Seong-Jin Cho/ Andris Nelsons & Boston Symphony Orchestra – Ravel: The Piano Concertos (UHQCD)

Seong-Jin Cho’s sensitive interpretations of Ravel’s piano works underscore his status as one of today’s most elegant and accomplished pianists. The South Korean pianist already loved the French composer as a child and immersed himself in his music while studying at the Paris Conservatory. To mark Ravel’s 150th birthday in 2025, he has decided to record his complete solo piano works as well as both piano concertos. “Ravel: The Piano Concertos” is now being released for the first time by Universal Music Japan and Deutsche Grammophon as a high-resolution UHQCD.

The album includes the “Concerto for the Left Hand”, a notoriously difficult work characterized by its dark sonorities, and the more light-hearted “Concerto in G major”, an exquisite combination of jazz and the classicism of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. “For me,” Cho says, ‘the highlight of the G major Concerto is the second movement (Adagio Assai) – the long piano solo at the beginning. It’s one of the most moving movements in the piano literature.” In both concerts, the pianist is joined by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Andris Nelsons. Seong-Jin Cho won the 17th Chopin International Piano Competition in 2015, as well as the prestigious Polonaise Prize. Since then, he has been in the international spotlight. With his overwhelming talent and innate musicality, he has established himself as one of the most outstanding talents of his generation and as an artist who stands out from the crowd in today’s music world.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan’s first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.

Lista pieselor

1. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra: I. Allegramente
2. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra: II. Adagio Assai
3. Concerto For Piano And Orchestra: III. Presto
4. Concerto For The Left Hand For Piano And Orchestra: I. Lento
5. Concerto For The Left Hand For Piano And Orchestra: II. Allegro
6. Concerto For The Left Hand For Piano And Orchestra: III. Tempo I