Compelling and magisterial: Sunwook Kim directs Chamber Orchestra of Europe from the piano in Beethoven’s third and fourth piano concertos

Sunwook Kim & Chamber Orchestra of Europe – Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul (Photo: Wonhee Lee/Lotte Concert Hall)

Anna Clyne: Stride, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3, Rondino in E flat, Piano Concerto  N. 4; Sunwook Kim, Chamber Orchestra of Europe; the Barbican Hall
Reviewed 12 April 2025

Orchestra and soloist both on terrific form in a pair of concerto performances remarkably unified in intention and surmounted by the responsive yet definite piano playing of Sunwook Kim

Pianist Sunwook Kim won the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006, aged just 18, the competition’s youngest winner for 40 years and its first Asian winner. This means that he is still remarkably youthful despite his 20 year career in the spotlight. As part of a tour of Europe and South Korea, Sunwook Kim joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, directing Beethoven piano concertos from the keyboard. Kim and the orchestra’s tour concluded with two UK performances, at Saffron Hall and the Barbican, the orchestra’s first UK appearances since they performed at the 2017 BBC Proms.

On Saturday 12 April 2025, at the Barbican Hall, Sunwook Kim directed the Chamber Orchestra of Europe from the piano in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Piano Concerto No. 4, the strings of the orchestra played Anna Clyne‘s Beethoven-inspired Stride, and eight wind players performed Beethoven’s  early Rondino in E flat major.

We began with Anna Clyne’s Stride, written as part of the Beethoven 250th anniversary celebrations in 2020. Premiered by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Clyne drew inspiration for the work from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 ‘Pathétique’ with the name Stride arising because Clyne felt the left-hand octaves in the sonata were reminiscent of stride piano.

In the piece, Clyne welds together a wide variety of motifs and gestures, many deriving from Beethoven but some not, into an impulsive urgent ride, often driven by the robust ‘stride’ bassline. It is a piece that never settles, Clyne is constantly changing textures in a remarkably restless manner. Pause points includee a couple of striking moments where a tender viola melody was accompanied by a sustained halo of strings, but those were only a moments and the energy resumed. Throughout the work, Clyne seemed to revel in weaving in classical fragments but subverting them, never going where the classical harmony implied. The piece was directed from the violin by the orchestra’s leader Stephanie Gonley, and it created a remarkably vivid start to a striking concert.

Seated at the piano surrounded by the orchestra, not only did Sunwook Kim conduct the orchestra and play the piano, but he did the whole from memory, apparently effortlessly combining multiple roles. Despite the chamber orchestra line up, there was nothing small scale about these Beethoven concertos and the orchestral players matched Kim note for note when it came to strength and drama, but the line up also meant that balance was excellent and the superb wind playing was never in danger of being swamped by the wind.

Kim drew robust yet stylish playing from the orchestra in Piano Concerto No. 3‘s opening, imbued with a real sense of suppressed excitement that climaxed with the piano’s vigorously strong entry. Yet Kim always contrasted strength with elegance and intimacy, this was a performance where both soloist and orchestra balanced drama and poise. Kim’s playing was remarkably compelling, whether he was being fierce or tender, and he brought real excitement to the more bravura passages, often accompanied with precision, clarity and style by the orchestra, particularly the wind players. The piano solo at the beginning of the second movement was calm, very centred and unhurried, giving a feeling of time suspended, and this continued with the orchestra’s entry as the music developed a real chamber music feel. Kim’s piano at the opening of the third movement was robust yet perky, answered by a characterful oboe. The main body of the movement was full of robust vigour and great character, the orchestra matching the soloist, yet with elegance in the episodes, and concluding with a real sense of joy from all concerned.

The second half opened with Beethoven’s early Rondino which dates from 1793. It’s title dates from 1830 when it was published posthumously. It is pure Harmoniemusik, the wind – oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns – treated in pairs. Based around a lovely horn melody that is almost an ear worm, the work has great melodic charm and was superbly played, the eight players making a really sophisticated sound.

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 has always been my favourite, despite being sandwiched between two more demonstrative concertos. We began with a wonderfully grounded statement from Sunwook Kim with a stylish, yet intimate answer from the orchestra. The orchestra contribution developed this with a sense of expectation, yet when Kim’s piano returned he created a feeling of simply continuing a discourse that had already begun. There was a distinct definiteness about Kim’s playing, whether strong or full of poised calm, and even the cadenza moved from the skittish to poised and intimate. The second movement began with a wonderfully uncompromising statement from the orchestra, answered in tender, inward fashion by Sunwook Kim. Not for nothing was this movement sometimes linked to Orpheus taming the wild beasts. There was a moment of sheer magic when Kim’s intimate answers to the orchestra’s fierceness moved from chords into arpeggiated textured, and then his trills were profoundly intense, whilst the orchestra’s first quiet entry in response retained that profound intensity. The third movement led on directly, opening quietly but with intent, and then developing real vigour with bravura fun from Sunwook Kim, firmness combined with dynamism. His approach was, at times, idiosyncratic, switching moods rapidly; in the cadenza we moved from uncompromising to tender to delicate lightness and back, whilst everything ended with refreshingly vivid vigour.

Sunwook Kim clearly has the capacity to both act as soloist and direct, to do intelligently whilst carrying the orchestra with him. The two concertos were both wonderfully single-minded and coherent, the sense of bravura contributing to the drama and always complemented and supported by the orchestra. A truly memorable evening.

We were treated to an encore by Kim, a wonderful piece of Bach.