2026 Vienna Philharmonic Concert - Seong-Jin Cho, Tugan Sokhiev
The new symphony is so melancholy that you will not be able to bear it. The score ought to be printed with a black mourning band around it. — Brahms to his publisher Simrock, 1877 · a joke about what is in fact his sunniest symphony
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people on stage ⏳🌊
- PianoSeong-Jin Cho
Born in Seoul in 1994. Won the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2009 as its youngest winner ever, at fifteen, and in 2015 became the first Korean to win the International Chopin Piano Competition, stepping into the middle of the world stage. Studied with Michel Béroff at the Conservatoire de Paris, and as a Deutsche Grammophon artist has widened their territory to Handel (2023) and the complete Ravel (2025, the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth). Beethoven's Fourth is a concerto in which the soloist speaks first — how those five softly opening bars meet a pianist renowned for refined sound is the heart of this night.
- ConductorTugan Sokhiev
Born in 1977 in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia. Studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory among the last generation of students of the legendary conducting teacher Ilya Musin. Served as music director of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse (2008–2022) and of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (2014–2022), and stepped down from both posts in March 2022. Though best known for Russian and French repertoire, a conducting style that brings out the grain of the melody without exaggeration suits a 'singing' program like this one.
- OrchestraVienna Philharmonic
Founded in 1842. It is a self-governing orchestra with no principal conductor; the players run it themselves and invite a guest conductor for each performance. Its members are chosen from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, and with instruments of its own, such as the Vienna horn and the Viennese oboe, it has kept the grain people call the 'Vienna sound.' And then there is its tie to tonight's program: this is the very orchestra that premiered Brahms's Second in 1877. 149 years later, the orchestra that gave the premiere takes up the same work again.
- Conductor of the 1877 premiereHans Richter
He premiered Brahms's Second with the Vienna Philharmonic on December 30, 1877. He is the same man who, the year before in Bayreuth, had conducted the first complete Der Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner — a rare figure who moved between two camps, Wagner and Brahms, who had turned their backs on each other. At the premiere, the third movement was played a second time at the audience's applause.
I. Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 — the soloist speaks first · 1806
(Breaking the mold) The concerto was a genre in which the orchestra opened the door. The soloist waited out a long introduction before entering — even Mozart, in just one concerto, the 'Jeunehomme' (K.271), sent the piano in ahead of the orchestra, at the second bar. Beethoven overturns this convention at the opening of the Fourth. The piano speaks first, alone and softly, five bars of a G major chord. Then the orchestra answers quietly, not in the same key but in a distant B major. A soloist opening a work with no orchestral sound at all was something not even Mozart had done. (Middle period) This work dates from 1805–06, the most fervent stretch of Beethoven's middle period. It was written at the same desk as the Razumovsky Quartets, the Fourth Symphony, and the Appassionata Sonata. It was publicly premiered, with Beethoven himself as soloist, on December 22, 1808, at the Theater an der Wien — that legendary four-hour concert at which the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies were premiered together. It was the last night he stood on stage as a concerto soloist, his hearing already collapsing. (Orpheus) The second movement, Andante con moto, is short. In E minor, the strings press on in harsh unison while the piano answers gently, like a chorale. The pressing gradually subsides, and in the end only the piano's song remains. Later listeners heard in this Orpheus, who opened the gates of the underworld with a single lyre — not a title Beethoven attached, but an interpretation that has stuck because what the music does is the same as what the myth does. (Rondo) The third movement follows the second without a pause. It starts out pretending to be in C major before soon finding its way back to G major, a playful trick, and it brings the trumpets and timpani, which appear for the first time in this work — the light the first two movements held back is spent all at once at the end.
First, the whole work in one go. The five bars the soloist opens with and the orchestra's sidestepping answer in B major — everything about this piece is foretold on the first page.
- The opening — five bars of stillness as the piano begins without the orchestra
- Second movement — how the strings' pressing is calmed by the piano's song
- The first-movement cadenza — which cadenza this soloist chooses
The same work with a different soloist. If you note where tempo and cadenza choices diverge, then in the hall 'Seong-Jin Cho's choices' will start to become audible.
- First movement — how the breath of the first five bars differs from ①
- Cadenza — first check whether it is the same cadenza as in ①
- Third movement — the difference in weight at the moment the trumpets and timpani first burst in
Seong-Jin Cho's performance of the Fourth is not yet on any official channel (the videos in circulation are unauthorized recordings, so we do not post them). Instead, a Beethoven concerto by the same soloist — the complete live 'Emperor' from the MBC stage — lets you get to know his Beethoven sound in advance.
- Touch in the soft passages — how Seong-Jin Cho handles 'softly'
- The give-and-take with the orchestra — imagining the Fourth's dialogue movement
- Cadenza-like solo passages — the fun of guessing his cadenza on October 25
II. Brahms Symphony No. 2 — one summer on Lake Wörthersee · 1877
(One summer) The man who spent twenty-one years on his First Symphony finished the Second in a single summer. In the summer of 1877, in Pörtschach, a village on a Carinthian lake — Brahms wrote in a letter that 'so many melodies fly about here that one must take care not to step on them.' That lightness seeped into the work just as it was, and from around the time of the premiere it was called 'Brahms's Pastoral Symphony.' (Joke and earnest) Yet Brahms sent his publisher Simrock a joke of exactly the opposite kind — the new symphony was so melancholy, he said, that the score should be printed with a black border. It is not purely a joke. Even within the sunlit first movement, trombones and tuba cast low shadows. Asked why he had put in such dark sounds, Brahms replied: 'I am a deeply melancholy person, and black wings are constantly beating above us.' The brightness of this work is the brightness of someone who knows shade. (Three notes) The key to the whole work lies in the first bar. The three notes D–C♯–D from the cellos and basses — this small seed changes shape as it runs through all four movements, becoming the horn theme, the waltz-like second theme, the first theme of the finale. Take just this one thing home in your ear and you have rehearsed half the concert. (Premiere) December 30, 1877, Vienna, Hans Richter and the Vienna Philharmonic — the very orchestra that will be on stage on October 25. When the third movement, led by the oboe, ended, the audience asked for the same movement once more with its applause — it is still the most beloved movement of the work.
