Pianist Paik Kun-woo says he wants to enjoy music

Pianist Paik Kun-woo says he wants to enjoy music. July. 13, 2016 07:19. by 김동욱 기자creating@donga.com.

 

 

 

“I can’t achieve it until I die. Now, I’m going to enjoy it.” It was an unexpected response. Who is Paik Kun-woo? The 71-year-old pianist, called the “truth-seeker of the piano keys,” has performed and recorded numerous times while studying the entire music of many composers. When he picks one thing, he focused on it and lived for music alone.

Paik says he has changed the way he looks at music at Ilshin Hall in Seoul on July 8. “I was under pressure in the belief that I should do something. Music was the subject of my struggle," he said. "A lot of efforts are needed for good performance, but I’m going to enjoy music itself. I think it took me so long to think like this.”

His collaboration with the Spanish National Orchestra (Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major) takes place at the Seoul Arts Center on Sunday, which is followed by a recital on Sept. 29 that is something he does for fun. Paik says the purpose of the recital is to help himself and audiences enjoy music. The name of the recital is “Paik Kun-woo’s Present.” He takes song requests by July 20 (www.vincero.co.kr).

He also likes to take photos as he sometimes says he would have become a photographer had he not been a pianist. He says that he could consider a personal photo exhibition for him when he gets older. As he has changed the way he look at music, he has changed the way he takes photos. “I used to think a lot about the composition and then took photos, but now I like to take photos in the way I feel,” Paik said.

He is also a good artist who painted many pictures, but he has never painted his wife, former actress Yoon Jeong-hee. When asked why, he said after a while, “I think I wanted to express too many things.” His wife who was sitting beside him smiled.

The pianist is also known for his tendency of not listening to his own albums because he does not like to look back on the past. He still does not take time to listen to them, and he has a couple of episodes. “While driving, I heard a radio and the pianist performed well and was quite similar to me. I kept listening to find out who played it and the DJ said it was performed by Paik Kun-woo. Haha, I didn’t recognize even what I played.”

Performing at more than 50 concerts every year, he confesses that he still gets nervous before a concert. “If you don’t do it perfectly, you don’t need to get nervous. But I want to do really good and have a very high goal, I get nervous every time. I think there's a lot of improvement left in me (laugh).”