Netflix’s ‘Four Hands, Two Sonatas’: Release Date and Schedule, Trailer, Cast, Plot

Netflix has added another Korean drama to its slate of youth ensemble stories, and this one is built around a shared piano bench rather than a shared classroom. Four Hands, Two Sonatas is set at an elite arts high school for musical prodigies, following two young pianists whose lives become deeply intertwined through their shared passion for the keys. The premise leans into rivalry and growth rather than simple romance, and it arrives with a cast familiar to fans of recent Korean television hits.

Song Kang stars alongside Lee Jun Young in the series, which marks Song Kang’s first major project since completing his mandatory military service. Between the returning lead, the source material’s musical setting, and a production company with a strong Netflix track record, ‘Four Hands, Two Sonatas’ has drawn steady attention in the lead up to its debut.

Release Date and Schedule

The series aired its first episode on August 29, 2026, and runs for 12 episodes total, wrapping on October 4, 2026. New episodes air on Saturday and Sunday on the original network tvN. Episodes are scheduled for a 9:10 PM KST time slot on those weekend nights.

South Korean viewers can watch the series on tvN as it airs, with new episodes also becoming available on TVING shortly afterward. The show premiered on tvN on August 29, 2026, and it is also available for streaming on TVING in South Korea and on Netflix globally.

International audiences can only watch ‘Four Hands, Two Sonatas’ through Netflix, which carries the series as part of its ongoing slate of Korean drama titles. That distribution setup mirrors how Netflix has handled several other tvN productions from the same studio, letting the show build a domestic broadcast audience while reaching a global viewership through the streaming platform.

In the lead up to the premiere, tvN also held a special preview event tied to the Seoul International Music Festival, built around the classical works featured across the story. That kind of tie in suggests the production is treating the music itself as a selling point rather than mere backdrop.

Meet the Cast of ‘Four Hands, Two Sonatas’

Song Kang plays Kang Pi-o, an elite, prodigal pianist who has spent his life on a steady path toward perfection, someone who appears flawless and self-assured on the surface while carrying a hidden weight of anxiety and pressure. Opposite him, Lee Jun Young plays Choi Jeong-yo, a late-blooming talent pursuing his dream of playing piano despite a difficult and turbulent childhood.

Jang Gyu-ri rounds out the trio of main roles as Hong Jae-in. Her character is described as a viola major with exceptionally sensitive hearing. That detail positions her less as a side character and more as a third distinct musical voice inside the drama’s central relationships.

Supporting roles include Kim Joo Heon as Do Hyeon Su, the pianist who teaches both Bi O and Jeong Yo, along with Yoon Se Ah as Bi O’s mother, Kang Ji Hye, and Jung Jin Young as Bi O’s grandfather, Kang Seung Un. The series was directed by Park Hyeon Seok and written by Shin Yi Won, and it comes from Studio Dragon, the production company behind Netflix hits including ‘Kingdom,’ ‘Love Alarm,’ ‘Sweet Home,’ and ‘Hierarchy.’

Trailer and First Look

Netflix and tvN have released promotional material ahead of the premiere, including an official teaser and a full trailer with English subtitles. The official trailer follows the same core hook found across the show’s marketing, two young pianists from completely different worlds meeting at an elite music high school and finding their lives intimately intertwined.

A short clip has also circulated separately from the full trailer, giving viewers an early look at specific scenes rather than a broad overview of the plot. Both pieces of footage lean on close shots of hands on keys and quiet tension between the two leads, matching the show’s framing of piano performance as a competitive act as much as an artistic one.

Plot Behind ‘Four Hands, Two Sonatas’

The story follows three young people, Kang Bi-o, Choi Jeong-yo, and Hong Jae-in, who meet at an arts high school and navigate friendships, romances, rivalries, and personal growth as they evolve into accomplished adult classical musicians. Kang Bi-o is consistently ranked first in both academics and performance and is treated as a future star destined for the world’s top competitions, until his steady path is disrupted by the arrival of Choi Jeong-yo, a gifted pianist who had walked away from music after a difficult childhood.

Jeong-yo’s sudden arrival at the school puts him face to face with the musician who reignites his passion for piano, forcing him to confront a gift he had buried for years. That setup gives the series its central tension, framing Bi-o and Jeong-yo not simply as competitors but as two people whose talents only fully make sense in relation to each other.

Some outlets covering the premiere have noted that the format itself mirrors the show’s title. A piece from Martin Cid Magazine described the four-hands sonata as a piece of music built for two players sharing one instrument, each responsible for a half neither can complete alone, and pointed to that structure as the literal blueprint for how the series stages its central rivalry. Whether that framing pays off across a full 12 episode run will likely depend on how the show balances its musical competition against the quieter relationship drama sitting underneath it.

With three young musicians at its center and a script built around competition, mentorship, and reconciliation, ‘Four Hands, Two Sonatas’ asks its audience to root for two rivals who need each other to make their music complete, and now that the first episodes are airing, viewers who have started the series have plenty of room to weigh in on whether Bi-o and Jeong-yo’s shared bench is living up to that premise.