Sunwook Kim / Staatskapelle Dresden / Myung-Whun Chung JOHANNES BRAHMS Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 - Six Piano Pieces

PIANO CONCERTO No. 1 - SIX PIANO PIECES

Sayaka Shoji / Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Myung-Whun Chung TCHAIKOVSKY - MENDELSSOHN Violin Concertos

VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Myung-Whun Chung / Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra MAHLER Symphony No. 9

For this 2015 Deutsche Grammophon release, Myung-Whun Chung leads the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in a revelatory performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9 in D major, which is often regarded as the composer's farewell to music and life. Notwithstanding the fact that Mahler went on to write a substantial part of his unfinished Symphony No. 10 (making discussion of a farewell to music moot) and was feeling healthy and optimistic for his career, the Ninth is still a powerful essay on his anguished inner life, his neuroses, his fear of death, and his ultimate resignation to fate, all of which are central to the music's drama, though not to a specifically autobiographical program. Chung and the orchestra grapple with the symphony's raw emotions and demonic drive, and make it a compelling and even draining experience, especially in the furious Rondo-Burleske, which includes some of Mahler's most violent and self-mocking passages. Even so, the effectiveness of the musical expression comes from Chung's careful study and close attention to details, and his profound understanding of the Ninth gives it the pacing and energy to feel spontaneous and volatile, yet inexorable and complete. While Chung is best known as an expert interpreter of French music, particularly of the works of Olivier Messiaen, he proves here that he is a true Mahlerian, and fans of the composer should regard this recording as essential listening. (Blair Sanderson)

Renaud Capuçon RIHM - DUSAPIN - MANTOVANI

French violinist Renaud Capuçon is clearly relishing playing in live performance these twenty-first century concertos which were written specifically for him. Inspired by the number of commissions given by fellow violinists, notably Gidon Kremer and Anne-Sophie Mutter, when commissioning works Capuçon enjoys the privilege of being able to contribute towards expanding the repertoire of the violin. When working with living composers, Capuçon has stated that he enjoys the collaborative aspect of the project.

The earliest work here is Jeux d'eau from French composer Bruno Mantovani a work he completed in 2012. Like many composers before him, conspicuously Liszt, Debussy and Ravel, Mantovani has used a theme of water. With Jeux d'eau, Mantovani was specifically motivated by “the sound of clear water that flows from a mountain torrent.” It was Capuçon who premièred the score in 2012 at Paris. As the title suggests, the score to Jeux d'eau has an ineluctable aqueous quality marked by writing that feels clean, fresh and fluid. There is a variety of textures in both the violin and orchestra parts and noticeably broad dynamics.

Wolfgang Rihm is one of the pre-eminent composers working today. The winner of several prestigious awards, Rihm has been the recipient of numerous commissions. By my reckoning, Rihm has now written five violin concertos of which the best known is Gesungene Zeit (Time Chant) for Anne-Sophie Mutter who recorded the work on Deutsche Grammophon. Rihm’s violin concerto Gedicht des Malers (Poem of the Painter) was introduced by Capuçon in 2015 at Vienna. Rihm talks about the inspiration for the work coming from artist Max Beckmann, who painted Max Reger a year after the composer had died. Rihm has stated that he could visualise Beckmann painting virtuoso violinist Eugène Ysaÿe in the same way. It is as if the soloist has taken control of the artist’s brush on the canvas. Immediately, the aching intensity of the writing has a Bergian feel and the mainly high lying violin part strongly evokes celestial images. Two main contrasting impressions dominate the work first a mainly cool and shadowy often mysterious atmosphere and secondly episodes of coarsely-hewn agitation. The moods are disrupted by the quickly built screeching outburst at 9.23 and a sudden thunderous eruption at 12.40.

Another Frenchman, Pascal Dusapin, is represented by Aufgang, his concerto for violin and orchestra. In 2008, Dusapin was motivated by conductor Marek Janowski to write a violin concerto, but after some work on the piece, the project didn’t come to fruition. Subsequently a meeting with Capuçon led to the composer reviving the concerto that he completed in 2011. The first performance was given by Capuçon in 2013 at Cologne. Titled Aufgang, the word in English means Ascent, possibly meaning a staircase to the sky, relating to the high register where much of the violin part lies.

