Rapturous applause as PRSO tour begins in Busan
A concert on Sunday by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (PRSO), the first of five on a South Korean tour, ended with huge applause. Conducted by Petr Vronský and featuring the Russian soloist Konstantin Shcherbakov, the concert took place in Busan, a city of four million people on the southeast of the peninsula. The orchestra is now looking forward to two concerts in the capital Seoul, where they will appear at the Sejong Center, one of the county’s most important halls with a capacity of over 3,000. Their concert on Wednesday is being broadcast live by the South Korean public service radio station KBS.
The audience were completely transported during a concert on Sunday 29, May at Busan Culture Center, which has a capacity of 1,400. Smetana’s Vltava, Tchaikovsky‘s Symphony No. 5 and the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Rachmaninoff with soloist Konstantin Shcherbakov were met with rapturous applause; in fact, the loud cheering was akin to something one would normally only hear at a football game in the Czech Republic. The ovations only increased in volume with the performance by the PRSO of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
On Monday, the orchestra travelled on to Seoul in the north of the country, population 10 million, where it has two concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday at the capital’s famous Sejong Center, with a capacity of over 3,000. Wednesday’s performance, which will include renditions of the overture of the aforementioned Marriage of Figaro, Tchaikovsky‘s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in E-flat major (the “Emperor Concerto”), is being broadcast live by the South Korean public service radio station KBS and on local cable television.
