00:00 - Ballade No.1 in G Minor, Op.23 09:59 - Ballade No.2 in F Maj/A Min, Op.38 17:33 - Ballade No.3 in Ab Major, Op.47 25:19 - Ballade No.4 in F Minor, Op.52 Cho Seong-Jin’s playing is marvellous: it is consistently reverential, finely detailed, and anti-virtuosic, as you might expect from someone whose role models are Zimerman and Lupu. Even the most virtuosic passage is voiced fully, and the pauses which mark out crucial transitions and harmonic shifts are fully observed. There is some excellent cantabile playing in the melodic passages (and beautiful chord voicing too), and the quiet passages have a tenderness and reticence that’s petty moving.
I think that Ashish means that Cho is trying to showcase musicality, rather than his own technical skill, as the stereotypical 'virtuoso' is likely more prone to do.
Cho Seong-Jin is absolutely one of best interpreters of Chopin music. He just feel it. His victory in International Chopin Piano Competition '15 in Warsaw was clearly justified
@@yoaveden The audience is normally supposed to wait until the piece finishes to applaud - here, the piece isn't finished yet but someone not familiar with it might assume that it is due to the pause there
I still remember the time I got interrupted in a concert because they thought the piece ended. It was my 2nd concert. I was smiling outside, but not inside. For the sake of my 4th concert (two months ago) I raised my finger (as Vinheteiro does) so that they know I'm not done yet. It saved Tchaikovsky, and I got it down naturally. Easily my toughest concert struggle, I was borrowing quite some time to come up with the answer
16:15-17:02 This is Seong-Jin Cho, one of the best pianists of our generation. Extraordinary, i’m speechless on his approach of the coda. Especially through 16:26-16:42 How he prolongs the notes and approaches the dynamic in that passage with such flexibility.
I tried (and failed) to learn the 4th ballade a couple of years ago, and I still remember the nightmarish passage from 28:53 to 29:33 and how hard was to even just try to express the melody between all those chords. I used to listen to Cho's recording and ask myself "How is this possible?"; and the way he plays the coda, mesmerising and unbelievable. The best, simply the best, the greatest pianist of our time
I am learning it right now and I can say that those measures are indeed a nightmare to pull off, but once it's done, it's not only one of the most beautiful passages in the whole romantic era (for me) but also fun to play. The fun thing also happena with those rising thirds in the coda. Hard as hell, but once you learn it... Fun!
I might add that the 4th ballade is my favorite of all ballades ever and a dream for me since i started learning the piano. To be practicing and learning it now it's just a huge dream coming to life and I play it with a sacred respect. Can't wait to have it all done and play it on stage.
Before discovering Cho Seong-Jin, I always listened to three recordings of the fourth Ballade: Zimmerman, Horowitz and Cortot. Zimmerman for hearing what's written and to help with practice, although I always found his a bit boring, Horowitz for the energy bursts and his great staccato in certain passages and Cortot for the poetic feeling and the (sometimes dangerous) ambition in some passages. Cho Seong-Jin has something of them all and even more! Absolutely marvellous!
Ballades played that way tell us how much seong Jin cho deserved his Chopin prize - btw no need to be polish to get that Chopin feeling - both Chopin and mr Cho are God sent - cause being able to feel these masterpieces the way he does at the age he has is like a miracle to me... Thank you Cho for showing us the best of Chopin coming from your heart. I love You.
Roland Schimpf Thanks Mr Schimpf for your not Schimpfwort but a charming comments ~ I agree with you totally. "Cho & Cho-pin", what a miraculous gift for "Musikliebhaber unsere Zeit"!
Cho has a very unique way of bringing up inner voices which no other pianist has paid such an amount of attention to in their recordings. Makes you wonder how many other beautiful voices hide in the sheet music. Truly, this man is a genius in his field
Chopin is my favourite composer. He exactly opened a new life for me. I adore playing his music on piano and I love to learn new things from him. Now I learn the first ballade. I've never heard about this pianist before, but when I found this video.. Oh, God, I think I'm crying. It's so wonderful and beautiful. I'm kinda melting like an ice-cream from this.
About a year ago, I was given the opportunity to take a trip to Switzerland. On one of the stops was a wooden cabin that overlooks a valley lake, the streets and peoples of Seelisberg sank into the mountain vistas. There was a radio in each room, and that night I fell asleep to German news and narration, and this. Hearing it now, all I can think about was that room, the mountain vistas, the valley lake, everything. As I’m typing this now, it is snowing there, and all I can think about is how happy I am that I can call a place the world away my home. Thank you for this lovely compilation of music, I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I heard Chopin melodies once again.