Dusapin talks about “emerging light” yet it is the contrasts that are striking. Evident in the opening movement is the very high lying register of the violin part against the orchestra, which becomes increasingly weighty and anxiety laden. Shadowy, infused with nervous tension in the movement two, the violin part gradually gains in prominence and assertiveness. Conspicuous in the third movement is the wild and fiery character at turns coolly expressive.

The liner notes include an essay by Marguerite Haldjian and a note from Capuçon which are helpful and interesting. Recorded live the sound quality across three separate concert halls is uniformly clear and well balanced. There is some minor audience noise but nothing too distracting, and applause has been kept in on two the works.

Playing with robust and impassioned lyricism, Renaud Capuçon is on exceptional form. This is the finest release of contemporary violin concertos I have heard in some years. (Michael Cookson)

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra / Myung-Whun Chung UNSUK CHIN 3 Concertos

This release represents something of a milestone: a performance of major, public Korean compositions by mostly Korean musicians, recorded for a large Western label and presumably marketed at least as much to Westerners as to Koreans. Composer Unsuk Chin was a student of György Ligeti, but her style resembles his only in her general orientation toward layered textures and rhythmic emphasis. She writes music in which the relationships between blocks of sound shift over the course of a composition, and although her harmonic world is atonal, her writing is not difficult to follow. The concerto form allows an ideal introduction to what she does, and the three works here are attractive examples (she has written several others). Start with the concluding Su, for sheng & orchestra, from 2009. This is the only work on the program with specifically Asian content (and the instrument involved is Chinese, not Korean), but the way the sheng is treated, generating extremely unusual texture combinations with the orchestra, is illustrative of the whole. The Piano Concerto of 1996-1997 is an extreme virtuoso work easily handled by soloist Sun-wook Kim, while the Cello Concerto (2008-2009, rev. 2013) uses a single note as its center and evolves the music of soloist and orchestra from that note in different ways. In none of the three pieces does the soloist fulfill the traditional concerto role of the individual opposed to the crowd, but neither is any of the three simply an ensemble work with a prominent solo instrument. This is precisely the music's considerable appeal, and conductor Myung-Whun Chung draws out the works' often exacting textures to their full extent. Recommended even beyond circles interested in contemporary Asian developments. (James Manheim)

Myung-Whun Chung / Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra BEETHOVEN - SAINT-SAËNS - CHOI SUNGHWAN

The Lotte Concert Hall releases a live recording album Friday from its opening concert held Aug. 19, 2016. 

 

This is a first for a local concert hall to release a live album from an opening concert held in its halls. The release of the album signifies the concert hall's confidence in its carefully designed acoustics.

The album includes Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72a, Saint-Saens' Symphony No. 3 in c minor, Op. 78 "Organ" and Choi Sung-hwan's Arirang Fantasias performed by Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of maestro Chung Myung-whun.

"Many performers and conductors who have participated or listened to performances at the hall lauded the concert hall’s acoustics. It is extremely meaningful that we are releasing our second album even before our one year anniversary of opening. We hope to establish our hall as the optimum recording venue for classical music,” said Han Kwang-gyu, president of Lotte Concert Hall.

Sound engineer Choi Jin, who directed the opening concert recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra released last December said, “Lotte Concert Hall's opening concert recording has a unique silky sound. The recording for this particular album used state of the art technology which produces a lively sound.”

Music critics commented, “Saint-Saens’ Symphony No.3 in c minor, Op. 78 ‘Organ’ is a piece that is particularly difficult to perform let alone produce great sound. The highlight of this album is the mystic ambience created by the organ's low tunes harmonizing with the string instruments." (Yun Suh-young)

Myung-Whun Chung / Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra MAHLER Symphony No. 5

Myung-Whun Chung began his musical career as a pianist, making his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of seven.  In 1974 he won second prize at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow.  After his musical studies at the Mannes School and Juilliard School in New York, he was appointed Carlo Maria Giulini’s assistant in 1979 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and became Associate Conductor two years later.

