Yeol Eum Son

South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son has won the prestigious Van Cliburn and Tchaikovsky competitions and several other international competitions. Recently, she was the soloist in the last recording of the legendary conductor Sir Neville Marriner. Her debut recital in Portugal will be focused on the romantic piano of Schumann and Chopin. Schumann was a great master of the small form, of small pieces for piano like the Arabesque that opens this recital - echoes of his brilliant songs. As for Fantasia, it originated in a play that sought to express the passion and desolation of being apart from the person he loved. The programme ends with Chopin’s Preludes op. 28, a work so perfect that it drew out these words from Schumann: “Even in the silence we recognise him, his fiery breath. He is and remains the most daring, the most courageous poetic genius of our time.”

“Yeol Eum Son, a model of clarity and fleetness” The Times