Donghoon Shin’s Threadsuns premiered by Berlin Philharmonic
A new viola concerto by Donghoon Shin, inspired by the enigmatic, weaving poetry of Paul Celan, is premiered by soloist Amihai Grosz and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Philharmonie on 9 January. Further performances are planned in the composer’s native South Korea, Austria and the USA.
Threadsuns, the new viola concerto by South Korean-born composer Donghoon Shin, is unveiled at the Berlin Philharmonie on 9 January in a concert conducted by Tugan Sokhiev, with two further performances on following days. The programme will be live streamed on the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall on 11 January commencing at 18.00 Berlin time. The work was written for the orchestra and its first principal viola Amihai Grosz, with further performances planned by the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra in Suwon next May and by the Tonkünstler-Orchester in Austria and the Minnesota Orchestra in future seasons.
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The composer describes in his programme note how “the title of Threadsuns is taken from Paul Celan’s short poem Fadensonnen (in English Threadsuns). Through the wistfully mournful but somewhat enigmatic writing of Celan, I hear imaginary music in D flat major, a very special key to my ear which reminds me of the timbre of the viola and evokes perhaps the most complex emotions - sad but not crying, mournful but not howling, in despair but not without hope. In this concerto I wanted to express these threads of emotions and write complex contrapuntal and lyrical music as the title Threadsuns implies.”
The new 23-minute concerto is cast in two movements played without a break, with the first representing the exposition, and the second combining development and recapitulation. Soloist and orchestra engage in musical conversation, through moods ranging from intimate shyness, through violence to ironic waltz music, finally singing passionately together in unison to form the work’s climax before a lamenting close.
> Read the full programme note
Threadsuns is dedicated to Amihai Grosz and written in memory of the late Peter Eötvös, who premiered Shin’s earlier chamber orchestra work Of Rats and Men with the Berlin Philharmonic’s Karajan Academy in 2019. The Karajan Academy also gave the premiere of Shin’s cello concerto Nachtergebung with soloist Bruno Delepelaire in 2022 under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. As a postscript to the premiere of Threadsuns, players from the Karajan Academy join the Berlin Philharmonic’s Artist in Residence, the pianist Seong-Jin Cho, on 19 January for a chamber programme including Shin’s My Shadow for clarinet, two violins, cello and piano at the Philharmonie’s Kammermusiksaal.
Since Donghoon Shin signed with Boosey & Hawkes two years ago, his works have included Double Act, a concerto for sheng, accordion and orchestra, premiered by soloists Wu Wei and Pascal Contet in 2022. Upon His Ghostly Solitude, an orchestral reflection upon WB Yeats and Alban Berg, was premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Osmo Vänskä in 2023, with further performances in Bamberg, Seoul, Amsterdam, Aspen and Minneapolis. Shin’s works up to 2022 are published by Ricordi Music.
> Further information on Work: Threadsuns
Photo: Lee Tae Kyung / the Chosunilbo