CHOPIN Piano Concerto No 2. Four Scherzos (Seong-Jin Cho)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Magazine Review Date: 10/2021
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 486 0435
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Gianandrea Noseda, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra Seong-Jin Cho, Piano |
(4) Scherzos |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Seong-Jin Cho, Piano |
Author: Jeremy Nicholas
My immediate reaction to the opening track – the first of the Four Scherzos – was ‘fast, furious, fantastic fingers, with very little breathing space for any question-and-answer phrasing’. The opening of the Second Scherzo elicited the same response. What else can this pianist do, the winner of the 2015 International Chopin Competition? The yearning central section of the piece gave me the answer, showing that he can also play with real tenderness and delicacy.
The C sharp minor Third Scherzo is marked Presto con fuoco. I have rarely heard it played quite so presto and quite so con fuoco. His phrasing of the unison octave passages that punctuate the work was exciting and utterly convincing, though it must be a moot point whether, after this, the left hand’s bold octave figuration’s masking of Cho’s ultra-rapid right-hand passagework will be to everyone’s taste. His handling of the più lento/sotto voce version of the second subject towards the end was most sensitively done. Once again, fiery dynamic contrasts were on display in the Fourth Scherzo. Overall, if one really must play all of the Scherzos in sequence, I have a personal preference for the more refined and subtle pianism of Nelson Freire (1974) and Stephen Hough (2003). However, if you like your Chopin played with breathless excitement and impressive technical authority, then you will not be disappointed. Seong-Jin Cho takes no prisoners.
Finally, the concerto – and how good it is to have an orchestra-and-piano work placed alongside solo pieces. This is a muscular, robust performance from the soloist with Cho totally dominating proceedings, the LSO offering nothing particularly special, quite happy to chug along in its designated subservient role. More could have been made of the threatening, shivering strings during the central episode of the slow movement, and the first of the three famous cor de signal bars (introducing the final F major section) sounds rather coarse.
Performances of the ‘Revolutionary’ Study, the Impromptu in A flat and Nocturne in E flat, Op 9 No 2, are also available, but only on the digital version of the album, not on the CD.
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