By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
The British label Testament will release a 1973 performance of violinist Chung Kyung-wha’s Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker this week.
The recording comes almost five years after she virtually retired from the concert scene due to a sudden hand injury.
Featuring the pioneering violinist in the early stage of her remarkable career, the album will hit stores at home and abroad Oct. 9, raising hopes that the 61-year-old may resume playing publicly again later this year, ending a four-year hiatus.
Expectations for her return to the stage are mounting, particularly ahead of the 40th anniversary of her European debut in 2010.
The 1970s were a critical period for Chung. Her phenomenal win at the 1967 Edgar Leventritt violin competition led to a string of engagements with U.S. orchestras and an exclusive contract with the renowned British label Decca that lasted more than 20 years.
“At last we had found the person to fill to perfection one of the most glaring vacancies in our artists’ list ― that of an outstanding solo violinist,” recounted Ray Minshull, head of Decca’s Classical Department from 1967-1994, in introducing Chung’s segment of the Decca
Legends series released in 1999. “She is able to draw from the lower three strings of the instrument a range of emotions which I have heard from no other.”
The Tchaikovsky concerto for violin and orchestra in the magical key of D major has a special place in her repertoire.
It was with this magnificent piece that she made her 1970 debut with Decca with American conductor and pianist Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra. She has said that this debut recording is her favorite.
Besides the Beethoven and the Bruch concertos, the Tchaikovsky is the only concerto she has recorded on a number of occasions.
Chung revisited the piece in a studio recording with the Montreal Symphony, led by Charles Dutoit, in the early 1980s. An unofficial 1976 recording with Italian conductor Claudio Abbado is also available.
Though now a popular and indispensable repertoire for the instrument, it was pronounced “unplayable” by violinists at the time of its premier in 1881 due to its immense technical difficulty.
Born in 1948 in Seoul, Chung overcame gender and racial hurdles to become one of the top violinists of her generation.
Since 2007, she has been a faculty member at the Juilliard School in New York, where she graduated in 1965.
Her last concerto recording was a 2002 Brahms album for EMI Classics, with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle.
Her most recent appearance in Korea was in 2005, in a concerto performance with the Wiener Philharmoniker with Russian conductor Valerie Gergiev.