Seong-Jin Cho receives rave review from The New York Times for NY Phil subscription debut

Seong Jin-Cho made his New York Philharmonic subscription debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on March 24, 2022 (Photo credit: Lawrence Sumulong)

Review: The Philharmonic’s Conductor Returns to His Perch
By Zachary Woolfe
The New York Times
March 25, 2022

He’s back: After six weeks of guest conductors — including some prominent contenders to succeed him as music director when he leaves in two years — Jaap van Zweden returned to the New York Philharmonic on Thursday.

And he’s back, too: A month after swooping into Carnegie Hall as a last-minute replacement for an artist with ties to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the pianist Seong-Jin Cho was once again in Manhattan.

They joined at Alice Tully Hall for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor,” its opening orchestral chord full and rounded; the balances between the strings and the winds, which had heavily favored the violins at Tully earlier this season, equitable; the tempos judicious.

Cho, who played a tour date with the Philharmonic in 2019 but on Thursday made his subscription series debut, was most memorable when most delicate: his silvery playing under the horn just after his cadenza in the first movement; his gentleness in the questioning chords wandering from the second movement to the third; his shimmering trills at the end of the piece.

To read the full review, click here.