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Seong-Jin Cho - Mozart Piano Concertos is a perfect blend of refinement and rhythmic vitality / Classical Music Sentinel

South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho won the First Prize at the 2015 Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. In 2016, he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, one of the most illustrious classical music labels. He has already released two recordings for the label which include a Chopin Piano Concerto and solo piano works by Claude Debussy, both of which have received critical acclaim worldwide. And if this new Mozart recording is any indication, I can understand why. There's a perfect blend of refinement and rhythmic vitality in his playing. Combine that with precision of attack, precise phrasing, fluid dynamic control and expressive discourse on the fly, and you have an effective combination of skills that lend his playing a lyrical quality. And what I find most impressive is the perfect balance he achieves between his left and right hand, as if they are holding their own personal conversation within the general interplay between piano and orchestra, with the left hand having just as much to say as the right hand. And conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin's dramatic perspective of the orchestral writing in the concerto, adds an operatic touch to the whole experience.

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