In recording his album of Beethoven sonatas, released last month, pianist Kim Sun-wook wanted to create a sound of “complexity,” he told reporters Friday.

Nine years since he entered the international spotlight at the 2006 Leeds Competition as the youngest and first Asian winner, Kim, now 27, married and with a reputation as something of a Beethoven expert in Korea, has grown more mature and confident in his music.

“In your late 20s, your tastes and opinions become more certain. I’m still working hard to cultivate my own sound. I think that’s something I will have to work on throughout my whole lifetime as a musician. But I’ve become surer of the kind of music I want to play,” Kim said at a press conference Friday. 

“I want a sound with complexity. It can’t be just pretty; it can’t be just rough. It has to be balanced, with all the different colors fitting into harmony and in their own places. ... You have to be convinced of your own sound in order to play in front of an audience and do them justice.”


It was with this conviction that Kim planned “Beethoven Piano Sonatas,” his first solo recording which has been reaping both commercial rewards -- in keeping with Korea’s recent surge in classical music success since Cho Seong-jin’s Chopin Competition win in October -- and critical praise. 

“We’ve seen the rise of a true musical interpreter in Korea,” said critic Park Jae-sung at the conference. 

“(Kim’s) performance is one that is not simply a playing of the notes. It is deeply considerate. He is a unique architect who reinterprets and restructures Beethoven into his own castle. It is the kind of new interpretation that even Europeans will find refreshing.”

Wanting to create something “with no regrets,” Kim himself orchestrated the production of the album, by selecting the tuner, adjusting the acoustics and even hand-picking the perfect instrument.

“Meeting a good piano is the most important part,” Kim said. “I came across the best one at a concert hall in Paris. I met with the owner, and I was able to ship it to Germany.”

Once the piano was safely at Berlin’s Jesus-Christus-Kirche, a towering church that has served as a recording studio for many classical albums, Kim performed numerous renditions of the Waldstein and Hammerklavier sonatas -- pieces that Kim had been fond of since he was 10 -- for the album.

“I tried to record in long breaths,” said Kim. “Flow is what I value most, so I didn’t want to pause in between and edit together a compilation of perfect parts. I wanted it to sound almost like a live performance.” 

More projects are in line for the still young but accomplished pianist, including another recording of additional Beethoven sonatas next year and a joint recital with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Bremen German Chamber Philharmonic), one of the world’s leading orchestras, and Estonian-American conductor Paavo Jarvi, considered an authority in renditions of German composers such as Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann. 

“There’s an excitement and tension in performing with a new group, just like in meeting new people. It’s kind of addictive,” said Kim on the collaboration. 

“(Jarvi) is a conductor who can adapt to a wide spectrum of music. ... The orchestra is a chamber orchestra and not a big one, but has a dense sound. I’m looking forward to our chemistry.”

The concert, which will feature pieces by Schumann, will take place at the Seoul Arts Center on Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. and at the Daejeon Culture and Arts Center on Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. Prices range from 50,000 won to 250,000 won.

By Rumy Doo (bigbird@heraldcorp.com)