34:33 - breathtaking. After the meandering lushness of the first eight minutes, this melodic line just floats with such clarity and simplicity. And he does this by doing the opposite of what most pianists do here by backing off the pedal, p-pp, and voicing the rh to let the single line shine through unadorned. So beautiful.
I chose to watch this video to help me study but it is impossible to focus on my work when I can't help myself but to awe every second of this majestical playing of Cho Seong- Jin. This is honestly absolutely beautiful.
@@greenapple306 It all depends on your opinions. Seong jin cho might be a role model to a lot of people while zimmerman or any other pianist could be a role model to others.
Cho's renditions of the 2nd and 3rd ballades are absolutely beautiful, and I argue that they're the best I have ever heard. His 1st and 4th are also wonderfully expressive. With winning the Chopin Competition and this album, he has already affirmed himself as a legend in the making.
Agreed. Why focus on just one when you can enjoy both for what they offer? At a certain level, art transcends normal life, and for me it's no longer about comparisons and all about the experience.
I honestly think this interpretation is up there with Zimerman's; and I truly believe Cho will be regarded as one of the best pianists of the 21st century.
@@mikolinek13ziom Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. In all seriousness, I didn't state it as a matter of fact that Cho's interpretation was better. I just said that it was my opinion that Cho's is up there with Zimerman's interpretation (however, I will give you that Zimerman's interpretation is probably the gold standard for the Four Ballades).
His extraordinary melodies seen to be speaking to us. The stories conveyed can be conceived in our own minds. I guess one could say that his remarkable scores take us on new found journeys! How awesome is that!
This is just perfect.. It's so sensitive and at the same time it is so deep to understand his interpretation of Chopin. He truly expresses Chopin I guess.
Wow! He sounds like he always is in full control of the instrument, everything feels so measured and exactly were it should be. These recordings genuinely made me sing along the melody.
The harmonies at 8:13 are so amazing and forward-looking for Chopin's time. He is strongly, repeatedly emphasizing the 7th scale degree (F#) in the melody, over a #4 fully diminished 7th chord (C#o7), which wants so desperately to resolve to the dominant, which is reaffirmed by the D in the bass. It's an accented non-chord tone that makes it sound like a kind of C#o7 / DM7 polychord, or for fellow jazz musicians a GmM13#11/D. Note how the chord has not one but TWO major sevenths in it (between the D and C# and the G and F#). And as if that weren't enough, he then resolves the 7th in the melody unexpectedly to the 9th (A), which makes a THIRD major seventh. It's so dissonant yet so beautiful, tugging at your heartstrings with painful sorrow. To our modern ears, jaded by post-tertian harmony, it might not sound revolutionary, but imagine how it would have sounded then.
There is so much stunning excellence in this entire recording that one has no idea where to begin. He is one of the greatest pianists and musicians that ever walked the planet.
CHOPIN composed so many deep moving pieces, it does boggles one's mind how someone who was born in war torn Poland at that time can produce such astonishing music...unique only to Chopin which no other composer can emulate. Thank you Chopin for your contribution to the world. Though you are no longer with us, your music lives on forever. RIP Chopin. You are beyond amazing!
Chopin will always be remembered for his contribution to the evolution of musical language. As witnessed by his virtuosity and innate sense of harmony, Chopin has expressed the many levels of human emotion.
You're not wrong. First time I heard it was on a classical station in Baltimore when I was 17. Garrick Ohlsson was playing it. I just remember hearing the opening melody sing out, and I was struck literally speechless.
Generally for the ballades I prefer Zimerman, however there is no doubt that Seong-Jin Cho plays these masterpieces with an insane amount of respect and purposefulness. In fact, I think that I actually prefer his ballade 1 coda to Zimerman's. This is without a doubt one of the best recordings of these pieces that exists today. Someone once told me that Seong-Jin Cho's playing is "anti-virtuousic" and I have thought about it and I have to say that I agree. Thanks for posting and thanks for the structural analyses as well! :)
Try Ashkenazy's 1960s recording on Decca (re-issued on CD) - my favourite of all, but I'm not daft enough to say it's 'the best'. Different interpretations and preferences are what make music the great art form that it is.
