Recognized as one of Spain’s most distinguished international conductors, maestro Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra took to the stage Wednesday night at the Seoul Arts Center bringing to life the sounds of Britten, Sibelius and Schubert, while also delighting the audience with the evening’s highlight: special guest soloist Viktoria Mullova. 

Opening up its return performance in Korea after more than seven years, the orchestra performed Benjamin Britten’s buoyant Simple Symphony, Op. 4 -- a strings only symphony. 

The relatively short classical repertoire perfectly portrayed the British composer ’s reputation of having never quite loosened the grasp on his emotionally tender and adolescent view on the world, both with his music and in his personal life.

The score’s second movement, “Playful Pizzacato,” was indeed a pleasantly playful twist to the overall repertoire as the piece calls for the strings to fingerpick the entire score, creating the feeling as though one was being transported to medieval times through the whimsical imagination of a young child.

The next piece -- certainly the most anticipated movement of the night -- was the orchestra’s performance of Jean Sibelius, not only bringing out the brass and woodwinds onto the stage, but violinist Mullova for the ensemble’s tackling of Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47.

Mullova is best known for her exceptional versatility, developing her tastes from not only baroque and classical, but contemporary jazz and pop scores as well.

She first captured the classical world’s attention after bagging the top spot at the 1980 Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, Finland and the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1982.

Once again in a poetic rehonoring of Sibelius, the virtuoso’s solo performance of the composer’s violin concerto was nothing short of exquisite. The sheer intricacy and precision of her performance -- especially during two of the score’s allegro movements -- was seamless and virtually without any hiccups. 

Closing out the concert was the orchestra’s rendition of Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C Major, D. 944, Great. Widely considered the summit of Schubert’s major works, the near 45-minute conclusion repertoire took the audience on a four-movement spectacle of the composer’s auditory sketches of summer holidays in the Austrian countryside.

Following the BBC’s performance, the Seoul Arts Center’s Concert Hall stage is gearing up to host November concerts with the Staatskapelle Dresden orchestra led by local maestro Chung Myung-whun, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra with pianist Kim Hye-jin and the Die Munchner Philharmoniker orchestra with pianist Paik Kun-woo.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)