Cho Seong-jin grows more comfortable with Chopin

Pianist Cho Seong-jin performs during his first solo recital in Seoul at the Lotte Concert Hall, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Lotte Concert Hall

By Yun Suh-young

Pianist Cho Seong-jin, who rose to K-pop star-level popularity in Korea since his award-winning performance at the Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, must feel stiff in the fingers after his first solo recital in Seoul, Tuesday, not just because of his energetic performance but due to two encore performances and the signing of 600 autographs.

Cho's first solo recital in Seoul was reminiscent of a rock star's concert where a swarm of female fans would flock in the concert hall to cheer, get a glimpse of the star and get their CDs signed by celebrity musician.

Even before the concert began, the lobby of the Lotte Concert Hall was jam-packed with Cho's fans trying to receive their reserved tickets from the counter. The line went all the way to the elevator and there was just no place to stand.

According to the concert hall, tickets for both days (Jan. 3, 4) of the concert were sold out 10 minutes after the tickets went on sale, Nov. 23 last year. There had even been a craze online to find tickets and unofficial transactions occurred between those willing to sell their purchased tickets for a higher price and those willing to buy them. Even those tickets traded with a premium were quickly sold.

As soon as the 23-year-old pianist appeared on stage, the crowd roared to greet their young handsome pianist performing alone for the first time in Seoul. He had previously performed twice after the Chopin competition which included a gala performance and a collaboration with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

The 2,036-seat concert hall was fully packed. About 80 percent of the audience members were female.

As Cho raised his hands to play, the roar dropped to dead silence with everyone holding their collective breath to hear the sound they had longed to hear.

Cho began his Tuesday program with Alban Berg's Piano Sonata in b minor Op. 1 and Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 19 in C minor D. 958 for the first half before the intermission. He was energetic in his play but seemed rather tense during the first part. But when he played Chopin's four ballades in the second half after a 30-minute intermission, he was comfortable and relaxed as if he felt at home. It seemed they were his most confident pieces as he had played them over and over again over the past few years. The four Chopin pieces were Ballade No. 1 in G minor Op. 23, Ballade No. 2 in F Major Op. 38, Ballade No. 3 in A flat Major Op. 47, and Ballade No. 4 in F minor Op. 52, which were also included on Cho's recently released CD, "Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 Ballades." The four are dream pieces that Cho had been bracing to record one day since he heard it on Krystian Zimerman's CD when he was 11 years old.

When his performance ended with the crowd cheering with a standing ovation, Cho appeared again to play two encores ― Debussy's "Clair de Lune" and Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor.

What was interesting was that some members of the audience left the hall even before the encore songs began to be the first to line up to get an autograph from the pianist which was scheduled to last 45 minutes after the performance. Cho, however, kindly signed over 600 autographs for all the fans who had lined up and the expected autograph session exceed its 45 minute-schedule to last until past 11 p.m.

The popularity of this young Korean pianist was visible even with sales of promotional products. The 1,000 copies of the program book were sold out on the first day and the concert hall had to order 700 extra copies for the next day. The line to buy notebooks, calendars and CDs of Cho was as long as the autograph line. Lotte Concert Hall silently screamed with joy as Cho's concert brought them the highest number of ticket sales since opening in July last year. A record-breaking 3,921 tickets were sold excluding seats for promotional use.

Cho's second performance ended Wednesday with a slightly different repertoire. He played the same pieces for the first half but showcased Chopin's 24 Preludes Op. 28 in the second half.