Cho shot to fame in 2015 when he won the Warsaw Chopin Competition, becoming the first Korean to do so. Since then, he has gradually moved beyond the label of a Chopin specialist, exploring composers such as Händel, Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Berg—and Franz Liszt. “Liszt is incredibly valuable to us pianists because he was a successful pianist himself.” In his younger years, Cho was drawn to Liszt’s “virtuosic pieces” like *La Campanella* or the *Rhapsodies*. “Then I realized that Liszt is not just technically challenging but also musically profound.”

Liszt was a lifelong admirer of Beethoven’s music. That’s why Cho, who has been living in Berlin for several years, has chosen one of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas for his recital at the Ruhr Piano Festival—to ultimately demonstrate how the genre influenced the young Romantic composer Johannes Brahms. Brahms’ Third Sonata is considered a milestone, requiring Cho not only as a pianist but also as a painter of sound…

Photo: Christian Palm