Kyung Wha Chung plays Brahms violin sonata No.1 (1st Mov)

[leitfie3579]

This is simply lovely, controlled playing.

[vitellia]

There's always been a certain posse, since the beginning of her long and splendid career, that just could never be pleased by her. And if those people were given a blind test, say, the same sonata performed by her, and perhaps, by Perlman or Zuckermann, they wouldn't know which is done by whom. This woman conquered the world stage purely by her amazing talent, 40-plus years ago, when there were few non-White or female soloists around. Questioning her musicianship is simply offensive.

[glasyta]

all you people complaining about intonation... get real, it's the recording. at her level all violin players are completely correct in their intonation, otherwise they wouldn't be there. sadly, this recording does not come out good, just listen - even the piano sounds out of tune!

[RSdaymen]

Beautiful =] thx for the vid=] the will help me with my audition

[dziady1]

She is fine -it's the work that bores ,goes

on and on and says nothing - Brahms

at his boring best .

[yimbecile]

intonation...



[fernandofariajunior]

I love this violinist... this is definitely not up to her standards... terrible intonation, weird phrasing... I recommend anyone who didn´t like this still check out other performances by her because she is a terrific musician... she was probably just having a bad day here... :-(

[FeliciaMirage]

Wow, I'm learning this, and I'm only a teenager!!!!! Whew, I love this piece, but there's no steady tempo. It's hard, to learn, believe me! Brahms just so much of a genius my little mind can't wrap around his smartness. It's an amazing piece, and this woman can really play it! Well done!!!! :D

[SugarTomAppleRoger]

The lady can do no wrong as far as I am concerned. I love her like I do with Lucia Popp in singing.

[SugarTomAppleRoger]

I hope there will be more from this violin genius. Along with Frau Mutter, I can only say - the ladies rule this world at the moment. People compare the ladies with, say, Heifetz and Oistrakh. One is not better than the other - it is just the difference between male and female. I would love to have seen Ms. Chung play a duet with Mr. Oistrakh. It won't happen. Oistrakh was born at the wrong time.

[MoesTube1]

@SugarTomAppleRoger Maybe you've already seen it but there is a video of a young Ms. Chung and Cho Liang Lin playing the Largo from the Bach Double Violin Concerto it's breathtaking.

[leonmontanari]

wow!

Bravo!

[snowKat1313]

Excellent performance! This is the best of performances of this piece that I've found. I love her expression, just stunning.

[Pr0m0m]

Fantastic performance! Those with the ignorant bow comments remember that wonderful saying in the Bible "My people perish for the lack of knowledge"

[gnatural]

@Pr0m0m wrong context, it has nothing to do with the knowledge of music.

[gnatural]

@Pr0m0m and there is nothing wonderful about that saying, it is actually a very sad truth.

[ugollanoscruz]

bonito

[numbereight888]

She is absolutely amazing - and of course her bow placement is for dynamics!

[lechatn0ir]

beautiful

[drkathyday]

Powerful and lovely. The accompanist is also very pleasant and adds to the drama of this lovely piece.

[SebastienLoong]

정말인지 한국사람들은 심정과 깊음이 무었인지 알고있구나......

그레..... 열심히 공부하는게 있지... 하지만 한국에선 열정이 있긴해.

[mage110]

Her interpretation of this sonata is brilliant........Brava..

[pianolitguy]

Kyung wha Chung knows what shes doing. She studied at Juilliard with Ivan Galamian. She knows more than most violinists about violin, so saying her bow is all over the place is quite incorrect when most professional violinists are aware of the 5 sections between the finger board and the bridge and use that to their advantage. she's a gem

[Kowaiyo0]

@pianolitguy and besides - who cares? she sounds absolutely lovely.

[BeammeupSpotty]

one of my favorites.  nice job.

[shintee]

her bow is like freaking all over the place but somehow it still sounds good.

[AlucardAG]

thats because shes using all 5 sections between her finger board and bridge, its for dynamics.

