[News Culture] Mozart’s piano sonatas will pass from one young pianist to another this August as Kumho Cultural Foundation launches a new concert series devoted to the composer’s complete cycle.
“Young Odyssey: Mozart I,” the first installment of the project, will bring Seokyoung Hong, Haerim Park and Ain Kim to Kumho Art Hall Yonsei in Seoul on Aug. 6. Each pianist will take on two works from Mozart’s first six sonatas, giving the opening program the character of both a musical survey and a meeting of distinct artistic voices.
The broader “Young Odyssey” series features five emerging pianists over four concerts, with all 18 sonatas scheduled to be performed throughout the month. Rather than presenting the works as isolated recital pieces, the project invites listeners to follow the gradual expansion of Mozart’s keyboard writing, from the poise and transparency of his early sonatas to the greater dramatic and structural ambition of the later works.
The opening concert remains firmly rooted in Mozart’s early period, but the six sonatas already reveal a composer testing the expressive possibilities of Classical form. Their shared language makes the differences between the performers all the more apparent.
Hong will frame the program with Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, K. 279, and Piano Sonata No. 6 in D major, K. 284.
The youthful clarity of the first sonata gives way to the broader proportions of the sixth, whose extended variation finale demands patience, control and a clear sense of direction. The pairing is well suited to Hong, a pianist known for shaping music with a strong architectural instinct.
Hong won first prize at the 2023 Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and is currently studying at the New England Conservatory.
Park will perform Piano Sonata No. 2 in F major, K. 280, and Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat major, K. 282.
The second moves easily between buoyancy and introspection, while the fourth opens not with brilliance but with an unhurried, songful Adagio. Both works leave room for Park’s supple phrasing and natural sense of breath to come to the fore.
A first-prize winner in Group B at the Zhuhai Mozart International Competition for Young Musicians, Park is currently studying at the Korea National University of Arts.
Kim will take on Piano Sonata No. 3 in B-flat major, K. 281, and Piano Sonata No. 5 in G major, K. 283.
These compact works call for quick reflexes, crisp articulation and an ability to shift mood without losing momentum. Kim’s agile touch is expected to bring particular vitality to their light-footed outer movements, while revealing the quieter tension beneath Mozart’s graceful surfaces.
Kim won first prize at the 2025 Viseu International Piano Competition and is currently studying at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.
With Hong’s structural clarity, Park’s flowing lyricism and Kim’s fleet articulation, the concert is designed around contrast rather than uniformity. As the sonatas move from one pianist to the next, Mozart’s early style will emerge not as a fixed model, but as music capable of sustaining sharply individual readings.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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