Seong-Jin Cho – Winner Of The 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition (2015) [HighResAudio FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Seong-Jin Cho – Winner Of The 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 72:33 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: highresaudio.com |Digital booklet | © Deutsche Grammophon
Recorded at the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, October 2015.

Deutsche Grammophon is proud to present the debut solo album from Seong-Jin Cho, winner of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition. Cho took the coveted first prize, among the most prestigious titles in the world of classical music. He was named winner on Tuesday 20 October 2015, following three weeks and four stages of competition in Warsaw. This recording contains highlights from the 21-year-old South Korean pianist’s recital rounds.

The classical music landscape is so littered with competitions in which the fix is in for a dutifully colorless musician that one might justifiably treat the 21-year-old South Korean Seong-Jin Cho with skepticism after hearing that he won the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. His performances there were recorded in October of 2015 and released by Deutsche Grammophon a scant six weeks later, and the good news is that Cho is a competition winner of a different stripe. These are entirely innovative readings of Chopin standards, rendered with muscular excitement. The best comes first on the program here with the set of Preludes, Op. 28, where Cho strips out any hint of hazy mood music or late-Romantic neurasthenia, focusing on the counterpoint and turning the remarkable level of dissonance from a sort of chromatic wash into a pure extension of Bachian principles. Sample one of the well-known preludes, such as the Prelude in E minor, Op. 28, No. 4 (track four), to learn what you’re getting here: tough, detailed readings that make you hear the music anew. The Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35, is a bit less daring, but it’s a forceful, absorbing performance of the work throughout, and the single Nocturne and Polonaise each suggest new avenues of interpretation in those genres. Hats off, gentlemen (and gentlewomen) – a major new Chopin interpreter!

Seong-Jin Cho
Born on 28 May 1994, in Seoul (South Korea), Seong-Jin Cho is today based in Paris. He won the International Fry- deryk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in 2008 and the Hamamatsu Piano Competition in Japan in 2009, as well as Third Prizes in both the Tchai- kovsky Competition in Russia in 2011 and the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv in 2014. He has performed in con- cert with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the French Radio, Czech and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras under Myung-Whun Chung, the Munich Phil- harmonic Orchestra under Lorin Maazel, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkarnov, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marek Janowski, and both the Russian National Orchestra and Basel Symphony Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev. He has toured Japan, Germany, France, Russia, Poland,Israel, China and the US. He has appeared in both concerts and recitals at the Tokyo Opera City, in Osaka, at the Moscow Con- servatory and at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. He has participated in numerous European festivals, including St. Petersburg, Moscow, Duszniki-Zdrój and Cracow, as well as festivals in New York and Castleton. As a chamber musi- cian, he has been invited to work with the outstanding violinist Kyung-Wha Chung.

Tracklist:
01 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 1. In C Major
02 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 2. In A Minor
03 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 3. In G Major
04 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 4. In E Minor
05 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 5. In D Major
06 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 6. In B Minor
07 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 7. In A Major
08 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 8. In F Sharp Minor
09 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 9. In E Major
10 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 10. In C Sharp Minor
11 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 11. In B Major
12 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 12. In G Sharp Minor
13 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 13. In F Sharp Major
14 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 14. In E Flat Minor
15 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 15. In D Flat Major
16 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 16. In B Flat Minor
17 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 17. In A Flat Major
18 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 18. In F Minor
19 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 19. In E Flat Major
20 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 20. In C Minor
21 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 21. In B Flat Major
22 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 22. In G Minor
23 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 23. In F Major
24 – 24 Préludes, Op.28: 24. In D Minor
25 – Nocturne In C Minor, Op.48 No.1
26 – Piano Sonata No.2 In B Flat Minor, Op.35: 1. Grave – Doppio movimento
27 – Piano Sonata No.2 In B Flat Minor, Op.35: 2. Scherzo – Più lento – Tempo I
28 – Piano Sonata No.2 In B Flat Minor, Op.35: 3. Marche funèbre (Lento)
29 – Piano Sonata No.2 In B Flat Minor, Op.35: 4. Finale (Presto)
30 – Polonaise In A Flat Major, Op.53