[shintee]

hi.

are you sure? because I don't think so. notice that her bow only looks "all over the place" at the upper half, which is where my bow goes all crooked too because my upper arm is not long enough or something. if it was really for dynamics as you say, wouldn't the whole bow shift contact at certain places? hrm!

I think she is just missing the contact point. but again, it doesn't affect sound.

but hey, can you tell me about the 5 sections that is for dynamics? I haven't heard of it *_*

[violinista53]

I enjoy her interpretation for the same reason you find it lacking...ultimately, I guess with my Romantics I value not so much momentum, but the building and release of tension.

[bourbakis]

I always admire her playing. But here I don't find her interpretation superior. The attention to the details nearly loses the momentum and breaks the music line. Check out Boris Goldstein's playing on the same piece.

[HwangMyungShin]

But it isn't really like that. Korean culture and Korean media, entertainment and the general character of Korea is quite expresive, and in some aspects extrovert.

[gg39au]

This is the best performance of Op78 that I have ever heard.

[zukoismutt]

This woman has everything I ask for this sonata performance! Amazing,full of emotion. She plays each note as a word,as a song...

[AlanOsler]

this is lovely. The pianist is great too. The voilin sings in your hands.

[musicalmarion]

Why always such pretentious criticism of great playing? This is a wonderful performance that involves the listener and has great depth of emotion and phrasing. Yes her bow isn't always straight and the sound quality is electronically impaired, but it's a great performance, and so well accompanied too. It was beautifully put over by BOTH musicians. Thank you for the posting, it was great to hear.

[twofinedays]

The sound quality is particularly poor in this video, because I got it as a low qulaity streaming file on the web, which you would have understood if you read the information note to the video. As for 'thin and small' vibrato, some people would understand it as intense fire and sensitiviy. Well, a matter of taste!

[HwangMyungShin]

Chung is a direct of manifestation of the Korean soul.

[chulesq]

Please define the Korean soul.  I'd be curious to know.

[HwangMyungShin]

Don't take me too seriously, but Koreans, unlike most orients, are very passionate expressive people.

[gg39au]

What nonsense! The range between intellectual and passionate is the same for all humans. We all belong to the same race.

[bourbakis]

It's like after watching Yo-yo Ma and declare all Chinese are musical and passionate.

Stop the nonsense.

[HwangMyungShin]

Ok, I'm sorry. Forgive my ignorance and stereo typing, but mind you, culture does have an impact on the way people think and feel.

[handl20040173]

stunning

[gwyn15]

This is absolutely my favorite version of this piece.

[manifold0606]

I am not impressed at all. She is always too sentimental. Personally, I hate this type of playing style. The colors are too artificial. This is definitely a typical example of bad musicianship.

[twofinedays]

what can I say? Maria Callas once said at an interview, "As for beauty, it is a matter of loving my kind of voice or not. Some people say I have unique voice and some people say it's just a whole big lie; it's a matter of opinion. The only thing I can say is people who don't like me don't need to come to hear me, because when I don't like something, I don't bother about it."

[spikedardens]

care to elaborate on a violinist who plays with "good musicianship" as you suggest?

[pviola314]

Why must every critique be shunned?? And every praise blindly followed? As a lover of brahms I know I am very particular indeed when I hear a performance... so it's hard not to compromise even when a master performer appears. I like Chung, perhaps prefer Szeryng for this particular sonata though...

[twofinedays]

I'm sorry, but I don't take it as a good 'critique' manifold0606 calling Ms Chung having 'bad musicianship'. One can talk about likes and dislikes, one can comment on particular performance or interpretation, one can suggest it might get better in certain direction; but one cannot call an artist's whole artistry 'bad' as simple as that. It's simple 'dislike' or 'hate', not a critique.

[pviola314]

I sympathize with you, it's just some of my fellow musicians will express themselves in similar vague terms. There is something behind it too, just for some reason they don't articulate it. Anyways love the Chuuuung

[HwangMyungShin]

Are you Korean by birth or by blood?

