Chopin winner sets Korea alight
mainPre-sales of Cho Seong-jin’s debut album are reportedly outperforming recordings of all genres in Seoul. The Chopin winner’s Warsaw final will be released by DG on November 7.
Cho is the first Korean to win the Chopin. No Korean pianist ever came higher than third.
He’s a national hero in a country with the highest per capita classical record sales on earth. Looks like DG have signed a real winner.
Looks like the jury chose a winner/sarc
The future of classical music in East Asia
Has nothing to do with music as much as to do national pride
If he had won playing a kazoo he still would be a hero .
He makes his UK Debut with the Philharmonia under Ashkenazy at Symphony Hall on 3rd November
Looks also like they took so long to deliberate the winner bc of the market research of potential sales of an eventual winner….but that might just be me hypothesizing
national hero?
The 21-year-old pianist’s upcoming album – a live recording of his performances at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Poland – was the top seller across all music genres at Kyobo Bookstore, the country’s largest book seller, as of 3 p.m. Tuesday — a feat that no other classical musician has come even close to achieving.
“This is the first time that a classical music album rose to No. 1 on the all-genre chart,” a Kyobo official said.
The Deutsche Grammophon album, scheduled to be released globally on Nov. 6, contains highlights of Cho’s recital-round performances such as Chopin’s Preludes Op. 28, Nocturne in C Minor Op. 48/1, Piano Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor Op. 35 and Scherzo No. 2 in B Flat Minor Op. 31. Presales opened Thursday.
Cho, who was born and raised in Seoul but is currently studying in France, is the first Korean to win the Chopin competition, the piano world’s greatest test that has helped to launch the careers of pianists such as Maurizio Pollini (1960) and Martha Argerich (1965). Held every five years, the latest edition took place with over 70 young pianists from 20 countries participating.
Before Cho, the highest honor that a Korean had earned in the competition was the third prize won by brothers Lim Dong-min and Lim Dong-hyek in 2005.