13 years of Hanwha Classic

Ryu Tae Hyung  
 
The author is a senior specialist at Daewon Cultural Foundation.
 
Performers in the early music revival movement are, in many ways, defiant of time. Rather than moving forward, they reach centuries back, attempting to breathe life into works using period instruments and historical performance practices. Their efforts, meticulous and deeply researched, transform 21st-century stages into time machines.
 
It is a paradox that these performances, played on gut strings and wooden flutes, now sound fresher than ever. In Korea, this renaissance owes much to corporate patronage. The Hanwha Classic series, launched in 2013, has played a pioneering role by consistently inviting globally renowned specialists in historically informed performance.
 

Hanwha Classic 2025, a high-caliber classical music series hosted by Hanwha Group. [HANWHA GROUP]

Over the past decade, the series has hosted memorable concerts. In 2016, Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre performed “Symphonie Imaginaire” (2005), a tribute to French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work imagines how Rameau — celebrated as a genius of orchestration before Berlioz — might have written a symphony. Minkowski’s musical interpretation merged imagination with authenticity.
 
In 2022, soprano Julia Lezhneva and the Venice Baroque Orchestra delivered a vivid performance where the soprano’s coloratura stood out with the brilliance of a Caravaggio painting. The 2023 program featured Giovanni Antonini’s recorder playing in “Piffaro d’amore” (2023), a kaleidoscope of tone, seductive like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Avi Avital’s mandolin recalled the fire of a flamenco guitar. Il Giardino Armonico’s interpretations of “The Four Seasons” (1725) and “Brandenburg Concertos” (1721) were improvisational and forceful. Their encore — an arrangement of BTS’s “Dynamite” (2020) — brought audiences back to the present with a smile.
 
In 2024, Justin Doyle led the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and RIAS Kammerchor in cantatas by Handel and Bach, rarely heard with original instruments and chorus on Korean stages. Their encore was “Island Baby” (1964) by Lee Heung-ryeol, which transcended time and space to affirm music’s universal emotional reach.
 
 
Early music can sometimes feel academic to casual listeners. Hanwha Classic has addressed this with clear and engaging program notes. Musicologist Chung Kyung-young offers accessible onstage commentary, while critic Lee Jun-hyung’s in-depth essays provide guidance into the heart of early music.
 
This year’s Hanwha Classic will be held on June 6 and 8 at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall. French soprano Patricia Petibon and Ensemble Amarillis, making their Korean debut, will present “The Sorcerer’s Flame” (2024), a one-woman opera drawing from French Baroque works by Lully and Rameau. The program highlights the formative years of French opera in the 17th and 18th centuries.
 
A visit to this year’s Hanwha Classic may feel like a stroll through a French Baroque court. It may leave you with a renewed appreciation for the beauty that lingers beyond time.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.

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