Sunwook Kim’s performance of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No 1 with Mark Elder and the Hallé won him the prestigious Leeds piano competition in 2006 when he was just 18. Now they are reunited in a wonderfully expressive reading of the same piece, coupled with Brahms’s second concerto. Elder paces each work perfectly, giving Kim room to breathe, particularly in the songful adagio of the first concerto, reducing the strings to a magical murmuring whisper. There are more glorious orchestral colours in the monumental second concerto, with Kim in magisterial form, particularly in the driving allegro appassionato. This special alchemy is highly recommended.
