Pianist Sunwoo Yekwon made a surprise cameo appearance on "Four Hands," a Korean television drama built around classical music.
Sunwoo appeared in the fourth episode, broadcast on the 6th, as a pianist invited to a house concert hosted by Kang Seung-woon, played by Jung Jin-young. Following a performance by Choi Jung-yo, played by Lee Jun-young, Sunwoo played Liszt's arrangement of Schubert's "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel," leaving a brief but powerful impression.
"Four Hands" stars Song Kang and Lee Jun-young as pianists Kang Bio and Choi Jung-yo, following the friendship, growth and rivalry of music students. The series has drawn a favorable response for using classical music as a central device to unfold the characters' emotions and relationships.
Sunwoo's performance also served as a backdrop that heightened the drama's tension. As the music continues, Kang Seung-woon presses Jung-yo to prepare for a concerto audition, and Kang Bio, played by Song Kang, overhears the exchange and demands to know why his own playing falls short of Jung-yo's. Comparing the two men's music, Kang Seung-woon adds to the tension between them by saying, "You felt it, didn't you — which one of you is going to be utterly torn apart in this relationship?"
"Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel," heard in the scene, is Liszt's solo piano arrangement of Schubert's song setting of Gretchen's monologue from Part One of Goethe's "Faust." It depicts Gretchen spinning thread at her wheel as she loses her peace of mind to longing and love for Faust. Her turbulent emotions unfold over an accompaniment that evokes the ceaselessly turning wheel.
The piece is also included on "Liszt," the solo album Sunwoo released in May. In its August issue, the British classical music magazine Gramophone said his "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel" was "as intense a drama as Goethe's text deserves, and the pianistic texture is also perfectly calibrated." Of the album as a whole, the magazine wrote that it was "more than dazzling piano playing." The album has also been pressed on vinyl, with preorders opening on the 8th and the official release set for the 29th.
Sunwoo rose to prominence in 2017 as the first Korean to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He now performs actively at major concert halls and festivals across the United States and Europe. This month he also joins the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra as soloist during its Korean tour, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Emperor," at the Bucheon Art Center Concert Hall on the 20th and Schumann's Piano Concerto at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall on the 22nd.
