The Wesley
Centre, Canberra.
Performance
on 3rd August 2023, reviewed
by BILL STEPHENS
He took the stage through an enthusiastic
welcoming ovation, then announced that, having checked the acoustic during the
afternoon, he had decided to replace the Beethoven and Prokofiev sonatas,
programmed for the first half of the program, with Bach and Chopin.
And so began
the extraordinary Canberra recital by the winner of the 2023 Sydney
International Piano Competition (The Sydney), Jeonghwan Kim.
Remarkably
poised and astonishingly gifted, Jeonghwan Kim, who was born in Seoul, turned
23 during the early weeks of The Sydney. He began playing the piano at the age
of six, but after winning numerous first prizes in national competitions was
accepted into the Seoul Arts Center Academy for Young Talented Musician at age
nine.
He
moved to Berlin at age 11 to continue
his studies there and since 2017 has
been studying at the Hochschule for Musik Hanns Eisler under Professor Konrad
Maria Engel, during which time he has given
concerts in major halls in Berlin, Weimar, Hamburg and Aarhus and performed
with the Konzerhaus Orchester Berlin and the Aarhus and Odense Symphony
Orchestras.
He beat off
pianists from sixteen countries to win The Sydney, for which he pocketed $50,000 in prize money, as well as a whirlwind
six-city national tour, of which this Canberra concert was part.
His choice
of the Bach “Prelude and Fugue in A Minor” to commence his recital seemed
remarkably appropriate given that the section of the Wesley Centre in which the
recital was being presented is also a church.
The music
sat easily under his fingers and his virtuosity was immediately obvious, every
note heard, even in the fastest passages, creating an impression that he was
using the intricacies of the composition to familiarise himself with his
instrument.
By the
Chopin “Piano Sonata No. 3” which followed, he was in full flight, using the
stormy introductory chords and filigree to galvanise his audience, before launching
into the dreamy, almost nocturne-like, Largo, then leaving them cheering at his brilliance as he left the
stage following its mighty conclusion.
Returning after
interval he changed mood completely with a superbly phrased interpretation of
the four contrasting character pieces of Robert Schumann’s “4 Nachstucke Op.23”.
Then some more Chopin, this time, his “Berceuse in D flat Major, Op.57.
However it
was his awe-inspiring rendition of Messiaen’s hideously difficult “Regard de l’Esprit
de Joie” from “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus” that made this a concert
performance which few who experienced it are likely to forget.
Kim attacked
the frightening complexity of the work with almost demonic zeal. Thrashing up
and down the keyboard, he scattered discordinance with stunning abandon and
mesmerising accuracy, until finally, jumping up from the piano, he ran from the
stage, in an exciting display of showmanship, leaving his astonished audience
cheering.
But, of course there was an encore, and with another display of showmanship, Kim left his audience charmed with a sublime rendition of Chopin’s “Etude No.1, Op.25”, which, after the Messiaen, was like pouring balm over a wound.
Image by Jaimi Joy
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 4th August 2023.
