Kyung Wha

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.

Chung’s performance blazes with energy and commitment, and is brilliantly backed up by Solti and the LPO. If the violinist errs at all, it is in trying to put swagger into the opening subject of the first movement by leaning into its accents and dishing out some rather heavy portamento. The result sounds unduly Romanticized. But in the rapt second movement Chung is exquisite, and she turns in an electrifying account of the finale, abetted by Solti’s energetic prodding of the orchestra.

Kyung Wha Chung - The Complete Decca Recordings (2014) {19CD Box Set Decca 4787611}
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© 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.

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.”

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.

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.

Violinist Kyung-Wha Chung's highly intense compelling performances especially in the Prokofiev Concerti here have made them favorites in Decca's catalogue for years. Rather than purely dwell on the technical rigor these works demand (as many violinists often do), Chung instead focuses more on Prokofiev's lyricism in an effort to draw out the full and varied range of emotional qualities in the score. Conductor Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra couldn't be more understanding and supportive collaborators and Decca's sound, while spotlighting Chung slightly, is quite good.

A quick glance at the heading tells the knowledgeable reader that most of what we have here are well-known lollipops. They exist in literally hundreds of recordings. Everybody will have his/her favourite pieces played by one or several of the violin greats through the last eight decades. The reissue of this twenty-year-old recital at budget price poses the question: is it worth adding yet another collection? The answer should be an unequivocal “Yes!”, since Chung is one of the stars of fairly recent times. Even before putting the disc in the CD player one knows that these will be technically impeccable readings, played with great musicality, refinement and commitment – elegant but never bland.

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'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.