Composer: Claude Achille Debussy
Performer: Seong-Jin Cho
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalogue: 4798308
Release: 2017
Size: 1.08 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Images I, L. 110
01. I. Reflets dans l’eau
02. II. Hommage à Rameau
03. III. Mouvement
Images II, L. 111
04. I. Cloches à travers les feuilles
05. II. Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut
06. III. Poissons d’or
Children’s Corner, L. 113
07. I. Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum
08. II. Jimbo’s Lullaby
09. III. Serenade for the Doll
10. IV. The Snow is Dancing
11. V. The Little Shepherd
12. VI. Golliwog’s Cakewalk
Suite bergamasque, L. 75
13. I. Prélude
14. II. Menuet
15. III. Clair de lune
16. IV. Passepied
17. L’isle joyeuse, L. 106
Since the pianist’s early days, the South Korean Seong-Jin Cho (1994) has professed a fondness for French music in general and Debussy in particular. At his first public performance at the age of eleven, he played Children’s Corner by Debussy. When he decided, in 2012, to pursue his musical education abroad, he chose Paris, and the Conservatoire National Supérieur, where he frequented the classes of Michel Béroff, the undisputed expert on Debussy. Cho has come back to work again with his old teacher, who became a friend, with the aim of creating his own Debussy album; the choice of works here is “restricted” to works requiring a middling level of virtuosity – mechanical exhibition isn’t his thing, even though he has amply mastered his instrument – but whose poetical content allows the pianist to show off his own exquisite expertise as a musician. An homage to his own childhood, Children’s Corner, but also the two books of Images and the exquisite Suite bergamasque. Let’s not forget that Seong-Jin Cho won Warsaw’s 2015 Chopin Prize, a sure-fire ticket to an international career.