Chin: Piano Concerto

Featuring

Sakari Oramo
Sunwook Kim
Berliner Philharmoniker
Unsuk Chin

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Unsuk Chin's music is inspired by a wide range of interests, from ancient mythology to cosmology, and she often translates these broad ideas into musical processes.

Compositional Technique

Unsuk Chin writes her calligraphically immaculate scores exclusively by hand, believing that this tactile process allows her to feel the energy of each note.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Unsuk Chin does not write "world music" or aim for an "East-West fusion," but rather seeks to create her own unique music with a fundamental intellectual layer and multiple accessible levels for listeners.

Recording & Production

The performance of Unsuk Chin's Piano Concerto on this album marked the Berliner Philharmoniker's first concert in front of a live audience after a months-long lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Composer Biography

Unsuk Chin studied with György Ligeti, a Hungarian-Austrian composer known for his avant-garde works, for three years, which she described as the "biggest crisis of my life" due to his intense criticism.

Cultural Impact

Unsuk Chin is the artistic director of two festivals in Asia, the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea and the Weiwuying International Music Festival in Taiwan, which showcase a broad range of artistic expressions.

Composer Biography

Unsuk Chin, a Korean composer, left her homeland at 24 to study in Germany, feeling rooted neither in her country nor in the oppressive post-Korean War military dictatorship.