Unmuted

This was Kyung-Wha Chung's first recording, made when she was 22, just after her sensational London debut in the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the same orchestra and conductor. It is splendid. Only a young, radiantly talented player could make these two tired warhorses sound so fresh and vital; only a consummately masterful one could sail through their daunting technical difficulties with such easy virtuosity and perfection. Her tone is flawlessly beautiful, varied in color and inflection; she puts her technical resources entirely at the service of the music, giving every note meaning and honestly felt expression without exaggeration or sentimentality. The Tchaikovsky has charm, humor, sparkle; the slow movement is dreamy, wistful, and unmuted but subdued and inward. The Sibelius is dark and bleak but full-blooded, passionate, and intense. The orchestra sounds and plays better in the Sibelius.

David Munrow was a major British music historian who started The Early Music Consort of London with Christopher Hogwood. Monroe also published a number scholarly works on Early Music. One of Munrow's early passions was the study of early musical instruments which he collected until this his death, and are now part of his historical archives. Monroe began a project to make recordings of musical instruments from the Medieval and Renaissance Periods during 1973-74. Munrow was himself was a respected musician in own right on the instruments of the period, and played many of the included examples himself.