Baritone Matthias Goerne, pianist Sunwoo Ye-kwon bring Schubert's songs to Seoul

From left, pianist Sunwoo Ye-kwon, baritone Matthias Goerne, and Baek Soo-mi, chairperson of the Hansae Yes24 Foundation, pose during a press conference ahead of the artists' joint concert "Winterreise in Summer 2026,” at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

German Baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Sunwoo Ye-kwon will guide Seoul audiences through the stark emotional landscape of Schubert’s “Winterreise” on Sunday, bringing the wintry song cycle to life during the sweltering Korean summer.

The concert is part of the Hansae Yes24 Foundation’s “Hansae Classic Lied” series, which aims to popularize the German art song repertoire by pairing leading international vocalists with top Korean pianists.

This year’s edition reunites Schubert’s 24-song masterpiece with one of its most acclaimed interpreters and a homegrown star pianist who calls the composer “the most personal and human” in his music world.

“For me, Schubert is maybe, next to Bach, the most important composer,” Goerne told reporters at a press conference in Seoul Thursday. “Without Shubert, I think I would say I never would have become a singer.”

The baritone recalled discovering the composer’s music as a child and now estimates he has performed it at least 250 times for nearly four decades on every continent.

Goerne described “Winterreise” as a “revolutionary work” that places a single wandering soul at its center and uses Wilhelm Muller’s poetry to probe loneliness and finds a "unique kind of element that is in every human being's intellect, soul and heart."

“The magical thing about Winterreise is that every listener, wherever he is in the world, whatever language he speaks, can identify in this kind of theme,” he said.

Baritone Matthias Goerne, left, and pianist Sunwoo Ye-kwon speak during a press conference for their upcoming concert, “Winterreise in Summer 2026,” at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Hansae Yes24 Foundation

Goerne recalled singing the piece in the remote Arctic town before some 2,400 scientists at a research center. Despite coming from different cultural backgrounds, speaking up to 50 different languages, their deeply emotional response was “completely the same,” convincing him of the work’s universal power, he said.

For Sunwoo, partnering with Goerne on his most cherished composer is both a professional milestone and a deeply personal encounter.

“It’s a huge honor,” he said. “I’ve admired him for such a long time, and his recordings opened my ears and gave me nourishment as a musician."

Calling the song genre “the most intimate and inward,” he highlighted the pianist’s dual role. “You are not just ‘accompanying.’ You have to be flexible and responsive to every tiny change of breath, while also expressing the narrator’s inner emotions and landscape and the atmosphere,” the pianist said.

Goerne, who has collaborated with many of the world’s top pianists, praised Sunwoo’s artistry and hinted that Sunday’s performance is only the beginning.

“Just to let you know, it’s not just a single concert we are doing,” he said with a smile. “From now on, we start until I’m 100 years old.”