When I attended zimmerman's piano recital few years ago (he played scherzi), they were each different to his recordings that are available on youtube. Of course it was way better to listen the piece in the hall (live) cause I was immersed in his playing that I forget how it was but beautiful playing. I think sometimes pianist has some kind inconsistency with his/her way on playing. If you were there, you would forget everything about analysing it and what you probably wanted would probably "I wish he played more" xD But yesh. different interpretations is what makes classical music great otherwise it'll be monotonous (well duh). I prefer to have a lot of selection of pianists than listening to one specific pianist.
cannot believe the way he interprets ballade 3. Since the part of coda, he expresses the piece as if storm is slowly devouring the melody. Interesting to see him using pedals to deliberately crush the sounds, and emphasizing left hand for maximizing the darkness of the notes. Such a wonderful rendering, cho!
When I listen to this I feel all the deepen soul of mankind, it’s good it’s sorrows it’s obscurity, the mystery we live in. In the inexorable flowing of time there is a piano and somebody playing this.
1 is the most beautifully tragic and intensely interwoven pieces ever, the way Chopin alters the first theme for the second part of the second to create this juxtaposition between this reminisce/dream for the ideal world and the bleak reality is genius. Also the mirror reprise in which this altered second theme is structured to come first and directly contrast the first theme which has the final say and kills any hope for the better tommorow and then the coda(just like the introduction) wraps everything up so fittingly in a tragically-epic manner...a piece in a league of its own
Ballad 2 is so exquisite in its beauty. That intro always makes me think of the Civil War era. Like the Union soldiers are coming home, victors but having survived a brutal conflict and the South is defeated.
Beautifully played ...that's what I use to listen in my country Poland others played... That's the feeling that's ballade ! with all moods and feelings. Bravo.
This "mysterious" silence at 13:27 sound ironically beautiful and strong to me, it's like it tell you the brutal end of a story, but finally she's not finished yet. Like life is an eternal circle like this, the same melody repeat, it begin for someone and still end for another one, and sometimes in your life you will have hard times... Fucking exactly as this entire n°2 Ballade.
Simply gorgeous and heartbreakingly sumptuous. I'm discovering this pianist. My heart, brain and soul exploded. The third is a bit too sugary to my taste, but the rest... And top of it all, he never tries to show off, always with tremendous sensibility. Thank you for uploading this recording.
My favourite recording of the Ballads by a long shot... I like to play a lot of Chopin, so I tend to listen to very little since I get too caught up in hearing interpretative differences to really enjoy listening to them, but this recording is an exception for me for sure...
Overall godly performance but where he really shines for me is his timing. It's so easy to sound overly dramatic or not give a passage the space it needs, but he's just spot on each and every time.
Great stuff as always AXK. These 4 Ballades along with a few Beethoven Sonatas and Rach 2 I could not live without. Desert Island stuff. Wonderful playing. I've noticed some interesting fingurings I need to try too. Thanks
Cho's technique is god-like. I think that Cho's rendition is even better than Zimerman and Novaes renditions. No 2 is another pearl especially the Coda. Thank you for this jewel Ashish Xiangyi Kumar.
I've been obsessed with these two measures lately hahah. The top melody floating on top of triplets, but every 4th note, combined with another polyrhythm of 9/6. It's just so good.
Tremendous analysis. It's amazing to have my subjective 'feelings' clarified logically. It's a firm explanation for why I feel the way I feel about these Ballades, explained so perfectly. Love your channel for many years now.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
00:00 - Ballade No.1 in G Minor, Op.23
09:59 - Ballade No.2 in F Maj/A Min, Op.38
17:33 - Ballade No.3 in Ab Major, Op.47
25:19 - Ballade No.4 in F Minor, Op.52
Cho Seong-Jin’s playing is marvellous: it is consistently reverential, finely detailed, and anti-virtuosic, as you might expect from someone whose role models are Zimerman and Lupu. Even the most virtuosic passage is voiced fully, and the pauses which mark out crucial transitions and harmonic shifts are fully observed. There is some excellent cantabile playing in the melodic passages (and beautiful chord voicing too), and the quiet passages have a tenderness and reticence that’s petty moving.
I've listened to this set from mr. cho for a while, and I can't agree more. Fantastic.
4:15 woooow!!!! so beautiful..........
what do you mean by anti-virtuosic.....
