Chee-Yun and Kim Sung-Im
FREE MP3 &
RealAudio Downloads
Chee-Yun (violin) and Kim Sung-Im (piano) are two of my favorite Korean classical musicians.
It is impossible to recount all of the successes and accomplishments Chee-Yun. She began winning musical competitions at the age of eight, when she won the Grand Prize of the Korea Times Competition in Seoul. She seems to be everywhere at once -- in Hong Kong, Japan, Colorado, and playing at the X Games. She can also be heard on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion, and on KBS.
A passage from La Capricieuse For Violin & Piano, Op. 17 [RealAudio], written by Sir Edgar Elgar in 1891, suggests her ability to wring emotion from a technically demanding vocalise. I had been unfamiliar with Elgar's music until I came across a CD with various Elgar selections. On this CD she records along with Akira Eguchi on the piano, and it seems their familiarity with one another adds even more sophistication to her music. This is particularly true in the performance of Elgar's Salut d'Amour, Op. 12 (1888)
To get a better idea of what Chee-Yun can coax out of her violin (which was made in 1699 in Cremona, Italy), listen to this sample of Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, Op. 34, no. 14 [wav] performed by soprano Elisabeth Soderstrom, then listen to a similar passage played by Chee-Yun [RealAudio]. The violin is as expressive as (if not more expressive than) the voice. And, just to prove Chee-Yun's versatility, listen to a selection from West Side Story's I Feel Pretty: Suite for Violin and Piano [RealAudio].
Almost as impressive has been the career of Kim Sung-Im who won her first national piano competition at age nine. By the time she was sixteen, she was performing as a soloist with the Seoul National Philharmonic Orchestra. Although she originally studied at Kyung-Won University, she later pursued postgraduate studies at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London.
If you have a good chunk of time on your hands, be sure to spend it listening to Kim perform Beethoven's Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 [MP3]. This sonata was written late in Beethoven's career, and I find the prestissimo in the middle of the piece especially brilliant.
To me Romantic music is more demanding than earlier classical forms, which is why I don't listen to Mendelssohn much. His music was from early in the development of Romantic music, and to me seems less dramatic than musicians to follow. However, Kim Sung-Im's interpretation of Mendelssohn's Variations serieuses in D minor, Op. 54 [MP3] is both enticing and quite dramatic.
Another composer, Chopin, can drive one into a deep depression. Yet Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49 [RealAudio] (as performed by Kim) has enjoyable variety. The opening is upright and staid, standing in complete opposition to its final measures. A piece well worth a listen.
Any CD featuring either these two artists and you won't be disappointed. Or better yet, see them perform in person. Chee-Yun is about to embark on the San Francisco Symphony tour, which will take her to Connecticut, Illinois, California and Japan. Kim Sung-Im is in the process of scheduling an appearance in Amherst, Massachusetts.
By Denise Ahn
Would you like to Comment on this article, or send it to a friend? You can do either one just below where you see:
Submit Comments on this Article: or
Mail this article to a friend?
If you would like to read more articles from this author begin by entering their last name in the "Site Search" box (located at top right of this screen), then press your "enter" key. Next, click on an article from those displayed.
|
|
