Young Choon Park

Stilbaai, Kerksaal-Oos. On Saturday 14 August, a disappointingly small audience of about 65 people had the privilege of listening to a virtuoso piano performance by the gifted South Korean born pianist, Young-Choon Park.

Young-Choon’s slender, petite build and enigmatic smile belies an intensity, energy and resolve which is not only apparent in her self-assured stage presence but also in the way she has managed her life and career since early childhood. She first began studying the piano at the age of four, gave her first full recital at seven and played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra at the age of nine. At 12 she enrolled with the Julliard School of Music in New York before graduating with highest honours from the Hochschule in Munich. With the UK as her base, she is currently a busy concert pianist giving over 50 concerts each year in Europe, Scandinavia and the United States.

Her programme began with four Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. These Sonatas form part of Scarlatti’s Essercizi, the only Sonatas published under the composer’s supervision. It was mainly to these pieces that Scarlatti owed his fame as a composer in the eighteenth-century. Although they were not necessarily composed as a set, Park performed them as such – a good choice as they are all characterized by Scarlatti’s crisp and happy style which afforded Park the opportunity of demonstrating her impressive dexterity and versatility as well as her ability to imbue runs and finger-exercise-like passages with delicate feeling.

The Scarlatti was followed by Schubert’s Sonata in A minor op 42, D.845. Franz Schubert’s sublime and beautiful piano sonatas are regarded by some as the greatest musical discoveries of the 20th century, and indeed for many of us this was the high-light of Young-Choon Park’s performance. Her approach was individual and refreshing, demonstrating real passion and style as well as technical proficiency.

After the interval Frédéric Chopin (born in 1810) was fittingly commemorated with Park’s interpretation of his Sonata No.3 in B minor op. 58. This sonata has four movements, the slow movement often being likened to a nocturne, with its subtle melodies and innovative harmonic progression. In the rousing finale which brings one of Chopin’s most difficult works to a thrilling and magnificent close, the performer once again demonstrated her considerable and brilliant piano virtuosity.
Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca was a fitting and delightful encore.
Reon Meij