Jin Znd Fzhed

For her Chopin debut on MDG (MDG9471818), Jin Ju was awarded the highest honors from the top authorities: the jury of the Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin. It is only every five years that these guardians of the Chopin legacy come together to distinguish a mere four extraordinary recordings. Now this Chinese pianist blessed with a special interpretive sense celebrates her induction into this illustrious circle with a continuation of recordings for MDG.

Seong-Jin Cho garnered international attention and critical accolades through his first prize victory in the 2015 Warsaw Chopin Competition, followed by a studio recording pairing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 and the 4 Ballades. Five years later, Seong-Jin returns to Chopin with a complementary program consisting of the romantic Piano Concerto No. 2 and the 4 Scherzi.

This new release from MDG presents Beethoven's piano sonatas op. 109, 110 and 111, performed by pianist Jin Ju. Jin Ju is a hugely flexible and versatile pianist; her concert in the Vatican in front of Pope Benedict and an audience of 5,000, in which she played music from three centuries on seven different historical pianos, is almost legendary.

Pianist Seong-Jin Cho shares his love for Handel’s often neglected keyboard suites on his latest album, The Handel Project. Each of the suites is brilliantly full of character and life, and Cho has chosen his three favourites for his new album, saying, “For me, Handel’s music comes directly from the heart.” Brahms loved the suites too, and Cho has also recorded the latter’s spectacular Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, based on one movement from Suite No. 3.

After winning the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015 and releasing lauded albums of works by Debussy and Mozart, the "unequivocally brilliant" (The Telegraph) pianist SeongJin Cho now explores Schubert, Liszt, and Berg. The new album features Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy and Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor.

George Frideric Handel's suites for keyboard instrument are foreign to most concert pianists. With his album "The Handel Project", the 28-year-old South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho wants to shed new light on these soulful works of Baroque music. Recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, he has chosen his three favourites from Handel's first collection of "Suites de pièces pour le clavecin": the suites HWV 427, 430 and 433.