I think that Ashish means that Cho is trying to showcase musicality, rather than his own technical skill, as the stereotypical 'virtuoso' is likely more prone to do.
Ashish Xiangyi Kumar
I'm glad that I discovered classical music
Same
No buddy. Classical discovered you.
Up is right
Yesss
Amen brotha
I love how he can play loudly without sounding like he's just banging the keys.
Kristian J. Magic lol
hahah i cant relate its so hard
nah i kinda sound he's banging the keys.
8:30 is just so insane. I love the sound of it
I think it's the favorite of many people.
It's so good
Yeah i agree, i usually don't like when they play the coda fast, but this one is so clear and crisp, its irresistable
Laterino Craperino the tempo is supposed to be fast
@@RaZorasiangamer yeah, but if you saw zimerman's interpretation of the coda, he does slow down a bit to give it more clarity and emotion
Cho Seong-Jin is absolutely one of best interpreters of Chopin music. He just feel it. His victory in International Chopin Piano Competition '15 in Warsaw was clearly justified
Interpreter not impersonator
@@desktopmoss5617 maybe, english is not my native language 🤷🏻♀️
and to think Entremont gave him a 1...
A słuchała Pani kiedyś Ingolfa Wunder’a?
@@Weirdoshibe nope. It's Rubinstein
35:47 is the part where you as a pianist inwardly hope, that the audience is not clapping at you.
What?
Underrated comment
@@yoaveden The audience is normally supposed to wait until the piece finishes to applaud - here, the piece isn't finished yet but someone not familiar with it might assume that it is due to the pause there
This actually happened during Yundi Li's performance of this Ballade...you can see the pain on his face when the audience starts clapping.
I still remember the time I got interrupted in a concert because they thought the piece ended. It was my 2nd concert. I was smiling outside, but not inside. For the sake of my 4th concert (two months ago) I raised my finger (as Vinheteiro does) so that they know I'm not done yet. It saved Tchaikovsky, and I got it down naturally. Easily my toughest concert struggle, I was borrowing quite some time to come up with the answer
seong jin cho must be one of the greatest pianists alive. all of his interpretations are very good, and are without any fluff or showoffishness.
"Showoffishness!" I love it.
16:15-17:02
This is Seong-Jin Cho, one of the best pianists of our generation. Extraordinary, i’m speechless on his approach of the coda.
Especially through 16:26-16:42
How he prolongs the notes and approaches the dynamic in that passage with such flexibility.
i love this part
one of the best sounds of chopin
I agree
The amount of maturity he can play with at such a young age, he truly understands the music
The third ballad is seriously one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard
I tried (and failed) to learn the 4th ballade a couple of years ago, and I still remember the nightmarish passage from 28:53 to 29:33 and how hard was to even just try to express the melody between all those chords. I used to listen to Cho's recording and ask myself "How is this possible?"; and the way he plays the coda, mesmerising and unbelievable. The best, simply the best, the greatest pianist of our time
@@ibrahimsaka511 everyone has their own opinion 🤷♀️
@@ibrahimsaka511 "you have a wrong point" how dumb do you have to be to call an opinion on a best pianist wrong?
@@ibrahimsaka511 there is no 'wrong' or 'right' in opinions bruh
I am learning it right now and I can say that those measures are indeed a nightmare to pull off, but once it's done, it's not only one of the most beautiful passages in the whole romantic era (for me) but also fun to play. The fun thing also happena with those rising thirds in the coda. Hard as hell, but once you learn it... Fun!
I might add that the 4th ballade is my favorite of all ballades ever and a dream for me since i started learning the piano. To be practicing and learning it now it's just a huge dream coming to life and I play it with a sacred respect. Can't wait to have it all done and play it on stage.
#1: most exciting
#2: most dramatic
#3: most charming
#4: most beautiful
Exactly
lol
@@엄살라-g8w 8
@@DanielFahimi gae
@@DanielFahimi gae
Before discovering Cho Seong-Jin, I always listened to three recordings of the fourth Ballade: Zimmerman, Horowitz and Cortot. Zimmerman for hearing what's written and to help with practice, although I always found his a bit boring, Horowitz for the energy bursts and his great staccato in certain passages and Cortot for the poetic feeling and the (sometimes dangerous) ambition in some passages. Cho Seong-Jin has something of them all and even more! Absolutely marvellous!
Seong-Jin Cho has to be one of the best Chopin interpreters of our time.
Ah, CHOpin
chaud lapin
Aaah Fuet!!!!
