Contours: Ryuichi Sakamoto × Tchaikovsky - Two Ways of Hearing the World

Programme
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Aqua
Rain
Bibo no Aozora
The Revenant Main Theme (Atmospheric)
Lack of Love
1919
Andata
-- Intermission --
Tchaikovsky
Piano Trio in A Minor, Op. 50.

Contours brings together two composers who hear the world in completely different ways: Ryuichi Sakamoto, who treats sound as a living trace shaped by time and space, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who reveals human emotion through powerful narrative and musical drama.

Ryuichi Sakamoto understood sound as physis — something that comes into being, lingers in space, interacts with its surroundings, and eventually fades. In his late works, silence is not a pause but part of this natural process: a space where sound reveals its grain, its fragility, and the way it decays. Each tone appears like a small event in time, shaped by the air, the room, and the moment of its emergence. His music unfolds as a continuum of appearance and disappearance, allowing the listener to sense time, space, and existence through the traces sound leaves behind.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky, by contrast, placed human emotion at the center of his musical world. His Piano Trio in A Minor, written in mourning for his mentor Nikolai Rubinstein, moves from the shock and denial of loss to memories that surface, scatter, and briefly illuminate before dissolving. The variations gather momentum as if trying to resist the weight of grief, yet the work remains deeply tragic. In the final funeral‑like coda, all emotion collapses back into stillness, returning to the theme of the first movement as if grief has circled back to its origin. When the music withdraws, it leaves a silence that feels stark and unavoidable — a silence in which the tragedy of the work settles fully, echoing the psychological return that defines its ending.

Placed side by side, these two worlds reveal how sound, silence, memory, and loss move through time and space. Contours invites the audience to listen not only to music, but to the traces that remain as it appears, transforms, and disappears.

Artists
Myunghan Kim - Piano
June Lee - Violin
Joseph Barker - Cello

Need to Know
Running time
Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes, including an intermission

Recommended age
From 7+

Programme notes
Free printed programmes will be available at the venue.
Digital programme notes is available from here