Seong-Jin Cho The Handel Project: Handel: 3 Suites & Brahms: Handel Variations (2 LP)

Sensational Pianist Shares His Love for Handel on 180g Double LP!
Each Work Is Brilliantly Full of Character & Life!
The sensational South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho shares his love for an often neglected corner of the keyboard repertoire: Handel's keyboard suites. Each suite is brilliantly characterful and brimming with life, and Cho has selected his three absolute favorites to play in full. Another lover of Handel's keyboard suites was Johannes Brahms - so Cho pairs the suites with the later composer's spectacular Handel Variations Op.24.
George Frideric Handel's suites for keyboard instrument are foreign to most concert pianists. The 28-year-old South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho wants to shed new light on these soulful works of baroque music with his album "The Handel Project". Recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, he has his three favourites from Handel's first collection of "Suites de pièces pour le clavecin": suites HWV 427, 430 and 433. After years of studying music from later eras, Handel's keyboard works came into focus, not least because of their wealth of musical ideas and melodic invention. "For me, Handel's music comes from the heart, people can easily follow it," says Cho, dispensing with the right pedal in his interpretation as much as possible, but modifying some of the dynamic markings to exploit the potential of the modern grand piano. But Cho was also interested in Handel's influence on later composers, so he decided to record Johannes Brahms' creative response to Handel's music: Brahms' virtuoso "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel" was put on paper within a few weeks in September 1861. For Cho, these are "the best variations ever written." The album closes with two individual movements by Handel: the Sarabande in B flat major, HWV 440 and the Minuet in G minor – the latter in a magical arrangement by Wilhelm Kempff.

Features:

• 180g Vinyl
• Double LP
• Gatefold Jacket
• Made in Germany

Musicians:

• Seong-Jin Cho, piano

Selections:

Side A
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
Suite Set No.2 in F Major, HWV 427
1. Adagio
2. Allegro
3. Adagio
4. Allegro [Fugue]
Suite Set No.8 in F Minor, HWV 433
5. Prélude
6. Allegro [Fugue]
7. Allemande
8. Courante
9. Gigue
Side B
Suite No.5 in E Major, HWV 430
1. Prélude
2. Allemande
3. Courante
4. Air – Double I–V [Air with 5 Variations "The Harmonious Blacksmith"]
5. Sarabande in B flat major HWV 440/3
6. Minuet in G minor arr. Wilhelm Kempff
Side C
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel In B Flat Major, Op.24
1. Aria
2. Variation I
3. Variation II. Animato
4. Variation III. Dolce
5. Variation IV. Risoluto
6. Variation V. Espressivo
7. Variation VI. Sempre legato
8. Variation VII. Con vivacità
9. Variation VIII
10. Variation IX. Poco sostenuto
11. Variation X. Energico
12. Variation XI. Dolce
13. Variation XII. Soave
14. Variation XIII. Largamente, ma non più
15. Variation XIV. Sciolto
16. Variation XV
17. Variation XVI. Piano ma marcato
18. Variation XVII. Più mosso
19. Variation XVIII. Grazioso
Side D
1. Variation XIX. Leggiero e vivace
2. Variation XX. Legato
3. Variation XXI. Dolce
4. Variation XXII
5. Variation XXIII. Vivace e staccato
6. Variation XXIV
7. Variation XXV
8. Fuga