This made me laugh too much
Anaïs Abecassis 😂😂
LoL
Ballades played that way tell us how much seong Jin cho deserved his Chopin prize - btw no need to be polish to get that Chopin feeling - both Chopin and mr Cho are God sent - cause being able to feel these masterpieces the way he does at the age he has is like a miracle to me... Thank you Cho for showing us the best of Chopin coming from your heart. I love You.
Roland Schimpf Thanks Mr Schimpf for your not Schimpfwort but a charming comments ~ I agree with you totally. "Cho & Cho-pin", what a miraculous gift for "Musikliebhaber unsere Zeit"!
28:51 is one of my favourite passages in all of classical music
Cho's performance of the op.52 has to be among the best I've ever heard. Deathly, ethereally beautiful.
23:15 is the absolute height of genius. What a gift to the world these Ballades are.
that just sounds like la campanella
@@Pr0tal bruh no
@@Pr0tal wtf no
@@Pr0tal nooooooo whyyyy
Cho has a very unique way of bringing up inner voices which no other pianist has paid such an amount of attention to in their recordings. Makes you wonder how many other beautiful voices hide in the sheet music. Truly, this man is a genius in his field
Chopin would be very happy if he heard this.
4:15-4:21 Unique individual traits in that passage that tells the pianist is definitely Seong-Jin Cho. I love it.
So simple notes, but so touching
No interrumpir ..🧐😵💫
Chopin is my favourite composer. He exactly opened a new life for me. I adore playing his music on piano and I love to learn new things from him. Now I learn the first ballade.
I've never heard about this pianist before, but when I found this video.. Oh, God, I think I'm crying. It's so wonderful and beautiful. I'm kinda melting like an ice-cream from this.
Be carefull whit the first balade . I know just 10 % perfectly and the 40% i know, but not perfectly . the next 50% i dont know .
Same
☺
He does Chopin the best imo
Coda
No.1 8:17~
No.2 16:09~
No.3 24:51~
No.4 36:14~
I love the melody right before move on to coda
so I included it in range😉
Not every hero wears a cape.
No. 1 - 8:30
No. 2 - 16:15
No. 3 - 24:29 or 24:58
No. 4 - 36:14
@BorneGaming it is wdym
@BorneGaming yo u stupid it is the codas
0😊😊
The left hand bass phrasing from 8:30 to 8:50 is out of this world
18:34 I'm used to hearing pianists play that chord and trill sudden and vigorously, but here he plays it so smoothly, very brilliant!
About a year ago, I was given the opportunity to take a trip to Switzerland. On one of the stops was a wooden cabin that overlooks a valley lake, the streets and peoples of Seelisberg sank into the mountain vistas. There was a radio in each room, and that night I fell asleep to German news and narration, and this. Hearing it now, all I can think about was that room, the mountain vistas, the valley lake, everything.
As I’m typing this now, it is snowing there, and all I can think about is how happy I am that I can call a place the world away my home.
Thank you for this lovely compilation of music, I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I heard Chopin melodies once again.
Returning back to this comment over a year later, and all the memories still rush back to me when listening.
Beautiful comment.
corny ahh comment 💀. sounds beautiful tho
@@alfredwegener9813
Yeah, a bit corny, but can you blame me lol
34:33 - breathtaking. After the meandering lushness of the first eight minutes, this melodic line just floats with such clarity and simplicity. And he does this by doing the opposite of what most pianists do here by backing off the pedal, p-pp, and voicing the rh to let the single line shine through unadorned. So beautiful.
I chose to watch this video to help me study but it is impossible to focus on my work when I can't help myself but to awe every second of this majestical playing of Cho Seong- Jin. This is honestly absolutely beautiful.
I truly love and support this yet young but prominently mature pianist, Cho Seong-jin, expecting his bright, bright future.
A role model to every pianist. Seong jin cho is just amazing.
Agreed
Zimmerman should be, not him
@@greenapple306 It all depends on your opinions. Seong jin cho might be a role model to a lot of people while zimmerman or any other pianist could be a role model to others.
STRAIGHT FACTS
I didnt even know it was him playing wow lol, his la valse by ravel is absolutely flawless. After yuja wang pianists just keep getting better
Cho's renditions of the 2nd and 3rd ballades are absolutely beautiful, and I argue that they're the best I have ever heard. His 1st and 4th are also wonderfully expressive. With winning the Chopin Competition and this album, he has already affirmed himself as a legend in the making.
