“Things that do not change are dead.”

Conductor Lim Hun-joung said this in passing during a rehearsal last Friday, but it may well be a line that best summarizes his life as a musician and approach to music.

The celebrated maestro is known for trying rigorous, forward-looking repertories, including a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies back in 1999, an unprecedented achievement at that time.

Now at 61, Lim, who has been trained in Western music composition and conducted orchestras for nearly three decades, is breaking free from his mold. 

At the National Theater of Korea on April 17, he will be wielding his baton in front of an orchestra consisting of traditional Korean instruments ― the National Orchestra of Korea.

“Western or Eastern, music is in essence about human emotions.” Lim said, on April 10, after a rehearsal with the gugak orchestra. “Emotions are the same, but they are expressed in different ways.”

To many, western classical music and gugak would seem poles apart. Rarely do musicians of the two genres collaborate on the same stage.

Although Lim said he sees no fundamental difference in the two, conducting a gugak ensemble is certainly not like performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. 

Leading the April 10 rehearsal with players, some of them with instruments that he didn’t know how to sound, Lim was cautious, willing to communicate, yet determined to create something original.

“Can you use more vibrato here? Is it possible?”

“No. Not that same traditional way.”

“It has to be more dramatic. Otherwise, it sounds boring.”

Such a process, Lim hoped after the rehearsal, would help enrich the musical worlds of both the players and himself.

“It’s like exploring a completely new world of sounds for me. I hope that the players, too, get some new inspirations,” he said.

Lim is best known here for the 1999-2003 Mahler cycle, which he led with the then little-known Buchon Philharmonic Orchestra. The series of performances sparked “the Mahler syndrome” in Korea at a time when even enthusiastic music aficionados rarely listened to the composer.

Constantly putting himself to new challenges, Lim has not only earned himself a spot among the most celebrated conductors in Korea but has also boosted the artistic profile of Buchon Philharmonic. At the end of 2013, after 25 years as its music director, he left the orchestra and is now music director of Korea Symphony Orchestra.

Seeking change and challenge is what all musicians do, Lim said.

“As a musician, you always try something new, like a new repertoire or a new composer, or something. That’s just part of the job.”

Lim Hun-joung and the National Orchestra of Korea will perform at 8 p.m. on April 17 at the National Theater of Korea’s Haeorum Theater. The program consists of the late Korean composer Kang Jun-il’s “My Father Land, Beautiful Country”; Arvo Part’s concerto for violin and orchestra, “Fratres,” with violinist Baek Ju-young; the world premiere of composer Chung Il-ryun’s “Heaven”; and composer Choi Sung-hwan’s “Arirang Fantasy.” Tickets cost 20,000 won to 50,000 won. For more information, visit www.ntok.go.kr/english/.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)