Seong-Jin Cho: 2025/26 LSO Artist Portrait

‘When I was six years old, I wanted to become a concert pianist but I didn’t know what that meant, in terms of a career. When I entered Middle School in Korea I started practicing and then, after winning the Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, I had to make so many decisions. It was a totally new world for me, and a big challenge – but I enjoy meeting new people and great musicians.

The first time I encountered the LSO was in 2016, when I recorded my first studio album with them – Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 with conductor Gianandrea Noseda. Since then, we have performed together many times all over Europe, and I’ve played with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle in Asia.

We recorded the Chopin Piano Concerto No 2 during the pandemic in 2021, again with Gianandrea Noseda. I had to quarantine in London for a few days!

Gianandrea Noseda and Sir Antonio Pappano are very different as conductors, but in a way similar because their musicality is so natural, and they both have a wide – huge! – repertoire. As a pianist it’s important to have a conductor who can not only accompany me, but really communicate. The piano concerto is not only for piano, but for the orchestra too. So we all have to communicate, and both Gianandrea and Sir Antonio are very good partners for this.

With Maxime Pascal, it’s going be our first collaboration, and I have heard so many good things about him, especially about the contemporary music that he conducts. I’m so looking forward to it.’

The Concertos

‘I’ve been saying that my top three concertos are Beethoven 4, Brahms 2 and Prokofiev 2. The Prokofiev concerto is very special, because I’m always amazed that he was only in his twenties when he composed this music. It is very dramatic and deep, written after a close friend had died. When it was first premiered it was not so successful in Russia. It is not shocking in the same way anymore, over 100 years later, but we can still feel the depth and the tragedy of the first and last movements. The solo piano theme is somehow very Russian; I can imagine Russian scenery and a cold wind. And I don’t think I breathe when I perform the second movement!

The Second Piano Concerto was actually Chopin’s first, even though it was published later. It is somehow more passionate to me than the first. It is more like a kind of opera. It has a beautiful second movement and the middle section sounds like a ‘recitativo’. Gianandrea is a perfect partner for this kind of music because he’s so used to opera. Friends and other conductors are always telling me that this concerto is hard for a conductor, because it’s so free. But we still have to care about the timing. For me the music is the art of timing, as painting is the art of space.

Donghoon and I were introduced to each other by the LSO a few years ago and since then we’ve become really good friends. I find his music fascinating because he seamlessly interweaves influences from classic literature with his own unique voice. I believe his new Piano Concerto will be not only deeply romantic but also full of fresh charm and depth!With contemporary music I think that, as performers, we are like translators. Our role is to deliver this music, contemporary music, and to respect the composer’s thoughts and ideas.

At the moment I play more concertos than chamber recitals. I’ve concentrated on concertos, because my great mentor, the late Radu Lupu, told me many times, ‘You have to learn all the concertos before you are 40, because after it’s hard to memorise the pieces’. So I kept that in mind and I did learn quite a lot. I’m still learning. But I have an interest in chamber music as well, especially the Brahms chamber repertoire and I have more plans in the future. My main motivation is live performance. I feel more natural when there’s an audience: there’s more energy, more excitement.’

Interview by Lucy Walker