Anyone else get the absolute CHILLS @ Theme 2 climax? 5:15. Love this version, btw. Cho's the Man. Excellent choice, Kumar! :)
Probably my favorite moment in all of Chopin's music.
내가 제일 좋아하는 곡... 곡이 서사가있을수있다는건 진짜 센세이셔널한거다 한곡안에 기승전결 스토리가 다있다
Don't know if i like Zimerman's or Seong-Jin's interpretations better, they are both amazing
True. Both are champions of the ballades. Untouchable by everyone else as far as I’ve seen
You've said it all. Same for me here
Agreed. Why focus on just one when you can enjoy both for what they offer? At a certain level, art transcends normal life, and for me it's no longer about comparisons and all about the experience.
I like Zimerman better. But Cho is still amazing
조성진의 레코딩에서 알프레드 코르또의 향기가 난다.. 특히 2번 코다 부분에 분산화음을 정박으로 연주하는 것이 아니고 루바토로 연주하는 것은 현대 레코딩에서 잘 찾아볼 수 없는 요소인데 정말 대단하고 쇼팽에 대해 완벽하게 이해하고 있다는게 몸으로 느껴진다.
35:27 The best interpretation I've ever heard
I honestly think this interpretation is up there with Zimerman's; and I truly believe Cho will be regarded as one of the best pianists of the 21st century.
Zimerman is waaay better
@@mikolinek13ziom Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. In all seriousness, I didn't state it as a matter of fact that Cho's interpretation was better. I just said that it was my opinion that Cho's is up there with Zimerman's interpretation (however, I will give you that Zimerman's interpretation is probably the gold standard for the Four Ballades).
Agreed
@@mikolinek13ziom Why Zimmerman is better???
@@mikolinek13ziom I agree that he is better, but only slightly.
His extraordinary melodies seen to be speaking to us. The stories conveyed can be conceived in our own minds. I guess one could say that his remarkable scores take us on new found journeys! How awesome is that!
The section at 34:33 is some of the most beautiful writing in all of piano literature.
Echoherb 37:25 also. So calm
I fell for that, lol.
Wow now I have to go all the way back to where I left off
i love the part starting at 34:33 especially 34:52 - 34:58!
Echoherb I think the same, it is really beautiful.
Wow. That 3rd ballade just hits different. Where did the notion of it being "weaker" than the rest ever come from?
Seong-jin Cho is one of my favorite pianists
This is just perfect.. It's so sensitive and at the same time it is so deep to understand his interpretation of Chopin. He truly expresses Chopin I guess.
Wow! He sounds like he always is in full control of the instrument, everything feels so measured and exactly were it should be. These recordings genuinely made me sing along the melody.
36:40 The dynamics and voicing here are absolutely insane! Usually people stay big here but he really dims it down to get big later
19:40, I can believe how good the melody is, I felt in love with it. It's so calm and peaceful...
My favourite ballade of all time
Chopin works wonders with his melodies. I think the third Ballade really showcases this. They are just so unique but still sound lovely.
The harmonies at 8:13 are so amazing and forward-looking for Chopin's time. He is strongly, repeatedly emphasizing the 7th scale degree (F#) in the melody, over a #4 fully diminished 7th chord (C#o7), which wants so desperately to resolve to the dominant, which is reaffirmed by the D in the bass. It's an accented non-chord tone that makes it sound like a kind of C#o7 / DM7 polychord, or for fellow jazz musicians a GmM13#11/D.
Note how the chord has not one but TWO major sevenths in it (between the D and C# and the G and F#).
And as if that weren't enough, he then resolves the 7th in the melody unexpectedly to the 9th (A), which makes a THIRD major seventh.
It's so dissonant yet so beautiful, tugging at your heartstrings with painful sorrow.
To our modern ears, jaded by post-tertian harmony, it might not sound revolutionary, but imagine how it would have sounded then.
Thanks for pointing it out :)
There is so much stunning excellence in this entire recording that one has no idea where to begin. He is one of the greatest pianists and musicians that ever walked the planet.
CHOPIN composed so many deep moving pieces, it does boggles one's mind how someone who was born in war torn Poland at that time can produce such astonishing music...unique only to Chopin which no other composer can emulate. Thank you Chopin for your contribution to the world. Though you are no longer with us, your music lives on forever. RIP Chopin. You are beyond amazing!
