The romantic theme of the wanderer, the free spirit undertaking a journey into the self, runs through this album by Seong-Jin Cho.
The globetrotting Korean pianist’s programme includes two monuments of the 19th-century repertoire – Schubert’s ‘Wanderer Fantasy’ and Liszt’s ‘Piano Sonata in B Minor’. ‘The Wanderer’ also contains Alban Berg’s ‘Piano Sonata, Op. 1’, a single movement work of extraordinary intensity.
Seong-Jin Cho, winner of the 2015 International Chopin Competition, has long been steeped in the music of Mozart: “For me, Mozart has everything: his music has so many layers.” For this album, Cho collaborates with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe: perfect, sensitive partners in the dramatic D minor Concerto K. 466. Two major-key piano sonatas provide contrast: the joyful K. 281 and the technically demanding K. 332.