Tafelmusik Will Celebrate the Korean New Year With BRILLIANT BAROQUE

Tafelmusik will celebrate the Korean New Year and the success of its recent tour to South Korea with Brilliant Baroque, directed from the violin by Principal Guest Director Rachel Podger. In addition to music by quintessentially baroque composers, this program includes a new arrangement of the beloved South Korean folk song Arirang by Junghyun Kim and a performance by Jihyun Back, traditional Korean drum dancer. Concerts take place on Jan 31 & Feb 1 at 8 PM and Feb 2 at 3 PM. 

"In November of 2024, Tafelmusik performed the Brilliant Baroque program for incredibly attentive and enthusiastic audiences in six packed houses across South Korea,” says Cristina Zacharias, Artistic Co-Director. “It’s especially meaningful to bring the success of the tour home to our Toronto audience. We are also excited to welcome Jihyun Back to our stage to share mesmerizing traditional Korean drum dance."

Tafelmusik’s Brilliant Baroque journey begins with works by Handel, Purcell, and Charles Avison — baroque treasures from Podger’s native England. New to the Tafelmusik stage is an orchestral suite by the Bohemian composer Antonín Reichenauer, an enchanting dialogue between strings and winds.

No baroque blowout would be complete without the music of J.S. Bach, and who better to bring out the “infectiously spritely bounce and exhilarating dramatic tension” (BBC) of his Violin Concerto in A Minor than Rachel Podger?
 
The concert hall is a natural home for a meeting of cultures, across borders and centuries. As the concert’s finale, Tafelmusik is delighted to share a gift from its South Korean tour with Toronto audiences. Maeari-Rang, an arrangement of Korea’s unofficial anthem, Arirang, by the young Korean composer Junghyun Kim, was created specifically for Tafelmusik’s tour. This well known folk song is included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List, and Tafelmusik’s Korean audiences were deeply moved to hear it at each concert. “It is a story of people who go through tunnels of emotions—with messiness, sadness, and a little excitement and humour—to reach the light at the end,” says Kim.
 

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