Pianist Seong-Jin Cho focuses on Ravel to mark his 150th anniversary year

A devotee of Ravel’s music since childhood, pianist Seong-Jin Cho has chosen to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth by recording his complete solo piano music  and two concertos for Deutsche Grammophon. He was joined in the latter by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons, following acclaimed live performances with the BSO and Nelsons as part of his ongoing focus on the French composer. Cho’s insightful readings of Ravel, on the stage and in the studio, affirm his status as one of today’s most acclaimed pianists, 10 years after his Chopin Competition victory.

Deutsche Grammophon will release the first of two albums, Ravel: The Complete Solo Piano Works, on Jan. 17 (digitally and on two CDs). A series of tracks were made available for download/streaming before then: excerpts from Le tombeau de Couperin and Sonatine on Nov. 22 and Dec. 13 respectively, and À la manière de Chabrier on Jan. 3. The second album, containing the two piano concertos, follows on Feb. 21. A deluxe edition containing the complete recordings comes out April 11.

When Cho returns to Symphony Center this winter for concerts Feb. 27 and March 1-2 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under guest conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, he will perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, instead of a Ravel work.

Cho has always felt a close connection with the French piano literature, and found himself 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 said. “Miroirs, for example, is incredibly technically demanding. It’s so sensitive and dramatic, full of imagination and color — it’s almost impossible to apply every marking, but I try my best.”

Recent reviews indicate he knows exactly how to realize Ravel’s wishes. After a recital in Madrid last March, the magazine 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 color, 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, the site 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. “This is the first time I’ve either performed or recorded a single composer’s complete works,” Cho said. “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 Jan. 25 is followed by a U.S. tour (in February and March), including dates at Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall. April and May bring 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 Berlin Philharmonic, with more dates to follow in Asia and the United States through the summer.