CD Reviews:

Philip L. Scowcroft, April, 2006 (continued)

This is another recording of a live recital in the Fifth Chetham’s International Summer School and Festival for Pianists (2005). Dunelm does a notable service, not just to Chetham’s, but to piano fanciers generally in capturing these first-rate events for posterity. Recording live events does of course always create problems (a) in microphone placements, (b) because of possible audience noise, and (c) there is no realistic chance of correcting slips in performance. I can only say that these problems scarcely, if at all, come into play for listeners to this CD. Performance slips are very few and the only evidence of the audience (who as always at Chetham’s seem to be impeccably behaved) is the sputter of enthusiastic applause after the Mephisto Waltz, which I take to be the end of the advertised programme, the two last tracks being encores. The recording is indeed excellent in tone and very natural sounding.

Jae-Hyuck Cho is American, of Korean birth. Although he has built up a noteworthy reputation over the past dozen years, his is not a name I had previously come across, but on the evidence of this CD it is one I will be eagerly looking out for in the future. His technique is superb, virtuosic when needed, admirably clear in delivery generally and underpinned by thoughtful musicianship. These qualities serve him well in this programme, which is ideally balanced between classical and Romantic repertoire. The Waldstein is well thought out and beautifully executed, almost willing us to reckon this as Beethoven’s finest sonata (it isn’t, of course, quite, but the advocacy here is strong). The fluid images of the Ravel are entrancing and the Mephisto Waltz No.1 is brilliantly done. The Schumann, probably the recital’s least heard (and maybe for that reason the most prized) looks back to classical models as it is in the standard four movements and uses classical structures like sonata form and sonata rondo but the idiom is strongly Romantic, typical Schumann, mostly the agitated Florestan side of him, though the songlike slow movement furnishes some relief. The encores allow us to sample Mr. Cho’s skills in Chopin and, perhaps rather curiously even as an encore, his own transcription of Malotte’s The Lord’s Prayer, beloved of singers, solo and choral, for many years and enjoyable enough in its solo piano guise.

Strongly recommended as a calling card for a pianist of whom many piano fanciers may have been ignorant as I was myself.

Jae Hyuck Cho | Pianist | Website by Mary-Ann Tu