Saehyun Kim (piano)
Chopin Fauré
rec. 2025, Salle Colinne, Paris, France
Warner Classics 2685478313 [62]
South Korean pianist Saehyun Kim started his career in Seoul before moving to the United States, where he began to gather acclaim and awards. In 2025, he won the Long-Thibaud competition. He evidently won hearts as well, because he also took the press and audience prizes. From the first notes of this recital, one hears why. He has the silken touch and singing line necessary for the first piece, his own transcription of Fauré’s Après un rêve, more restrained than Percy Grainger’s and less jazzy than Earl Wild’s. Kim finds wonderful poise in his arrangement. There is special beauty at the word nuit in Je t’appelle, ô nuit, rends-moi tes mensonges. Kim says that his recital is “my bouquet of flowers from Paris” and that you can hopefully “lose yourself in its scent”. The transcription is the perfect aural equivalent of that.
Kim continues with Fauré’s achingly beautiful first barcarolle. He easily captures its opening melancholy and the optimism of the middle section. The controlled crescendo from the con suono to the fortissimo is a thing of wonder. Elegance and charm bubble out of the first of Fauré’s Valse-caprices; there is delightfully engaging playing in the more scherzo-like passages. For his buoyant sense of rhythm and style, I would love to hear him in more waltz repertoire. The impromptu is fleet and sparkling, with real clarity even in the fastest and quietest passages.
Like Fauré, Chopin made Paris his home. He wrote the second book of études a few years after he settled there, established himself and became an integral part of the capital’s vibrant musical life. Kim eschews the names that have attached to them: Aeolian Harp, Butterfly, Winter wind and so on, none of which are Chopin’s. He does give some idea of his imagination’s path to performing them, such as the memory of eating candyfloss as a child and “swimming in its sweetness” for the first or a pony dreaming of becoming a unicorn in the third. Even so, he is keen to suggest that you open up your own mind to the possibilities offered by Chopin’s incredibly poetic études, surely the more evocative of the two sets.
Kim is not too demonstrative a pianist but that is not to say he is not the master of these pieces. He just does not need extremes to make his point. The étude in sixths is flawless but certainly no technical exercise. In the pointed staccato of the fourth, one can easily hear the image of stepping on scattered Lego whether or not you have experienced that partcular delight! Among other highlights are the fifth étude where the flow of the line in its central section is moulded exquisitely, especially in the reprise that Kim plays in a hushed whisper.
The tranquil duet in the B major section of the seventh étude is another such moment, all the more fragile for the strength of the passage that preceded it. I think it is Kim’s control of this richness of texture even when playing in lower dynamics that is such a pleasure. One is drawn in to this intimate world that he creates. When Chopin calls for passionate outbursts, Kim is not satisfied to just unleash the hounds. Instead, he finds a way to make his musical statement. The tenth étude’s turbulent octaves are an incredible curtain of sound out of which Kim coaxes Chopin’s little chorale of inner voices. Felicitous touches can be found everywhere. I cannot imagine that anyone would be disappointed with this excellent performance. He follows up with an attractive and very satisfying D flat nocturne, Chopin’s filigree played with utter delicacy over a characteristically silken vocal line.
As a sort of encore, we are treated to Alexis Weissenberg’s delicious arrangement of Charles Trenet’s En avril á Paris. It is hard nowadays to think that Weissenberg chose to remain anonymous when he recorded his six arrangements of Trenet’s songs, so that he would not jeopardise his “serious” career. The disc merely says Mr Nobody.One could understand if these were cheesy crowd pleasers but they are finely crafted jewels with the loving attention to detail, imagination and piano finesse as anything that Liszt or Godowsky wrote. Thankfully, Weissenberg’s authorship is now well known, and pianists are beginning to take the arrangements up. If they do so as engagingly as Kim, the future is bright.
You may have caught on by now that I love this album and play it often. I revel in its luxury and the sheer joy of playing the piano. It is a very fine début album, and I am keen to hear where this still young pianist goes next.
Rob Challinor
Contents
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Après un rêve Op.7 No.1 (1877, arr. Saehyun Kim)
Barcarolle No.1 in A Minor Op.26 (c.1881)
Valse-Caprice No.1 in A Major Op.30 (1882)
Impromptu No.2 in F Minor Op.31 (1883)
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
12 Études Op.25 (1832-36)
Nocturne No.8 in D Flat Major Op.27 No.2 (1835-1836)
Charles Trenet (1913-2001)
En avril á Paris (c.1950s, arr. Alexis Weissenberg)
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