Chung Kyung Wha

Kyung Wha Chung's career was launched with a series of LPs made for Decca in the early 1970s, revealing an artist of exceptional technique, insight and spontaneity. One of these contained this rich-sounding performance of the Bruch G minor Violin Concerto, recorded with Rudolf Kempe and the Royal Philharmonic in 1972. It is still one of the freshest and most vital readings of this piece around, as Chung seems to know exactly where to draw the line between precision and abandon, the playing always seeming felt rather than planned, perhaps the highest achievement for a virtuoso. The 1981 recording of the Mendelssohn is a sheer delight, with fast tempos giving the work an extra sparkle, something the soloist obviously relishes.

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, completed about the same time as the Eroica Symphony, has suddenly become popular. One reason for its previous lack of popularity was the fact that three soloists cost three times as much as one normally expensive pianist, violinist or cellist. Another reason is that the work seeks to be a popular success, hence the Rondo alla Polacca with which it concludes. The piano part was intended for Beethoven’s patron and pupil, the Archduke Rudolph von Habsburg, and hence is less technically demanding than the composer’s usual pianistic writing, destined for himself. The standard CD (previously LP) of the work was a spectacular performance and recording made by EMI many years ago with David Oistrakh, Rostropovich and Richter with the Berlin Philharmonic under Karajan. It was opulently played with the BPO’s luscious sound, but has little to do with what Beethoven would have heard in 1804. Another choice was the version of Stern, Rose and Serkin (Sony), less lush and not so high-powered as Karajan’s.

Kyung Wha Chung - The Complete Decca Recordings (2014) {19CD Box Set Decca 4787611}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 4.49 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 2.32 Gb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Decca | 4787611
Classical / Violin

Kyung Wha Chung's dazzling and probing artistry has made her one of classical music's most acclaimed performers. Lauded for her passion, her musicality and the intense excitement that she brings to her performances, Chung's uniquely expressive interpretations of the violin literature have established her as an artist of the very highest stature.

This is not the smooth-classic type of performance, which is usually associated with these popular concetos, but uncompromisingly intense and passionate reading by young Kyung Wha Chung, digitally recorded in 1983 in vivid sound quality. The risk she takes in the outer movements of Tchaikovsky concerto is astonishing.

The centrepiece of this French-themed recital by Kyung Wha Chung and Kevin Kenner is the splendid violin sonata by César Franck. It is a work long associated with Chung, described by the Financial Times as “one of the greatest violinists of the last half-century”. Newer to Chung’s repertoire is Fauré’s Sonata No 1. As she told Strings magazine, each of the works constitutes “a whole portrait of life itself,” and she drew a comparison with Monet’s paintings: “The reflection of light has endless possibility. The same thing applies to the texture and the sound when you’re playing. There are millions of sounds.”

Admirers of Kyung-Wha Chung will hardly mind the poor value in time-length (Kennedy, also on EMI, does not have a coupling, either), when it so winningly adds to Chung’s discography. It is the more welcome when, since her switch from Decca to EMI, new recordings from her have been all too few. This is an unashamedly traditional performance, one which has little or no regard for period practice, but gives us a sequence of four concertos in warmly relaxed readings. Unlike those of Kennedy and Mutter they avoid extreme speeds, either fast or slow.

Myung-Whun Chung is one of the leading conductors of his generation. Also a prize-winning pianist, he is particularly noted for his interpretations of the music of French composer Olivier Messiaen. There has rarely been as talented a group of siblings as Myung-Whun and his two older sisters, cellist Myung-Wha Chung (born 1944) and violinist Kyung-Wha Chung (born 1948). Myung-Whun made his performing debut as a pianist in Seoul at the age of 7. At 8, he flew to Seattle, WA, to begin his American musical studies.

35-CD super-budget limited edition box set the perfect way to build your library of essential listening!Comprehensive overview of the violin including concertos, sonatas and even encore pieces.Includes world famous artists such as Joshua Bell and Gidon Kremer.

Deutsche Grammophon proudly presents 42 of its greatest ever recordings for violin, from its matchless catalogue of the finest violinists of the last 75 years. Fritz Kreisler began it all for the company by recording a series of his own compositions and arrangements. 31 violinists grace 111 The Violin, with recordings from the early 1900s to 2012.