Chopin will always be remembered for his contribution to the evolution of musical language. As witnessed by his virtuosity and innate sense of harmony, Chopin has expressed the many levels of human emotion.
Amazing first ballade especially the coda, his coda is Incredible
All of them were amazing tbh
TheGreenPianist indeed, great dynamics.
#4 is the most beautiful piano piece of all time
you're not lying
Not easy to disagree with this
You're not wrong. First time I heard it was on a classical station in Baltimore when I was 17. Garrick Ohlsson was playing it. I just remember hearing the opening melody sing out, and I was struck literally speechless.
@@timward276 I first heard it on headphones at age 14. I was in the sun with wind blowing, and within 30 seconds I felt like I was floating.
1 and 4 are unreal
This is the best interpretation of 8:24 I've ever heard. You can feel the absolute blast of intensity channeled and then dropped on that low note
I bought his cd 3 months ago, I love how his ballades sound
Generally for the ballades I prefer Zimerman, however there is no doubt that Seong-Jin Cho plays these masterpieces with an insane amount of respect and purposefulness. In fact, I think that I actually prefer his ballade 1 coda to Zimerman's. This is without a doubt one of the best recordings of these pieces that exists today. Someone once told me that Seong-Jin Cho's playing is "anti-virtuousic" and I have thought about it and I have to say that I agree. Thanks for posting and thanks for the structural analyses as well! :)
Try Ashkenazy's 1960s recording on Decca (re-issued on CD) - my favourite of all, but I'm not daft enough to say it's 'the best'. Different interpretations and preferences are what make music the great art form that it is.
When I attended zimmerman's piano recital few years ago (he played scherzi), they were each different to his recordings that are available on youtube. Of course it was way better to listen the piece in the hall (live) cause I was immersed in his playing that I forget how it was but beautiful playing. I think sometimes pianist has some kind inconsistency with his/her way on playing. If you were there, you would forget everything about analysing it and what you probably wanted would probably "I wish he played more" xD
But yesh. different interpretations is what makes classical music great otherwise it'll be monotonous (well duh). I prefer to have a lot of selection of pianists than listening to one specific pianist.
Zimmerman actually praised seongjin-cho
The attention to detail in this version is really breathtaking.
I Dare to say that Cho's sounds .. . . Most touching in my heart and pleasant to my ears.
cannot believe the way he interprets ballade 3. Since the part of coda, he expresses the piece as if storm is slowly devouring the melody. Interesting to see him using pedals to deliberately crush the sounds, and emphasizing left hand for maximizing the darkness of the notes. Such a wonderful rendering, cho!
Fabulous. I can play the first ballade just enough to know what a masterclass in voicing and phrasing this is
05:15 젤 조아하는 파트당...
저도 맨 첨이랑 이부분 좋아해여ㅜㅜ
same
와 한국인 오랜만에 본닼ㅋㅋ 외국거만 찾아보다가 첨봄ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
전 (15:56) 16:15
조성진님이 제일 좋아하는 파트이기도♡
When I listen to this I feel all the deepen soul of mankind, it’s good it’s sorrows it’s obscurity, the mystery we live in. In the inexorable flowing of time there is a piano and somebody playing this.
1 is the most beautifully tragic and intensely interwoven pieces ever, the way Chopin alters the first theme for the second part of the second to create this juxtaposition between this reminisce/dream for the ideal world and the bleak reality is genius. Also the mirror reprise in which this altered second theme is structured to come first and directly contrast the first theme which has the final say and kills any hope for the better tommorow and then the coda(just like the introduction) wraps everything up so fittingly in a tragically-epic manner...a piece in a league of its own
Ballad 2 is so exquisite in its beauty. That intro always makes me think of the Civil War era. Like the Union soldiers are coming home, victors but having survived a brutal conflict and the South is defeated.
Beautifully played ...that's what I use to listen in my country Poland others played... That's the feeling that's ballade ! with all moods and feelings. Bravo.
100% certain this is the best 2nd ballade I've ever heard. Incredible.
The first Ballade is my favorite piece of Chopin and it will be my favorite one for my entire life.. It is such an emotional piece, pure beauty !
This "mysterious" silence at 13:27 sound ironically beautiful and strong to me, it's like it tell you the brutal end of a story, but finally she's not finished yet. Like life is an eternal circle like this, the same melody repeat, it begin for someone and still end for another one, and sometimes in your life you will have hard times... Fucking exactly as this entire n°2 Ballade.
