National Philharmonic of Russia

With his delicate and surprising interpretations, fifth laureate Tae-Hyung Kim was for many the uncrowned winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2010. This South Korean pianist has meanwhile focussed on the Russian repertoire. To help him with this, he even visited Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. ‘It is important to live for a while in the environment where the music was created,’ says Kim. ‘If you only look at the score, you put too much of your own personality into the performance. But those who breathe in the composer’s cultural influences and biography, in museums or concert halls, put the composer central.’ Kim's interpretation of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was therefore able to ripen under the Russian sun! The National Philharmonic of Russia, which also performs Tchaikovsky’s compelling Fifth Symphony, completes the picture.