About this concert
Pianist Seong-Jin Cho has captivated our audiences with his interpretations of Ravel, Chopin and Beethoven. Now he returns for Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, making for a dream pairing. Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is a quintessentially Slavic work, with grand gestures and melodies running through it like deep furrows. It contains quotations from Ukrainian folk music and, oddly enough, a snippet of a French cabaret song. It is overwhelming, compelling and highly virtuosic.
Equally overwhelming is Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, written during the Second World War. Those turbulent times inspired Stravinsky, who had just emigrated to America, to create a daring collage of unused Hollywood film music, old ideas and new impulses. He wove everything together seamlessly; an irresistible cinematic flow holds the work together. Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier is a homage to old Vienna. And that means waltzes and other dance music, all sparklingly orchestrated.
Piano Concerto No. 1 is quintessentially Slavic, with grand gestures and melodies running through it like deep furrows.
