Seong-Jin Cho - Overview | Deutsche Grammophon

“I’ve always been fascinated by the ideas, colours and emotions to be found in Ravel’s music, and it has been an honour to record his complete solo piano works and concertos”
Seong-Jin Cho.

Having loved Ravel since childhood and immersed himself in the composer while studying at the Paris Conservatoire, the Young Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho has chosen to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2025 by recording his complete solo piano music and the two piano concertos, where he collaborates with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons.

Ravel: The Piano Concertos is to be released on 21 February 2025, with a deluxe edition
containing the complete solo piano works and both concertos following on 2 May

The first track from the album will be released on Friday 7 February.  
Listen to the Adagio assai from the Piano Concerto in G major here

Cho undertakes a major tour of the US during February and March.
His Wednesday 5 February Carnegie Hall performance of the complete solo works
from memory – a monumental undertaking – will be livestreamed exclusively on STAGE+

This July he performs the two concertos with the BSO and Nelsons
and the complete solo piano works in recital at Tanglewood

“Cho’s strength is that he keeps such a high standard of accuracy and clarity, down to the
exact weighting of every chord even at speed, without sounding clinical or purely a virtuoso … Ravel playing of such perfection of detail does not come round often.”

Financial Times, reviewing Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works

The music world is currently celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great French composer Maurice Ravel (1875–1937). Seong-Jin Cho is marking the occasion with his most ambitious project since he was signed by Deutsche Grammophon, after winning the 2015 Chopin Competition. Renowned for his insightful readings of Ravel, he has recorded the composer’s complete solo piano music and two piano concertos. Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works was released on 17 January to great critical acclaim and, in Cho’s home country of South Korea, achieved instant gold status.

Its companion release, Ravel: The Piano Concertos, in which the pianist is joined by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Andris Nelsons, comes out digitally and on CD on 21 February 2025. A deluxe edition presenting the complete recordings will be issued digitally and as a 3-CD box set on 2 May. Vinyl versions of the two individual albums will be released later this year. The Piano Concerto in G’s central Adagio assai is available to stream/download from 7 February.

Cho’s forthcoming marathon performance of the complete solo works at Carnegie Hall on 5 February will be livestreamed exclusively on STAGE+. Subscribers can also enjoy his showcase performance of a selection of this repertoire filmed at Berlin’s Siemens-Villa in autumn 2024.

While the Concerto for the Left Hand is a relatively recent addition to his repertoire, Seong-Jin Cho is very familiar with Ravel’s other work in the genre, having made his debuts with the Seoul Philharmonic (aged just 15) and the Berliner Philharmoniker (aged 23) in the Concerto in G major. Both works date from the latter years of Ravel’s career and are influenced by jazz and blues music.

Notoriously difficult to play, the Concerto for the Left Hand is notable for its dark sonorities, while the more lighthearted Concerto in G major achieves an exquisite combination of jazz and the Classicism of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. “For me,” says Cho, “the highlight of the Concerto in G is the second movement [Adagio assai] – the long piano solo at the beginning. It’s one of the most touching movements in the piano literature.”

The recordings were made live at Boston’s Symphony Hall with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Globe hailed the way “Cho’s hand glided and bounced across the keyboard with confident grace and dynamic nuance” in the Concerto for the Left Hand.

Referencing the BSO’s expertise in the French repertoire, rooted in the work of Nelsons’ predecessors Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch and Sergei Koussevitzky, Cho notes, “You feel like the French spirit is in the BSO’s blood – it was so inspiring to play and record with them, and of course working with Andris is always a real joy.”

For his part, when discussing the process of performing and recording with Cho, Nelsons has nothing but high praise for the pianist: “Exploring the vivid colours and textures of Ravel’s piano concertos together with Seong-Jin Cho and the BSO has been an extraordinary experience. Seong-Jin’s artistry and profound understanding of Ravel’s intricate sound world bring a rare elegance and emotional depth to these works,” he says.

Cho’s anniversary focus on Ravel continues with a major tour of the US during February and March. In April and May he makes 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.

Cho will perform both Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and the Concerto for Left Hand with Nelsons and the BSO on 12 July 2025 at Tanglewood’s Koussevitzky Music Shed. On 16 July he will perform the complete solo piano works in recital at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall. (Tickets to the Tanglewood concerts go on public sale on 6 March at bso.org).

Further dates follow in Asia and the US through the summer.

Seong-Jin Cho, a musician whose art marries apparently effortless technical brilliance with sensitivity, imagination and unfailing musicality, presents a highly-anticipated concert streaming live from Carnegie Hall on STAGE+ on February 5th, in which he presents Ravel’s solo piano works complete in one single concert.

Ravel’s piano music represents one of the most important bodies of work composed for the instrument in the first half of the 20th century: a collection of masterpieces that contain the distilled essence of this great composer’s art, running the gamut from touching simplicity to, in the formidable Gaspard de la Nuit, hair-raising virtuosity. 

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!”

Already available on STAGE+ is a 2024 performance of Cho playing Ravel at Berlin’s Siemens Villa, the Carnegie Hall recital shall also be available on demand following the concert.

Tune in to watch Seong-Jin Cho play Ravel’s Complete Solo Piano from Carnegie Hall here on February 5th.