Seong-Jin Cho was brought to world attention in 2015 when he won First Prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. Four years earlier, aged only 17, he had won 3rd Prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow). With his overwhelming talent and natural musicality, he is considered one of the most captivating artists of his generation. Born in 1994 in Seoul, Seong-Jin began studying piano at age 6. In 2008, aged 14, he won 1st prize at the Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition and in 2009 the 1st prize at Japan’s Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (the youngest winner ever).

Mr. Cho has performed with distinguished orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, and Radio France Philharmonic, under renowned conductors such as Lorin Maazel and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Future engagements include concerts with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Accademia Santa Cecilia di Roma, Tokyo Philharmonic and Orchestre de Paris. Mr. Cho’s’s upcoming debut recitals include Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London International Piano series, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Prague Spring Festival, Klavier Festival Ruhr, and Carnegie Hall.

Schumann wrote the Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, in 1837, during the years of his most prolific writing for the piano. He was separated by many miles from Clara Wieck, who was not to become his wife for another three years. The eight pieces are filled with passionate longing, nocturnal reveries, and dramatic outbursts. The title was inspired by Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier (1814–15), a collection of fantastic novellas and writings about music by E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776–1822), one of the most remarkable polymaths of the 19th century (perhaps best known today as the author of “Nutcracker and the King of Mice,” the novella that inspired Tchaikovsky’s ballet). Of the 17th-century engraver Jacques Callot, Hoffmann wrote “No master has known so well . . . how to assemble together in a small space such an abundance of motifs, emerging beside each other, even within each other,” a description well suited to Schumann’s fantasy pieces themselves.

Although he does not name them in the score, Schumann seemingly composed the pieces as if they had been written by his fictive characters, Florestan (the passionate one) and Eusebius (the romantic dreamer)—dual aspects of Schumann’s personality. “Des Abends” (In the Evening) is a calming picture of dusk; it moves in tranquil stepwise motion. “Aufschwung” (Soaring) depicts a passionate outburst. “Warum?” (Why?) seems to be asking “Why, beloved, are you so far away?”—but whatever the question, it remains unanswered, for the piece ends exactly as it begins. The syncopated and dancelike “Grillen” (Whims) perhaps represents Florestan’s eccentricities. There is little that is nocturnal in “In der Nacht” (In the Night), except in a short central F-major interlude, but even it is interrupted by the angry outbursts that dominate the rest of the piece—are Florestan and Eusebius perhaps having a heated exchange? In “Fabel” (Tale), Florestan seems to be relating a humorous anecdote, but Eusebius can only daydream in response. It’s difficult to imagine that anyone could sleep through the “troubled dreams” of “Traumes Wirren,” except perhaps in the calmer, chorale-like central section. Of “Ende vom Lied” (End of the Song), to be played “Mit gutem Humor,” Schumann wrote to his future wife: “in the end it all resolves itself into a jolly wedding. But at the close, my painful anxiety about you returned.”

Begun in 1798 when Beethoven was 27 years old, and finished and published the following year, the Grande Sonate Pathétique—so named because of its tragic and heartfelt tone—remains one of the composer’s most beloved works. Today the sonata is commonly referred to more simply as the “Pathétique.”

The introductory first section, Grave, of the first movement opens with a dotted figure of intense energy. The exposition proper, Allegro di molto e con brio, in cut time (alla breve) begins with tremolo octaves in the left hand and rising staccato chords in the right. Its stormy vehemence gives way to a somewhat calmer second theme, marked piano, in the unusual and distant key of E-flat minor rather than the relative major, E-flat, that would be expected. (Beethoven loved to shock his contemporaries with unexpected key changes and unusual forms, experimenting with both even during this so-called Early Period.) A third theme, featuring an Alberti bass (a broken-chord accompaniment with notes repeatedly played in the pattern: lowest, highest, middle, highest), appears, followed by a codetta with a lyrical theme in stepwise motion that completes the exposition. The themes return in the development and recapitulation—for the movement is in sonata-allegro form—but again sometimes in unexpected keys. A coda of dramatic staccato chords ends the movement. The A-flat major Adagio cantabile second movement, one of Beethoven’s most beautiful works, is marked by a lyrical nobility and reflective mood. Beethoven again modulates to unexpected keys, e.g., A-flat minor and the very distant E major (with four sharps!). The third movement, a tense and anxious rondo, brings together elements from the first two movements. The beginning of the main theme comes directly from the first movement’s second theme, although now in the tonic minor. The contemplative aura of the second movement returns in the central episode and again briefly just before the final fortissimo cadence.

The sonata became popular almost immediately, and helped to cement Beethoven’s reputation both as a pianist and as a composer.

Debussy completed his Images, 2e série pour piano seul, in 1907, two years after completing Book 1. The three pieces of Book 2, unlike those in Book 1, are written on three staves, making it easier to follow their multiple layers of sounds, and an indication of their greater complexity. Each piece has a different dedicatee.
“Cloches à travers les feuilles” (Bells through the Leaves) was inspired by the bells of the church in the village of Rahon, some 290 miles southeast of Paris and the hometown of the critic, musicologist, and teacher at the Paris Conservatory, Louis Laloy, a close friend of Debussy and eventually his first biographer. The piece begins with a descending and then ascending whole-tone passage in the left hand, soon answered by the right; whole-tone passages figure throughout. A central pianissimo section, marked “comme une buée irisée” (like an iridescent mist) is hushed and mysterious before complex harmonies, perhaps signaling the overtones generated by clashing bells, return. One final and haunting triple-pianissimo distant peal of the bells ends the piece.

“Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut” (And the moon descends on the temple that is no more), a hushed and atmospheric piece whose dynamics never rise above a piano, was dedicated to Laloy. The title, which evokes images of a mysterious and abandoned temple, was suggested by Laloy, who, in addition to his many other talents, was a sinologist. The piece features reverberant and floating sonorities occasionally punctuated by piquant but hushed dissonances.

“Poissons d’or” (Goldfish), which begins with shimmering 32nd notes notated in F-sharp major, is the most technically demanding piece of the set. It may have been inspired by a small Chinese lacquer, which Debussy owned, depicting two goldfish, or by a Japanese print, or perhaps by the swimming of actual goldfish. Sudden clashes of sound seem to indicate the darting of fish in the water. Trills and tremolos, evocative of rippling water, are featured throughout. The piece was dedicated to the virtuoso Catalonian-born pianist, Ricardo Viñes, who premiered many works of the greatest composers of the time, including Ravel’s; Poulenc, the most famous pupil of Viñes, said of him that no one could create shimmering pedal effects as he could, making him an ideal interpreter of Debussy.

The Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, the last piano sonata that Chopin composed, is his most extended in structure and advanced in technical difficulty. Moments of drama and darkness appear throughout the four movements before peaceful, bel canto-like melodies intervene, more than once in B major. The Scherzo movement, beginning in the distant key of E-flat major, is unexpectedly short and gives way to a longer, mellow Largo that balances the Scherzo’s unusual brevity. The Finale builds tension in the tonic minor key before a second theme interrupts; the returning main theme reaches a rousing climax, followed by an ecstatic coda in the parallel major key.