Today we played in the smallest hall of the tour, in Gongju, but probably for the most enthusiastic audience yet. Before the first note even sounded, the applause erupted: our concertmaster Alexei got a welcome worthy of a World Cup victory!
What really strikes me about Korea is the audience’s unconditional love for classical music. In Europe, you sometimes see a cautious kind of curiosity at the start of a concert — a “let’s see what they can do” attitude. Here, it’s the complete opposite: warmth, trust, and a deep sense of gratitude that we’re here at all. It’s incredibly inspiring, and I can feel how much it moves the musicians.
We wrapped up the evening in a skylounge on the 46th floor. The bar clearly wasn’t prepared for a full orchestra invasion (ordering a drink took ages!), but the breathtaking city view made up for everything. From the rooftop, we even sent light signals to a few colleagues still at the hotel a kilometre away. That’s what tour life is all about.
