HKPhil Season Opens with Performance by Chopin Piano Prize Winner Seong-Jin Cho

Description

Conducted by maestro Jaap van Zweden (b. the Netherlands, 1960), the programme includes Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Prelude to Act I by Wagner, Piano Concerto no. 2 by Rachmaninov and selections from Romeo & Juliet by Provofiev.

Champion South Korean pianist Cho, whose playing has been described as “heart-melting” by Gramophone magazine, performs what is probably the most heart-wrenching of all piano concertos. He was brought to the world’s attention in 2015 when he won the First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. This same competition launched the careers of world-class artists such as ‎Martha Argerich, ‎Maurizio Pollini or ‎Krystian Zimerman. In 2018 he recorded a Mozart program with sonatas and the D minor concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Dutch conductor van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents.  The 2018/19 season marks his first as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he has held since 2012.  Recent engagements included the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony and Dallas Symphony Orchestra where he is Conductor Laureate having just completed a ten-year tenure at its helm.