Sibelius's own orchestra finally reaches Seoul, a century late

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra closed its first tour of South Korea on Thursday, Oct. 22, at Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, two days after opening in Daegu and one day after a stop in Daejeon. The Seoul date filled the hall's main auditorium at 29 Olympic-ro 25-gil, Songpa-gu, inside the Lotte World Mall complex, with an 8 p.m. start time and a program split between Jean Sibelius's incidental music for "Pelleas et Melisande" and his Symphony No. 2 in D major.

Chief conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, 70, led the orchestra through both works. Saraste began his career as a violinist before moving to the podium, and he has led the Helsinki Philharmonic since 2021, with a contract that now runs through 2029. Korean violinist Yang In-mo joined the orchestra as soloist for the Seoul concert, a booking that put a Korean name on the bill of an ensemble making its debut appearance in the country.

That debut is the detail worth sitting with. The Helsinki Philharmonic, founded in 1882, gave the first performances of nearly all of Sibelius's symphonies under the composer's own supervision in its home city. Seoul audiences have heard Sibelius from the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, from Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic, and from other guest ensembles over the past decade. The orchestra most tied to Sibelius's own premieres hadn't performed in Seoul until this week.

The tour arrived through the promoter Maestro Arts as part of a combined autumn swing through Japan and Korea, the orchestra's fifth visit to Japan and its first stop in Korea. It also landed close to the Helsinki Philharmonic's own recording project with the Finnish label Ondine, a complete cycle of the seven Sibelius symphonies under Saraste recorded between 2023 and 2025. The Korea Herald's preview, published Oct. 22, framed the orchestra's connection to Sibelius as the reason the trip mattered, even as the orchestra's history in Seoul started from zero.

Tickets for the Lotte Concert Hall performance were sold through the hall's own box office and online booking system, with prices for the run reported between roughly 50,000 won and 180,000 won depending on seating tier. The Seoul stop also fell inside Lotte Concert Hall's 10th anniversary season, which opened on Feb. 28 with Myung-whun Chung conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden and pianist Lim Yunchan, and which has since added Seong-Jin Cho as artist in residence. Details checked Oct. 25, 2026, against listings from the Korea Herald and Lotte Concert Hall.

The Seoul date sat inside a crowded season for touring orchestras at home venues across the capital. Paavo Jarvi brought the Estonian Festival Orchestra to the Seoul Arts Center on Oct. 20, with violinist Clara-Jumi Kang as soloist, two days after a performance in Incheon. The Estonian National Symphony made its own first visit to Korea in September. Staatskapelle Dresden, the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra have all played Seoul halls earlier in the year, according to the Korea Herald's season coverage. Against that backdrop, an orchestra that premiered Sibelius's symphonies under his own baton still needed until October 2026 to reach the city at all.