02 · GALLERY
Five frames.
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Take a lift to the 8th floor of a Seoul shopping mall. The doors open onto a 2,036-seat vineyard-terrace concert hall, the first of its kind in Korea, with a 5,000-pipe organ rising at the back. The architectural and acoustic ambition is more interesting than the address. The Lotte was Seoul's statement that Korea wanted a serious classical music infrastructure. The Lotte Lunch Concerts on Thursdays at 11:30am are an hour long, properly programmed, barely advertised, and the best secret in East Asian classical music.
The free midday Lotte Lunch Concerts on Thursdays. 11:30am, one hour, properly programmed and barely advertised.
Seoul's anchor classical entry. Deliberate counterpart to Suntory in the cross-country read.
Free Thursday lunchtime concerts at 11:30 (60 minutes, properly programmed, barely advertised). Otherwise, evening Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra concerts on Thursdays and Fridays. The hall is acoustically tuned for chamber and small orchestra better than full late-Romantic forces.
Box office 10:00 to 19:00 daily. Concerts most evenings. Free lunchtime series on Thursdays at 11:30. Closed Chuseok and Lunar New Year holidays.
Seoul Metro Line 2 to Jamsil station, exit 1 or 2, ten-minute walk through the Lotte World Mall. The hall is on the 8th floor of the mall complex, signed in Korean and English.