Seong-Jin Cho
The Handel Project: Handel - Suites & Brahms - Variations
Album · Classical · 2023
Handel’s keyboard suites were written for the harpsichord, but transfer convincingly to a modern piano in these crisply articulated performances by the South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho. Playing three of his favourite suites, Cho distils a moving poetry in the opening movement of the Suite in F major. Both the “Allegro” which follows and the final-movement fugue dance irresistibly with the joy and vitality Cho celebrates in Handel’s music. Brahms admired it too, and Cho brings a glinting technical brilliance and insight to the composer’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. This 30-minute piece has heavyweight moments, but it’s the exuberance and delight Brahms found in Handel which Cho is particularly good at tracing.