Hold on to the three notes (D–C♯–D) of the cellos and basses in the first bar, all the way to the end. How one seed grows into four movements is the architecture of this work.
- First movement, first bar — D–C♯–D, and the horn that takes it up at once
- First movement, second theme — the cellos' and violas' waltz, a song like a lullaby
- Fourth movement — the hushed start and the trombones' D major bloom at the end
Interpretations divide between those that put the pastoral brightness first and those that lay the trombones' shade on thick. Hear both, and you can see which side the live performance in October stands on.
- First-movement trombones — how deep a shadow they cast
- Second movement — the tempo that carries the cellos' long song
- Third movement — the drop between pastoral and fast variation
III. Listening plan — what to listen for in the hall
(Order) The recommended route is three steps. First, let the two works play once like background music — the stage at which the melodies grow familiar. Next, once more, as if reading closely, carrying the points from the work cards above. On the eve of the concert, listen again only to Beethoven's second movement and Brahms's third. They are short, and they are the two movements that come back loudest in the hall. (For the Beethoven) Don't miss the stillness of the first five bars — the moment when it is the pianist, not the conductor, who opens the concert. The cadenza at the end of the first movement is the place to hear the soloist's choice. Beethoven wrote two cadenzas himself, and most soloists play one of them, but some bring a different cadenza. If it sounds different from the videos you studied, that is exactly the spot. (For the Brahms) Keep tracking D–C♯–D. In the third movement, listen for the tempo changes where the oboe's pastoral is flung off by two fast variations and returns. And the fourth movement — it begins hushed, sotto voce. If you are expecting a grand opening, you will miss the beginning itself. At the end the trombones open wide in D major, and the brightest ending among Brahms's four symphonies arrives. Holding applause between movements is the custom, but this work's premiere audience asked for an encore of the third movement with applause — you will come to understand that feeling. (One night) By program, a G major concerto and a D major symphony — two keys that are neighbors as dominant and tonic, and by character both are 'singing' works. A night led by melody, not pushed forward by force. So the point of preparing is not to memorize the showy passages but to plant the quiet ones — Beethoven's five bars, Brahms's three notes — in your ear beforehand.
Glossary 📚🔎
Cadenza
(Word origin) Cadenza comes from the Italian cadere, meaning 'to fall.' It originally named the point where a phrase ends and the harmony falls back into place, that is, the cadence, but it came to be the name for the passage just before that cadence in which the soloist plays freely. (In music) Just before a concerto movement ends, the orchestra stops dead, leaving only a single chord, and the soloist, left alone, plays a brilliant weaving-together of the movement's themes. It was originally the custom to improvise there, but for his Fourth Concerto Beethoven wrote out two versions in advance. Think of it as the free-skate segment of a gym class: after the set routine is over, you step out alone and show off whichever move you are most confident in, chosen as you please.
Akademie
(Meaning of the word) The word "academy" comes from the Akademeia, the garden on the outskirts of Athens where the ancient Greek philosopher Plato taught his students, and at first it meant a gathering for the discussion of learning. In Beethoven's Vienna, it came to mean a concert, specifically one a composer gave under their own name. (In music) It means not a performance staged by an agency, as today, but a concert of the composer's own making: they rented the theater, gathered the players, and filled the program with nothing but their own works. At the Akademie of December 22, 1808, Symphonies Nos. 5·6, Piano Concerto No. 4, and the Choral Fantasy were all premiered in a single night — it is as if one student planned an entire school recital from start to finish and then stepped onto the stage as well. (Elsewhere) "Academy" is now more commonly used for a cram school or for the film awards (the Academy Awards), but here it has neither of those meanings; it carries the old sense of "a composer's self-organized concert."
Sotto voce
(Meaning of the word) In Italian, sotto means "below" and voce means "voice," so together the two words mean, quite literally, "under the voice," that is, in a lowered voice. (In music) When this marking appears in the score, the player must pull the sound far down and play with care, as though sharing a secret. The 4th movement of Brahms's Symphony No. 2 begins with this marking — as the last movement, it might be expected to throw open its doors loudly and boldly, but instead it sets off hushed, like friends whispering a plan into each other's ears. If you sit waiting for a grand opening, you can easily miss the very moment the piece has already begun.
Dominant key
(Meaning of the word) The Korean term dalrim ('attached to, subordinate to') means belonging to the tonic. In Western music theory, the fifth note of the scale is commonly called the dalrimeum ('attached note,' the dominant), a name it received because, after the tonic, it has the strongest power to drive a piece forward; the key built with that note as its tonic is the dalrimjo ('attached key,' the dominant key). (In music) For any key, it means the key a perfect 5th above its tonic. The dominant key of G major is D major. Because the dominant key shares many notes with the home key, it is like the nearest neighbor in tonal music, and so it is also the most natural place to cross over to when modulating in the middle of a piece. Think of singing a round, where one group can move to a slightly different pitch and the harmony still fits without sounding awkward. That the Beethoven concerto in this concert is in G major and the Brahms symphony in D major is thanks to this close relationship, and it is why the evening's program sounds as if it were played in a single breath.