[Fr3derick]

The reason why you dislike this performance might be due to the way the poor sound quality is affecting the fine details of her playing. To be fair to the artist, you should at least check out the other video of her playing the Brahms, which has also been uploaded on Youtube, by "rareviolintreasures".

[HwangMyungShin]

It's this style of playing that made Jascha Heifetz stand as one of the greatest violinists in the world. of all the oriental countries, Korea stands as the most sentimental. Although they do follow Confucianism, they are the most affectionate in the orient, although they try to hide it. However, their wonderful conventions are being ruined by artificial 'values' of pop culture.

[chulesq]

How do you know that Koreans are the most affectionate in Asia? What's your source, and what other countries or cultures did you compare with Korea or the Korean culture?

[gg39au]

It has nothing to do with being Korean. She is young and energetic enought to put lots of expression into every phrase.

[gg39au]

This performance is better than Heifetz's.

[SebastienLoong]

@manifold0606 Does sentimentality correspond to the artificiality of colors??? I would have thought the opposite. When you say the colors are too artificial do you mean the sound is to forced???? And is sentimentality one of the foundations of musicianship - especially considering she's interpreting music of the romantic era? It kind of makes sense, especially as Brahms has composed some juicy textures that clearly need to be taken advantage of.

[TonicMike]

@manifold0606 TOO sentimental? Brahms sonatas are intimately sentimental. I'm not even sure if "too sentimental" is possible. It's chamber music and Ms. Chung is a very very good musician, contrary to your statement.

[anuxa1989]

@manifold0606 Maybe you don't know that this sonata is from 1878, the Romanticism. She HAS TO BE too sentimental if she wants to correctly interpret the sonata... Because Brahms is too sentimental!! I only would give more tempo, it is a little slow.

I'm sorry for the possible spelling errors, but I don't speak english so good.

[jeffsmith1800]

Great!!! I love Brahms!

[LD4Japan]

Love Perlman, but she definitely is playing this with her heart. Very Very nice. I for one am impressed with her and the pianist.

[stellaformusik]

sorry but how boring

[violinista53]

I will never understand...

[nafets9876]

if you like this, compare ii to Perlman/Barenboim: Much more intelligent interpretation there, reflected in every detail, e.g. Kyung plays piano and forte passages in the same manner, using the whole bow. Compare the beginning: Perlman needs one third of the bow, it is chamber music, not a violin concert. But: Comparing the sound is unfair, technical qualitiy is so bad in Kyung's video.

[twofinedays]

I should not like to see 'who's better, who's not' type of comments here. It's a matter of interpretation and preferance in fine art, who can really tell which is better and which isn't? Could whether the whole or 1/3 of bow used be a proof to how reflected a certain interpretation is - if not to technical brilliance?

[nafets9876]

okay, I should have said, concerning to MY taste, I prefer one of the interpretations. But where do fun and excitement come from during watching and listening here? From the comparisons and the discussions about them!

[DesiFuyuko]

@nafets9876 Actually, playing piano with the whole bow is much more difficult than playing it using only part of the bow; hard to master a good execution of it, specialy with a straight bow. Ms Chung executes this technique flawlessly; it shows that she is a strong, excellent musician. Everyone has their style.

[optimusito]

Amazing interpretation.

Pd:Whats a violion?

[Kindapple]

its stradivarius. but i dont know because she use strad and guarneri both

[newyorkernut3]

tentative at 0:18

[Fr3derick]

Did she make a mistake in time 0:18?

[crankycaz]

Not that I can tell. Looks perfect in the score.

[lugo1997]

me gusta

[ivylwl2]

She is always amazing,,,,^0^

[samuelviolin]

What a beautiful performance and a surprising, effective ending! It goes away - much like one sees when thunderstorms end and clouds break to show a sunset...

[Bachue]

Ufffff!!!!!!!!! espectacular!!!!!!

[scottbos68]

this has always been a favorite sonata from the beginning, what a treat to see this