Korean stars headline Europe's top classical music festivals this summer

Pianist Lim Yunchan performs Bach's Goldberg Variations at a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York on April 25 last year. [Universal Music]

Every major popular music festival has its headliners — the marquee names that define the event for the year and draw fans willing to open their wallets on the strength of a single billing.

Classical music festivals have their equivalent, even if the word "headliner" is rarely used. Each summer, certain names anchor the program, drive ticket sales and serve as the public face of the entire event.

That is as true of Europe's most celebrated summer classical gatherings — the BBC Proms in London, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the Lucerne Festival — as it is of any pop extravaganza.

This summer in particular, Korean performers appear with striking frequency at the top of those festival programs. Pianists Lim Yunchan, Son Yeol-eum, Kim Sunwook and Son Minsoo, along with violinists Clara-Jumi Kang and Park Soo-ye, are among the artists carrying Europe's classical summer on their shoulders. Korean musicians, long consigned to the margins while Western masters commanded center stage, have become the central figures who open and define these festivals. The name that stands out above all is Lim Yunchan.

Lim Yunchan opens BBC Proms — a first for a Korean artist

Lim will perform as the opening-night soloist at this year's BBC Proms — the first Korean musician to hold that distinction in the festival's 131-year history, according to music industry sources Monday.

Founded in 1895, the BBC Proms is the world's oldest and largest classical music festival. Its name derives from "promenade," evoking the idea of strolling leisurely through music.

Spread across roughly two months at London's Royal Albert Hall, the festival presents more than 90 concerts featuring the world's leading orchestras, conductors and soloists — earning it the nickname "the Olympics of classical music."

Pianist Son Yeol-eum performs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. [Vincero]

The festival's First Night opening concert and its Last Night closing concert — broadcast live around the world — are landmark events that command the attention of the global music world.

Lim will headline this year's First Night, performing Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor Dalia Stasevska on Friday. The program also features Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," Gershwin's "An American in Paris," a newly commissioned BBC work and Finzi's "For St Cecilia" — with Lim at the program's core. Four years after becoming the youngest winner in the history of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, his placement at the Proms opening serves as a barometer of where the global classical world now ranks him.

Past BBC Proms have featured Korean artists including conductor Chung Myung-whun, violinists Chung Kyung-wha and Sarah Chang, cellist and conductor Han-Na Chang, and pianists Kim Sunwook and Cho Seong-jin. But none has opened the festival — until Lim.

Joining Lim at this year's Proms, violinist Park Soo-ye will perform Sibelius's Violin Concerto in D minor with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under John Storgårds on Monday, while pianist Son Yeol-eum will play Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F major with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan.

Pianists Son Minsoo and Lim Yunchan, teacher and student, will meet audiences together in a duo recital. [Hyundai Card]

A teacher-student duo in the Alps: Lim Yunchan and Son Minsoo at Verbier

If the BBC Proms is a battle of orchestras, the Verbier Festival is closer to a laboratory for the world's classical elite. Set in the scenic Swiss mountain resort of Verbier, the festival brings together young musicians and master artists in an intimate musical dialogue.

At Verbier, too, Lim is the central figure. He takes the stage three times. The most anticipated performance is his concerto appearance with the Verbier Festival Orchestra under Lahav Shani on July 26, when he and his teacher Son Minsoo will perform Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365 — a reunion of the teacher-student duo on the festival's main program, generating considerable local anticipation. Audiences in Korea can catch a preview of the same pairing on Wednesday, when Lim and Son perform with the KBS Symphony Orchestra under Suzuki Masato.

Lim will also join violinist Daniel Lozakovich and cellist Kian Soltani for a chamber music concert on July 30, and close out his Verbier schedule with a solo recital on July 31 featuring Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 16 and works by Scriabin. Son Minsoo, separately from the duo appearance, will perform in a chamber concert on July 29, playing Schumann's Piano Trio with violinist Clara-Jumi Kang and cellist Pablo Ferrández.

Clara-Jumi Kang and Kim Sunwook in a duo recital. [Credia]

Two other Korean names stand out at Verbier: violinist Clara-Jumi Kang and pianist Kim Sunwook. The pair will reprise their Korean duo recital program at the festival on Aug. 1. Beyond the duo stage, both are active in chamber music — together with violist Máté Szűcs and cellist Kian Soltani, they will perform Mendelssohn's Piano Sextet on July 27. Kang is also scheduled for a separate chamber concert on July 28 alongside violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Alexandre Kantorow.

The Verbier Festival has long had a special relationship with Korean musicians. Violinist Chung Kyung-wha delivered a memorable opening night alongside maestro Charles Dutoit in 2016, and pianist Cho Seong-jin astonished the world at the festival's 25th anniversary gala concert in 2018, sharing a single keyboard in turn with Kissin, Yuja Wang, Schiff and Trifonov.

World-class meets world-class: Cho Seong-jin and Hadelich at Lucerne

The Swiss city of Lucerne anchors the late-summer classical calendar with a festival whose origins set it apart from all others. In 1938, after Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria turned the Salzburg Festival into a propaganda vehicle for fascism, a group of anti-fascist artists in exile — led by the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini — gathered in Lucerne. The gala concert they staged there in defense of artistic freedom became the founding moment of the Lucerne Festival.

The event is often called the "all-star game" of the classical world, and the orchestra at its center is the reason. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra — assembled by maestro Claudio Abbado from principal players drawn from the world's leading ensembles — remains widely regarded as the finest orchestra on earth.

This year's Lucerne Festival brings out the full roster of Korea's classical representatives: composer Unsuk Chin, pianist Cho Seong-jin and Lim Yunchan, among the most prominent faces of Korean classical music today.

[Prague Spring Music Festival Organizing Committee]

The long-awaited meeting of world-class talents is finally at hand. The centerpiece of this year's Lucerne Festival is a chamber recital by Cho Seong-jin and Augustin Hadelich on Aug. 24.

Violinist Augustin Hadelich — this year's artiste étoile, the festival's featured artist of the year — personally chose Cho as his partner. It will be the first time the two have performed together as a duo. The festival's official program notes describe it simply as "World-class meets world-class." In keeping with this year's theme of "the American Dream," the pair have programmed American composer Amy Beach's Romance, followed by sonatas by Brahms and Prokofiev to complete the evening.

Pianist Lim Yunchan will make his official debut at the Lucerne Festival's summer edition on Sept. 8. He participated in the Lucerne Symphony's winter festival, Les Pianos Symphoniques, earlier this year, but the summer festival will be a first.

The highlight of his appearance will be a concerto with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under maestro Semyon Bychkov. Lim will again perform Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, the same work he brings to the BBC Proms.

Composer Unsuk Chin will lead the Lucerne Festival Academy Composer Seminar, a global incubator for contemporary music. Marking its 10th anniversary this year, the program has shifted its format from chamber music to coaching participants in composing large-scale orchestral works — a transition Chin will guide. Among the six emerging composers selected from around the world through Chin's rigorous audition process is Korean composer Baek Seong-tae. His new orchestral work will receive its world premiere at the closing concert on Aug. 23.

shee@heraldcorp.com