Pianist Kim Se-hyun [Kumho Culture Foundation]
Pianist Kim Se-hyun [Kumho Culture Foundation]

After Kim Sun-wook, Cho Seong-jin and Lim Yunchan, the next young pianist to share the stage with conductor Chung Myung-whun is Kim Se-hyun. The veteran maestro, whose career spans half a century, has long championed promising young talent — and now the latest competition-circuit sensation joins him for a program built around the many faces of love.

The KBS Symphony Orchestra announced Tuesday that Chung, its music director, will perform alongside pianist Kim Se-hyun at its subscription concert "Pure Love," to be held Wednesday at Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall in Seocho-gu, Seoul.

The collaboration marks the second official pairing of Chung and Kim, following their earlier appearance together with the One Korea Orchestra.

Kim will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 — widely regarded as the pinnacle of Russian late Romanticism. The work emerged from a profound creative crisis following the disastrous premiere of Rachmaninoff's First Symphony, and carries within it a sense of sublime redemption and lyricism drawn from despair. Kim, born in 2007, swept the Long-Thibaud Competition with first prize and three special awards, and her delicate touch is expected to meet Chung's sweeping orchestration in a performance of grand dramatic force.

The concert's centerpiece is a selection of highlights from Prokofiev's ballet suite "Romeo and Juliet." The 20th-century masterwork weaves Shakespeare's classic into rich orchestral language, setting the strings' lyrical melodies against the raw energy of brass and percussion to bring the tragedy and its pure love vividly to life.

The program then travels to Yeosu, where it will open the 10th Yeosu Music Festival at the GS Caltex Yeulmaru Grand Theater on Friday. Chung and Kim are also set to appear together in the 2026/27 season with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.


shee@heraldcorp.com