Seong-Jin Cho, Piano

In 2015, Seong-Jin Cho became the first South Korean to win the first prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition; only sixteen pianists in history have won, among whom are Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini. This victory led to a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon at age twenty-one, and since then Cho has embarked on a distinguished career as an international recitalist and soloist.

In his Duke Performances debut, Cho brings a substantial program of 19th and 20th-century masterworks. Cho performs the late Six Pieces of Brahms, which are among his most personal compositions. The grandeur of Franck's Prélude, Choral et Fugue comes next, challenging through its chromatic harmonies and transcendent form. Glenn Gould called Berg's early Sonata, opus 1, "expansive, pessimistic, and unquestionably ecstatic" - fitting words for this one-movement student piece imparting Berg's youthful fire. Cho closes with Liszt's vast Sonata in B Minor, perhaps the zenith of romantic piano music.

Program
Brahms: Six Pieces for Piano, op. 118

Franck: Prélude, Choral et Fugue

Berg: Sonata, op. 1

Liszt: Sonata in B Minor