Young pianists attract female fans

Pianist Cho Seong-jin autographs CDs for fans after his recital at the Opera City Concert Hall in Tokyo, Japan, Monday. / Yonhap

Pianist Lim Dong-hyek / Courtesy of Credia

Pianist Kim Sun-wook / Courtesy of Vincero

By Kwon Ji-youn

Classical music albums by young male pianists are flying off the shelves.

Cho Seong-jin, winner of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition, has started an extraordinary classical music boom here in Korea, mainly among female fans. A good number of these fans were spotted queuing for hours on Nov. 6 to purchase a live recording of the 21-year-old’s performance at the prestigious contest, a sight more commonly associated with the release of a K-pop idol’s new disc.

Cho’s records ― and those of other young male pianists, namely Lim Dong-hyek and Kim Sun-wook ― are sweeping the charts as well. According to major Korean online retailer Yes24, recordings by Cho, Lim and Kim sat atop its classical album rankings in the third week of November. Cho in particular has fans lined up for the release of a second pressing of his live performance albums. Pre-orders for the disc, set to be issued in December, put it at fifth on the charts last week.

Lim’s “Chopin Prelude,” which was named an editor’s choice album by the monthly classical music magazine Gramophone published in London, and Kim’s “Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Waldstein,” and “No. 29 in B flat Major, Hammerklavier,” are also selling like hotcakes.

More women than men are purchasing these albums, Yes24 reports. Though 54.2 percent of buyers of classical albums from 2010 through 2015 were male, 66.5 percent of buyers of Cho’s album were female, as were 75.4 percent of buyers of Lim’s albums, and 72.5 percent for Kim’s. If most of the buyers from 2010 to 2015 were men in their 40s, the buyers of the three aforementioned albums are largely women in their 30s and 40s.

Women comprised 51.1 percent of buyers of Cho’s album, 31.3 percent in their 30s and 19.8 percent in their 40s, and 57.8 percent of Lim’s and 59.4 percent of Kim’s buyers were in that age range. Of all the buyers of Cho’s live recording, 43.1 percent were first-time buyers.

The three pianists have scheduled year-end performances to keep the fire burning.

Kim will perform with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen at the Seoul Arts Center on Dec. 18. Under Estonian-born American conductor Paavo Jarvi’s baton, they will perform “Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor.” In July 2016, he will set off on a national recital tour to celebrate the release of his solo album.

Lim will hold a piano recital at the Seoul Arts Center on Jan. 23, and Cho will greet fans at a gala concert for Chopin competition winners on Feb. 2.

In October, Cho became the first Korean to win the International Chopin Piano Competition, one of the oldest and most prestigious music competitions in the world. In the final round of the 17th event held from Oct. 18 to 20 in Warsaw, Poland, Cho won the gold medal and 30,000 euros (36.8 million won), as well as the Fryderyk Chopin Society Prize for best performance of a polonaise, for which the prize is 3,000 euros (3.68 million won). The competition saw 160 participants from 27 countries in the preliminary round in April. From this group, the jury invited 78 from 20 countries to the main competition that began on Oct. 3. Ten pianists from eight countries appeared in the final, Cho being the only Korean.