Simply gorgeous and heartbreakingly sumptuous. I'm discovering this pianist. My heart, brain and soul exploded. The third is a bit too sugary to my taste, but the rest... And top of it all, he never tries to show off, always with tremendous sensibility.
Thank you for uploading this recording.
What an epic journey of four ballades. It's always a pleasure listening to Cho's Chopin.
조성진의 쇼팽 발라드...너무 좋아요...😭😭
My favourite recording of the Ballads by a long shot... I like to play a lot of Chopin, so I tend to listen to very little since I get too caught up in hearing interpretative differences to really enjoy listening to them, but this recording is an exception for me for sure...
Overall godly performance but where he really shines for me is his timing. It's so easy to sound overly dramatic or not give a passage the space it needs, but he's just spot on each and every time.
I think that the coda of the first Ballade is the best i’ve ever heard
this No.4 makes me cry
Just watched the Pianist. Needless to say, this song has a new meaning for me.
Perfect voicing at 6:09 just speechless
Best Ballade #2 in existence IMO. You can really feel the agitato during the coda.
Seong-Jin Cho is by far my favourite pianist of all time!
Bithovin
@@joannalu9460 do you mean Beethoven?
@@jeremykalhok7324 I see I was summoned.
Great stuff as always AXK. These 4 Ballades along with a few Beethoven Sonatas and Rach 2 I could not live without. Desert Island stuff. Wonderful playing. I've noticed some interesting fingurings I need to try too. Thanks
6:04~ It is really addictive and refreshing to come down clearly and lightly from the part that starts with and suddenly pull it gently into legato.
I applaud not only the pianist but the wonderful creators of this beautiful piano!
Deserved win .....saw him in London just after .... his playing was exemplary.
poplife123 you’re so lucky😭
Wow love these structural analyzations !!!
GAHH KYLEEEEEEEE XD
Kyle Landry I love you🌷🌷🌷
So good to see you here, Kyle!
Kyle?? The Kyle Landry? I didn’t expect to find your comments here
lol its called sheet music
5:14 16:10 20:33 and 35:00 are the best parts hands down
The opening of the 3rd Ballade... it's like a casual acknowledgement of something beautiful that ought to be appreciated.
The fourth ballade is an absolute brilliance of mixture in expressiveness and such passionate character of Chopin. Always brings a tear to my eyes
Those 5 quiet chords in the 4th ballade feel like you're in the eye of the hurricane, before the storm starts up again in the coda.
Hey Ashish, just wanted to say I love your channel and you really bring a new level of appreciation to how I listen to music. Keep it up!
My favorite piece by anyone is ballade no 1, and even better, it is played by my favorite artist
29:02 how can something that beautiful even exist
I looove Cho's decision to play the Ab octave in 35:36 and 35:39 with an accent. It gives a better emotion effect
Can’t help myself ❤❤❤ just love it!
Grazie velvet touch Maestro!
Браво, незабываемое исполнение это шедевры в руках исполнителя.
Cho's technique is god-like. I think that Cho's rendition is even better than Zimerman and Novaes renditions. No 2 is another pearl especially the Coda.
Thank you for this jewel Ashish Xiangyi Kumar.
In agreement on No.2. But if feels like the more intense parts of the others could have been a bit more... well... intense!
Zimmerman's interpratation of the second ballon is so much better than Cho's. Cho's rubato in the coda really ruins the entire coda imo
Agreed👍Zimmerman’s rendition sounds too aggressive to me.
THIS IS JUST AMAZINGG!!
i really love his ballades!thanks for uploading the video-
Aahh, that third balade's inner voicings are magical.
34:51 These two measures are enough to show Chopin’s genius - so hard to play effectively with all the polyrhythms, but absolutely beautiful sounding
I've been obsessed with these two measures lately hahah. The top melody floating on top of triplets, but every 4th note, combined with another polyrhythm of 9/6. It's just so good.
22:41 the voicing is insane
거장의 연주입니다
아들 뻘 되는 연주가인데 존경심뿐 아니라 어떻게 저런 연주를 할 수 있지 하며 경외심 마저 드는군요
대한민국의 아들입니다
자랑스럽습니다
Tremendous analysis. It's amazing to have my subjective 'feelings' clarified logically. It's a firm explanation for why I feel the way I feel about these Ballades, explained so perfectly. Love your channel for many years now.