Seong-Jin Cho, Piano
NY Recital Debut
First Prize Winner, 17th International Chopin Piano Competition (2015)
BERG Piano Sonata, Op. 1
SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in C Minor, D. 958
CHOPIN 24 Preludes, Op. 28
Encores:
DEBUSSY "Clair de lune" from Suite bergamasque
CHOPIN Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23
BACH Sarabande from French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816
Supported by
Composed while Berg was studying composition with Arnold Schoenberg, this short, single-movement piano sonata is both highly compact and richly expressive. According to a fellow pupil, Berg set out to write a traditional multi-movement sonata, but decided that he had said all he needed to say in one movement.
Schubert’s last three piano sonatas, composed in the months leading up to his untimely death, are notable for the grandeur of their conception, the richness and complexity of their tonal relationships, and the intricate interweaving of lyricism and drama. The powerful and highly virtuosic C-Minor Sonata exploits the rich, clear, and evenly balanced sound characteristic of the Viennese pianos that Schubert played.
In an age replete with keyboard virtuosos, Chopin’s combination of bravura technique and poetic feeling defined a new school of Romantic pianism. Patterned after Bach’s keyboard preludes in all 24 major and minor keys, Chopin’s 24 Preludes pack a weighty musical and emotional punch despite their extreme brevity. Franz Liszt, whose own tone poems were strongly influenced by Chopin, characterized them as “poetic preludes, analogous to those of a great contemporary poet, who cradles the soul in golden dreams, and elevates it to the regions of the ideal.”
Considered one of the most distinctive artists of his generation, Seong-Jin Cho came to
the world's attention in October 2015 when he won first prize at the International Chopin
Piano Competition in Warsaw. Mr. Cho also won third prize at the International Tchaikovsky
Competition when he was 17 years old.
During the 2016-2017 season, Mr. Cho performs debut recitals at Munich's Herkulessaal,
Chamber Music San Francisco, KKL Luzern, and as part of the Master Pianists series at
Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. He also tours Asia with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka
Salonen and in Europe with the Russian National Orchestra and Mikhail Pletnev. Additional
engagements this season include concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris with the Orchestre de
Paris; at Tokyo's Suntory Hall with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Myung-Whun Chung;
with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Valery Gergiev; and with
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko.
Mr. Cho has performed with major orchestras that include the Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Seoul
Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Danish National
Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France,
and NHK Symphony Orchestra under conductors who include Lorin Maazel, Marek Janowski,
Mikhail Pletnev, and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Mr. Cho signed a contract with Deutsche Grammophon in January 2016. The first CD in his
collaboration with the label was released in November 2016 and features Chopin's First
Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, as well as
Chopin's four ballades.
Born in Seoul in 1994, Mr. Cho began studying the piano at the age of six and gave his
first public recital five years later. In September 2008, he won first prize at the Sixth
Moscow International Frédéric Chopin Competition, and in November 2009, he became the
youngest first-prize winner in the history of Japan's Hamamatsu International Piano
Competition. Since 2012, Mr. Cho has lived in Paris, where he studied with Michel Béroff at
the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique.
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