Praise from Third Coast Review for Seong-Jin Cho's Performance at Chicago Symphony Center

Seong-Jin Cho at the Chicago Symphony Center. (Photo credit: Todd Rosenberg)

Review: Pianist Seong-Jin Cho Dazzles at Symphony Center
By Louis Harris
Third Coast Review
May 23, 2023

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho is featured in the Third Coast Review, a curated magazine of arts and culture events across Chicago, for his performance at the Chicago Symphony Center on May 21st.

Author Louis Harris writes,

In a dazzling display of youthful energy and vigor, Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho delivered a masterful, note-perfect recital before a nearly sold out crowd at Symphony Center on Sunday. He showed remarkable intensity and resolve as he worked through a lengthy program of German composers George Frideric Handel, Johannes Brahms, and Robert Schumann, and a modern composer from Soviet Russia, Sofia Gubaidulina.

Although still in his 20s, Cho displayed the musical maturity of a pianist twice his age. His touch was refined and demeanor intense, and a very powerful sound came from a pianist of small-medium stature.

The opening of Handel’s Suite is light and airy, and Cho’s fingers sounded like they were floating on clouds. In a very typical Handel fashion, there are constant turns and trills within the melodic lines, and Cho nailed them all. Being a longer, more involved movement, the Air allowed him to demonstrate the wide dexterity in his touch.

When the final chords of the Schumann sounded, the audience reaction was immediate. I’m not one to stand after every performance, but this one deserved a standing ovation. After four curtain calls, Cho broke into more Handel for an encore, Minuet in G Minor, No. 4, HWV 434, which was arranged by Kempff. But the audience was not finished with the applause. Three ovations later Cho returned to the piano to play “Alborada del gracioso,” which is from Maurice Ravel’s five-piece work, Miriors. After that, he waved good-bye.”

Read the complete review here.