Jeonghwan Kim Piano Recital Presented by Liszt Academy

The winner of the 2025 Bartók World Competition – who also holds first prizes from prestigious competitions in Sydney, Berlin (Mendelssohn), and Aarhus – takes the stage for a solo recital in the Liszt Academy’s Solti Hall. Born in Seoul, Jeonghwan Kim moved to Berlin at the age of eleven and began his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin in 2017; since then, he has performed in many of the world’s most renowned concert venues.

For this performance, the young virtuoso bookends his programme with the works of Bartók, opening with the Dance Suite, originally composed to mark the 50th anniversary of the unification of Budapest. This is followed by Ravel’s tribute to the Baroque suites, a poignant homage dedicated to friends and relatives lost in the First World War.

After the interval, the mood shifts to the rhapsodic intensity of Scriabin’s Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor. Subtitled “States of the Soul” by the Russian Romantic master, the work offers a vivid journey through shifting emotional landscapes. The evening concludes with two further Bartók masterpieces: a selection from the Fourteen Bagatelles, ranging from the funeral to the grotesque, and the Sonata, a work that powerfully showcases the composer’s signature approach to the piano as a percussion instrument.