If you are waiting for goosebumps while listening to Chopin, you are at the wrong address at SeongJin Cho. The Korean pianist exudes an untouchability, as she last encountered at most with the young Yevgeny Kissin. His piano tone is always of crystalline clarity, but by no means one-dimensional; in the piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor by Frédéric Chopin, one misses neither light beading and delicate singing nor an underlying revolutionary bubbling. Only Seong-Jin Cho does not take all this off his hands spontaneously, but is placed exactly in its rightful place with planning foresight.

Instead of indulging in feelings, the 28-year-old concentrates on a scrupulous formulation of the details. What he denies himself in superficial extreme values opens up as inexhaustible wealth inside. This statuesque performance of his, which by the way never seems cool, but certainly shy, has a very special power of fascination.

Such a strict interpretation would require an orchestral partner who is equally structured on all levels. If the Munich Philharmonic sometimes seems a little perplexed in their introductions or interludes, this is also due to the fact that Santtu-Matias Rouvali does not share his own idea of this work.

For this you have to know that it was not chosen by Rouvali, but by the short-term substitute Seong-Jin Cho was brought in.

However, there are no mitigating circumstances for the two American program items. True, the artistically polished minimalism that John Adams already used in the mid-1980s in the "Chairman Dances" does not leave much to be interpreted. The patterns and formulas just have to be executed. However, the wallpaper-like decorative moment is lost when the orchestral machine does not run completely smoothly, but instruments sitting far apart on stage are rattling apart. Is it because of the acoustics of the Isarphilharmonie? Or rather the lack of clarity of Rouvalis conducting style? What appeals to the young Finn, whose appearance is reminiscent of that of a dancer, is the challenging nonchalance with which the symphonic dances from Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" are used. But as soon as the philharmonic soloists sing a little more freely, as in the "Somewhere" episode, they are on the verge of swimming. Rouvali's stroke is simply too cloudy for such coordination work.