In his San Francisco Symphony debut, 29-year-old pianist Seong-Jin Cho applies his powerhouse technique and interpretive finesse to Beethoven’s tempestuous Third Piano Concerto.

In his New World Symphony, Antonín Dvořák recounts his impressions of America and nods to the music he heard there, without straying too far from his Czech roots.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is an early, lean work, stern and efficient in the first movement, more lyrical in the second, and playful in the finale. Beethoven premiered it himself in April 1803 after spending more than three years finishing it.

Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 was the first in the series of works the composer wrote during his sojourn in the United States. He was interested in American music, and he later noted that he tried to reproduce the essence of Native American and African American songs in his works of this period.

// Get tickets to three separate performances, January 18-20 at San Francisco Symphony, 201 Van Ness Ave. (Civic Center), sfsymphony.org.