Have you ever been to an outdoor concert held in a forest during the midsummer night? Most big cities around the world, including London, Vancouver, and New York, hold classical outdoor music performances every summer. Outdoor Summer Concerts tend to give you very pleasant moments as they have special music, summer wine, and even refreshing summer breeze.
At the end of the summer season(Aug.23-25), Bomunsan holds a concert in the woods for Daejeon citizens. Bomunsan is a famous mountain with precious memories for Daejeon citizens, providing the best spot for holding outdoor concerts during the summer season. The outdoor concert in Bomunsan forest, which is already celebrating its sixth year, is held by musicians of various genres for three days.
The concert began with the Air Force Honor Guard’s demonstration. Their performance was powerful, dynamic and even entertaining so audiences showed enthusiastic responses. After the ceremony, the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra played music score from I vespri Siciliani by Giuseppe Verdi(Italian Opera Composer), conducted by Ryu Myung-Uh(a permanent conductor for the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra). Subsequently, they performed the Triumphal March from opera ‘Aida’, Radetsky March by Johann Strauss and several Spanish classical music pieces. The Conductor, Ryu Myung-Uh was kind enough to explain about every music they played to the audiences so audiences could have a better understanding of their music.
In particular, the performance by Rafael Aguirre (Spanish guitarist) was the highlight of the day. Concierto de Aranjuez played with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, was a gorgeous melody to beautify the midsummer night's scene while still feeling the rose. Concierto de Aranjuez was composed by Joaquin Rodrigo, a blind composer from Valencia, Spain. It is said that Concierto de Aranjuez contains Spain's strong ethnicity and also the composer's despair and tender heart. Audiences could empathize his feelings from the tune. In addition, a Spanish flamenco music score (Panaderos Flamencos by Esteban de Sanlucar ) selected as his last performance positively hit up the atmosphere.
The next stages were also full of pleasant performances. Soprano, Kang Hye-jeong and crossover tenor, Im Tae-kyung's stages delivered their voice that goes well together on a quiet summer night. Especially, the song “Time to say Good-bye”, which was selected as their last song, was a great ending song to soothe the viewers.
This outdoor concert has been enthusiastically received by Daejeon citizens every year. The auditorium was so full, which proved that the concert was quite popular and successful. More importantly, audiences seemed so happy to enjoy the concert with a cool evening breeze.
Now hot summer days are waning and the cool autumn season is coming up soon. It was a bit sorry as there were no summer wines but they offered us pleasant moments with wonderful performances and a refreshing summer breeze. The concert also had helped us to prepare for the new season.
By Donny Yim