He was Music Director of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1990, Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale of Florence from 1987 to 1992 and Music Director of the Opéra de Paris-Bastille from 1989 to 1994.  The year 2000 marked his return to Paris as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.  His love for Italy has been at the basis of his extensive work in that country for many years, including, from 1997 to 2005, his position as Principal Conductor of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome.  He also appears regularly at the Teatro La Fenice, most recently for Verdi’s Otello.  In Germany, he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden at the beginning of the 2012/13 season, the first conductor to hold the post in the history of the orchestra.  Outside Europe, he is increasingly committed to musical and social causes in Asia through his role as Music Advisor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and, from 2006, Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Myung-Whun Chung has conducted virtually all the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, the Concertgebouworkest, all the major London and Parisian orchestras, Filharmonica della Scala, Bayerische Rundfunk, Dresden Staatskapelle, the Boston and Chicago Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras. 

An exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon since 1990, many of his numerous recordings have won international prizes and awards.  Recent releases include Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with the Orchestre de l'Opéra Bastille, as well as Mahler’s Symphony no.2, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathetique’ Symphony and a Beethoven disc, all with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Myung Whun Chung PIANO

The ECM New Series debut of Myung Whun Chung features the widely-celebrated conductor as pianist. Recorded at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, in July 2013, the album marks the first occasion that Chung has recorded solo. In a performer’s note, he describes the album as a gift for younger listeners, as well as a personal thanks to those who share his love of this music. Chung’s touch and sensitivity for dynamics cast a new light on familiar pieces – by Debussy, Chopin, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Schumann and Mozart – as they are experienced in a gently flowing sequence which also serves to highlight affinities between the compositions. Although conducting now fully occupies his professional life, Chung (born 1953 in Seoul) made his debut as pianist with the Seoul Philharmonic at the age of seven. He later studied the piano with Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel. In 1974 he was a prize winner in the Tchaikovsky Competition. He then began his career playing piano trios with his sisters, Kyung Wha Chung and Myung Wha Chung.

Gil Shaham / Paul Meyer / Jian Wang / Myung-Whun Chung MESSIAEN Quatuor pour la fin du temps

How four solid musicians of international repute can produce so blemished a recording of Messiaen’s chamber music masterpiece is anyone’s guess, let alone approve it for release. The most glaring inaccuracies pockmark the serene final movement. Here Myung-Whun Chung misreads each 32nd note as a 16th. Did the composer really want this? Gil Shaham’s intonation is not what it should be, and neither is Paul Meyer’s. The latter’s long sustained E-sharps in the unaccompanied third movement, along with the low B-sharp at measure eight, will make sensitive ears wince. Long before this disc was released in the U.S., one of my European colleagues drew attention to cellist Jian Wang’s early start of the glissando in the fourth movement’s third-to-last measure, which throws the ensemble off. In the fifth movement, Wang prepares for high notes with pronounced left-hand shifts that often telegraph the pitch a split second before it’s supposed to be heard. Tashi’s Fred Sherry, by contrast, controls his instrument to the fullest degree, and achieves a more sustained, singing line. To my taste, the pronounced, unwritten ritard at the climax one measure before letter D robs the subsequent “ppp subito” effect of its hushed devastation. The fiery, unison sixth movement aggressively barnstorms when it should joyously dance, and Chung’s handling of Messiaen’s bird-like flourishes lacks sparkle and definition. Fortunately, Tashi’s infinitely more characterful, soul-searching, and accurate 1975 RCA recording is still available. Maybe RCA will even remaster it for its High Performance series: hint, hint, nudge, nudge. But if you happen upon an open copy of this DG release, remove the booklet and read the extraordinary interview with cellist Etienne Pasquier, one of the four musicians who gave the work’s first performance in a German prisoner-of-war camp. (Jed Distler)