As temperatures rise, hottest pianists are coming to town
With temperatures rising this summer, Korea’s classical music scene will be ablaze with two of its brightest stars on the ebony and ivory: Cho Seong-jin and Lim Yunchan. Tickets for their performances sold out almost immediately upon release, highlighting the extraordinary demand for both artists and setting the stage for a landmark summer in classical music.
Cho Seong-jin, practically a household name on the global stage, embarks on a major recital tour across Korea in June and July, following the worldwide release of his monumental Ravel project. Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth, Cho recorded "Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works," released in January, and an album of Ravel’s two piano concertos with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons, released in February.
Launched at Vienna’s Konzerthaus in January and passing through New York's Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie and London’s Barbican Centre, Cho's world tour is to arrive home in June. His Korean recital series will begin June 12 in Incheon and move through major cities including Seoul, Seongnam in Gyeonggi Province, Daegu and Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province.
Deeply connected to French piano music since his days at the Paris Conservatoire, Cho describes Ravel’s compositions as "meticulously crafted.”
“I think Debussy, compared to Ravel, has a much freer and perhaps more romantic quality,” Cho said in an interview with Korean media in January. "On the other hand, Ravel seems more poetic than Debussy and much more of a perfectionist. He seemed to have a very clear idea of what he wanted. His music is meticulously crafted, and it feels like he tried to compose piano pieces with an orchestral sensibility. I kept those aspects in mind while recording."
For his Korean audience, the winner of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015 offers two distinct programs: The first is a daring three-hour marathon performance of Ravel’s complete solo piano works. The second program explores the theme of nature through Liszt’s “Les Jeux d’eaux a la Villa d’Este,” Beethoven’s Pastoral Sonata, Bartok’s “Out of Doors” and Brahms’ Piano Sonata No. 3.
While Cho takes on the monumental task of a full recital tour centered on Ravel and the theme of nature, Lim Yunchan, the sensation who stunned the world by winning the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at age 18, joins forces with the Orchestre de Paris and conductor Klaus Makela for a series of high-profile concerto performances.
Lim will perform three major concerts with the French orchestra under the baton of Makela, one of Europe’s most acclaimed young conductors. He is to take the stage on June 11 at Seoul Arts Center, June 13 at LG Arts Center and June 15 at Lotte Concert Hall, performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in all concerts.
The program also includes Boulez’s Initiale for Brass Ensemble and Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.”
Meanwhile, the Orchestre de Paris and Makela will also showcase its renowned mastery of French repertoire on June 14 at Lotte Concert Hall, with a program featuring Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” and “Mother Goose Suite,” as well as Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony.
This will be the Orchestre de Paris’s fifth visit to Korea and the first in nine years, since 2016. Founded in 1967, the orchestra has been led by legendary conductors such as Charles Munch, Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim.
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