[News Culture] Before Song Kang and Lee Jun-young take their places at the piano on television, the music behind their performances has already met a live audience.
A special preview for tvN’s Four Hands, Two Sonatas turned Seoul Arts Center into an extension of the drama’s rehearsal room, combining a student piano competition, a classical recital and the first live performance of its original soundtrack.
The series follows elite pianist Kang Bi-o, played by Song Kang, and self-taught prodigy Choi Jeong-yo, played by Lee Jun-young. Jang Gyu-ri stars as violist Hong Jae-in, who recognizes both pianists’ talent as the three navigate friendship, romance, rivalry and growth at Korea Arts High School. CJ ENM
Held in collaboration with the 2026 SAC International Music Festival, the event approached the drama through its central language rather than conventional promotional footage: live classical music.
The opening “Four Hands School Battle,” organized with classical entertainment channel Towmoo, brought university student pianists to the stage. Contestants received prompts on the spot and were asked to translate each idea into their own musical language.
The competition then shifted to four-hands playing, in which two pianists share a single keyboard. The team format recreated a key element of the drama, where playing side by side becomes the catalyst that brings Bi-o and Jeong-yo closer.
The preview moved behind the camera during the Four Hands, Two Sonatas recital. Pianists Joo-young Park and Min-sung Lee, who serve as the performance doubles for Song Kang and Lee Jun-young, discussed the physical and musical preparation required to make the actors’ on-screen playing convincing.
Park and Lee recalled Song Kang saying that playing piano put more strain on his forearms than working out. Lee Jun-young practiced intensely enough for his fingers to cramp.
Those details revealed how much of the performance extends beyond matching hand movements to a prerecorded track. Posture, breathing, weight transfer and the way a pianist approaches the keys all contribute to whether an actor appears to inhabit the music.
The recital also introduced the contrasting musical identities of the drama’s two pianists.
Park, who performs for Kang Bi-o, presented music from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Its sweeping lyricism and formidable technical demands reflect a character who believes he must be flawless before he can earn recognition.
Lee performed Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13, the Pathétique, for Choi Jeong-yo. Its defiant opening and volatile emotional shifts suited a prodigy who developed outside the conventional conservatory path, teaching himself at the keyboard rather than following an elite curriculum.
The choices gave the characters distinct musical vocabularies before the drama’s premiere. Bi-o’s world is built around polish, discipline and pressure. Jeong-yo’s music feels more instinctive and combustible.
Park and Lee eventually shared the piano for four-hand arrangements of Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre and Brahms’ Hungarian Dances. Their close coordination brought the preview’s central idea into physical focus: rivalry and intimacy can exist within the same four feet of keyboard.
Singer Jae Yeon closed the event with the first live performance of “Where the Light Lingers,” an original song from the drama’s soundtrack.
The preview suggested that classical music will function as more than an elegant setting for the series. Repertoire, technique and performance style will help define the characters, expose their insecurities and track the changing relationship between its two pianists.
Four Hands, Two Sonatas premieres at 9:10 p.m. KST Saturday, Aug. 29, on tvN and will air Saturdays and Sundays. Netflix has announced a same-day international release.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
Copyright ⓒ 뉴스컬처 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지
