A piano meditation on modern melancholy

The program begins with the haze and drift of Czech composer Leos Janacek's In the Mists, then moves into Janacek's Sonata 1.X.1905. From there, the music enters into the haunting world of French composer Maurice Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit — the call of Ondine, the tolling of Le Gibet, and the feverish intensity of Scarbo.

Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem, in Ju's solo piano arrangement strips away its choral and orchestral grandeur, transforming it into an intimate, deeply personal meditation.

The unresolved final chord of Ju's transcription of English composer John Dowland's In Darkness Let Me Dwell then leads into the almost combustive intensity and ascending will of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin's Piano Sonata No 7 ("White Mass"). Rather than ending in darkness, the album closes with a powerful sense of release, breaking through the emotional weight accumulated by the preceding works.

Born and raised in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in 2000, Ju began learning the piano at age 4 and displayed his talent by winning a number of music awards. At 12, Ju decided to pursue a professional career as a pianist and three years later enrolled at the middle school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 2018, he traveled to New York to pursue his bachelor's degree at the Juilliard School with Yoheved Kaplinsky.