Debussy Seong-Jin Cho

• Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Images I, L. 110:
• 1 1. Reflets dans l'eau 05:44
• 2 2. Hommage à Rameau 07:05
• 3 3. Mouvement 03:30
• Images II, L. 111:
• 4 1. Cloches à travers les feuilles 04:33
• 5 2. Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut 05:57
• 6 3. Poissons d'or 04:23
• Children's Corner, L. 113:
• 7 1. Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum 02:22
• 8 2. Jimbo's Lullaby 03:41
• 9 3. Serenade For The Doll 02:42
• 10 4. The Snow Is Dancing 02:29
• 11 5. The Little Shepherd 02:54
• 12 6. Golliwog's Cakewalk 02:59
• Suite bergamasque, L. 75:
• 13 1. Prélude 04:31
• 14 2. Menuet 04:16
• 15 3. Clair de lune 05:31
• 16 4. Passepied 03:55
• L'isle joyeuse, L. 106:
• 17 L'isle joyeuse, L. 106 06:15
• Total Runtime 01:12:47

Info for Debussy

With "a poetic sensibility that evokes the fantastical sound world of the early Romantics" (San Francisco Chronicle), 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho explores the music of Claude Debussy in honor of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death. Seong-Jin Cho’s third album on Deutsche Grammophon features Debussy’s most popular works and cycles, such as Images I & II, Suite Bergamasque and Children’s Corner.

In his latest recording the 23-year-old South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho presents an all-Debussy programme. Debussy follows Cho’s two best-selling Chopin recordings.

It is entirely fitting that Seong-Jin Cho, winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, should now turn to Debussy. Towards his life’s close, the French composer edited the piano works of Chopin, an experience that reignited his creativity, opening his heart to music he had loved since childhood. In turn, Cho’s connection to Debussy runs deep. He performed "Golliwogg’s Cake-walk" from Children’s Corner as part of his first public recital at the age of eleven, and his passion for the composer developed in parallel with his exploration of Chopin. He was therefore delighted to have the opportunity of commemorating the centenary of Debussy’s death, which falls in March 2018, with his own tribute.

Since childhood, Cho has felt many affinities with Debussy and he was keen to mark the centenary in his own style. The album features both books of Images, each comprising three pieces of breathtaking imagination, in company with Children’s Corner and Suite Bergamasque, the latter including the hugely popular "Clair de lune". Rounding things off in jubilant fashion is the beautiful "L’Isle joyeuse".

Cho’s album begins with music that sounds as if it could have existed for all eternity, despite bearing the hallmarks of what its composer described as "the most recent discoveries of harmonic chemistry." The enigmatic opening of “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images I sets the mood for the pianist’s tribute to one of the last century’s most original creative minds. He goes on to perform the remaining works of the two books of Images, bringing out every subtle nuance of music that demands true virtuosity. The Children’s Corner suite offers inventiveness, fantasy and touches of humour followed by the elegant Suite bergamasque, at whose heart lies the haunting "Clair de lune". Rounding off proceedings is L’Isle joyeuse whose atmospheric, energetic writing makes it the ideal finale to this homage to Debussy.

Seong-Jin Cho, piano
Myung-Whun Chung, piano
Staatskapelle Dresden
London Symphony Orchestra
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Seong-Jin Cho
Born on 28 May 1994, in Seoul (South Korea), Seong-Jin Cho is today based in Paris. He won the International Fry- deryk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in 2008 and the Hamamatsu Piano Competition in Japan in 2009, as well as Third Prizes in both the Tchai- kovsky Competition in Russia in 2011 and the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv in 2014. He has performed in con- cert with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the French Radio, Czech and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras under Myung-Whun Chung, the Munich Phil- harmonic Orchestra under Lorin Maazel, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkarnov, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marek Janowski, and both the Russian National Orchestra and Basel Symphony Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev. He has toured Japan, Germany, France, Russia, Poland,

Israel, China and the US. He has appeared in both concerts and recitals at the Tokyo Opera City, in Osaka, at the Moscow Con- servatory and at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. He has participated in numerous European festivals, including St. Petersburg, Moscow, Duszniki-Zdrój and Cracow, as well as festivals in New York and Castleton. As a chamber musi- cian, he has been invited to work with the outstanding violinist Kyung-Wha Chung.

Booklet for Debussy