New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Having loved Ravel since childhood, Seong-Jin Cho has chosen to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth by recording his complete solo piano music and the two concertos. He is joined in the latter by the
Boston Symphony Orchestra and
Andris Nelsons, following acclaimed live performances with them as part of his ongoing focus on the French composer. Cho's insightful readings of Ravel, on stage and in the studio, underline his status as one of today's most elegant and accomplished pianists, ten years on from his Chopin Competition victory.
Deutsche Grammophon will release the first of two albums, Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works, on 17 January 2025 (digitally and on two CDs). A series of tracks will be issued for download/streaming before then: excerpts from Le tombeau de Couperin and Sonatine on 22 November and 13 December respectively, and À la manière de Chabrier on 3 January. The second album, containing the two piano concertos, follows on 21 February. A deluxe edition containing the complete recordings comes out on 11 April.
Seong-Jin Cho has always felt a close connection with the French piano literature, and found himself fully immersed in Ravel while studying at the Paris Conservatoire. Discussing the challenges of the solo works, he points to the composer's orchestral sound and meticulous attention to detail. "Ravel really knew what he wanted, so I try to follow his specific markings," he says. "Miroirs, for example, is incredibly technically demanding. It's so sensitive and dramatic, full of imagination and colour - it's almost impossible to apply every marking, but I try my best!"
Recent reviews suggest he knows exactly how to realise Ravel's wishes. Following a recital in Madrid in March, Scherzo hailed Cho as "perhaps the finest Ravel interpreter of our time", while after his Edinburgh Festival recital, The Scotsman wrote, "With what seemed like impossibly perfect precision, the first half of all Ravel heard Cho in a contrasting and extensive range of colour, coupled with a sense of flow that allowed the music to breathe with ease and warmth."
Similar acclaim met his appearances with
Andris Nelsons and the BSO earlier this year. Reviewing their Carnegie Hall performance of the Concerto for the Left Hand, Bachtrack hailed the way "Cho's left hand scampered along the keyboard with ease, power and finesse, answering the orchestra's initial crescendo with dark, thundering chords and a breathtaking cadenza", while The New Criterion called his playing "simply exemplary".
For his part, the pianist praises the BSO and its
Music Director, recalling the expertise in the French repertoire for which the orchestra has been renowned for a century or more, since the days of Nelsons' predecessors
Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch and Sergei Koussevitzky. "Performing with the BSO, you feel like the French spirit is in their blood - it was so inspiring to play and record with them, and of course working with
Andris is always a real joy."
Together, these recordings constitute a strong artistic statement on Ravel from Seong-Jin Cho. "This is the first time I've either performed or recorded a single composer's complete works," he notes. "I certainly understand Ravel with much more depth than before and have hugely enjoyed immersing myself in the many different aspects of his music."
Cho will continue to perform Ravel's concertos and complete solo piano works during the anniversary year. His Vienna Konzerthaus recital on 25 January is followed by a US tour (February/March), including dates at Carnegie Hall and LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall. April and May see recital appearances at London's Barbican Centre and venues throughout Germany, notably Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie and the Berlin Philharmonie, as part of his season as Artist in Residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker, with more dates to follow in Asia and the US through the summer.
