works," Ryu said. "This is more than simple learning — it is the process of shaping music together in one space. Opening a solid foundation and a space for collaboration to young performers who lack that support is the most fundamental reason an international music festival exists."

shee@heraldcorp.com