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| Pianist Kim Sun-wook speaks during a press conference held Tuesday at the Kumho Art Hall in central Seoul. Courtesy of Vincero |
By Yun Suh-young
"If you say, 'Oh it's Beethoven again,' I can only answer, 'yes, so it is,'" said pianist Kim Sun-wook, a widely acclaimed Beethoven specialist, opening his speech at a press event Tuesday, to introduce his new album "Sunwook Kim: Beethoven Piano Sonatas."
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| Kim's new album 'Beethoven Piano Sonatas' |
When asked why he chose to release his third solo album with the most popular series of Beethoven, Kim said, "This time around, I wanted to play pieces that were beloved by the public. Until now I had done programs based on my own preferences, but this time I wanted to share pieces popular among the people."
Kim, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, began his professional career in 2006 after winning the Leeds International Piano Competition at age of 18. He immediately rose to international stardom as the youngest winner of the competition in 40 years, and its first Asian winner.
Since winning the competition, Beethoven had been his frequent repertoire over the past 10 years. He performed the entire Beethoven Concertos in 2009, the entire Sonatas in 2012 and 2013 and released his first recording on Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in 2013 and released a solo album last year on Beethoven's Piano Sonatas recorded in 2015.
"Although I'm known for playing Beethoven a lot, I think I'm fairly balanced in choosing the composers when releasing an album. I do Beethoven every other album. So the next one will definitely not be Beethoven for sure," he said.
A decade into playing Beethoven, Kim said he had matured over the years in terms of his understanding of the composer.
"While playing his scores, I think I built layers over the years _ layers about the way I perceive Beethoven which is reflected through my age and experience. As the layers accumulate, the sound will grow deeper even if I play the same score," he said.
If he was more ambitious and conscientious of the public when he was younger, now he is more focused on the music itself.
"Years ago, I was proud with my own achievements of mastering a certain piece and was overly powerful because I was ambitious and wanted to show people many things," Kim said.
"But now, I want to deliver the music truthfully. I think my job for the next three to four decades will be to discover more and more depth and density in the music."
This time around, the most popular scores of Beethoven were interpreted with Kim's own musical language.
"There are thousands of albums on Beethoven's Sonatas when you go into a music store. I've listened to almost all of them and I noticed that many pianists tried to play emotionally based on their own feelings instead of following the original score," he said.
"But I tried to focus more on the original score and tried to really understand what Beethoven's message was. I tried to understand the score as a text, just like an interpreter tries to understand the intention of a writer. That interpretation became my own language of portraying Beethoven."
Kim seemed eager to find his identity as a musician.
"I'm quite skeptical about providing the audience with what they want to hear. I think only when a performer plays something that he wants to play can he really resonate with the audience," he said.
"A concert is not a 'show' but rather an experience for the audience to connect with the performer and understand what he is trying to say through his music. I really want to solidify my color more and show people Kim Sun-wook has such and such color."
He said he would like to perform less popular pieces by composers such as Liszt, Messiaen and Bartok.
"I will be focusing on what I want to do and what message I want to deliver throughout my career. Playing pieces that I'm convinced by and delivering a whole new world to the audience through it is what I believe I can do best and the path I should take."
