Schumann

One of Korea’s most distinguished musicians, Paris-based Kun Woo Paik has a large and loyal following. He’s now in his seventies, and while his Schumann is characterised by his customary drama, it’s also offered with subtlety and a vivid sense of colour. He chooses to juxtapose early Schumann, full of optimism and palpable love for life, with music by the older, troubled composer. The journey takes us from the Abegg Variations, Op. 1 to Schumann’s haunting, and haunted, Ghost Variations, which, like the Gesänge der Frühe, are works of the anguished 1850s. Paik is wonderfully attuned to the composer’s huge emotional demands.