ラヴェル: ピアノ協奏曲集

若きコンクール覇者がラヴェルの生誕150周年に捧げる究極のプロジェクト 協奏曲のLPが発売

ラヴェルの生誕150周年に合わせてチョ・ソンジンは、ラヴェルのソロ・ピアノ作品全集とピアノ協奏曲集を録音しました。その中から2月にCD発売されたピアノ協奏曲集がLP化されました。
ユニバーサル・ミュージック/IMS

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho came on the scene as a Chopin specialist and competition winner in that field. However, he has turned to Ravel with a good deal of success, releasing an album of the composers fearsome solo piano music, and now, in 2025, the two piano concertos, one of them for the left hand. Both works date from after Ravels direct encounters with American jazz and with the music of Gershwin, which are often cited in Gershwins development. Of course, the influence went the other way as well, and catching that is one thing responsible for the power of Chos interpretations here. He has had a strong lyrical bent that has served him well in Chopin. Here, he adds to that a feel for the fresh jazz influences in these concertos. The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major shows the strongest jazz influence of all, and one can sample the bluesy second theme of the first movement and Chos relaxed way in the Adagio assai slow movement for an idea of what he is about (many people rave about him, but others are less convinced, and these are ways to tell into which group one might fall). The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major is outwardly less jazzy but offers an improvisational structure, with lots of solo piano work, that shows what was on the composers mind, and here, too, Cho shows a kind of relaxed command that will more than likely draw the listener in, and it offers plenty of showcases for conductor Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and for Nelsons way of bringing notable small details to the piano-and-orchestra dialogue. The album was nicely recorded on two different occasions in Bostons Symphony Hall, and its absorbing quality is one factor contributing to its appearance on classical best-seller charts in early 2025. ~ James Manheim