Saehyun Kim performs Fauré, Ravel, and Chopin

South Korean pianist Saehyun Kim's performances at the 2025 Long-Thibaud Competition were so technically assured and fully realized that the 17-year-old dynamo swept the field — taking home the First Grand Prize, the Audience Price, and the Press Jury Prize — in so dominant a fashion that no Second Prize was awarded. Still just 18, this thrilling young talent stops at Paris's prestigious Fondation Louis Vuitton on his winner's tour, offering a tour de force solo recital of poetic delicacy and staggering virtuosity. After opening with three beguiling selections that show off the enigmatic and haunting appeal of Fauré, Kim takes on two piano monuments with aplomb: the brilliant cascades of Ondine, dolorous death knell of Le Gibet, and diabolical machinations of Scarbo that make up Ravel's triptych Gaspard de la nuit; and the full set of Chopin's Op. 25 Études, ranging from the heavenly arpeggios of the "Aeolian Harp" (No. 1) to the unrelenting tempest of the "Winter Wind" (No. 11) and furious undulations of the "Ocean" (No. 12).