Professional Career
Her success in London would mean much to her career; she had many engagements in the United Kingdom and she subsequently obtained an exclusive recording deal with Decca/London. Her debut album with André Previn and London Symphony Orchestra, which coupled Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos, brought her international attention.
It was in Europe that Chung then met her second great teacher, the well-known violinist Joseph Szigeti. Szigeti not only refined her violin skill, but also concentrated on expanding her understanding of music and art. He encouraged her to read books and go to galleries, and Chung later said at an interview that this experience had taught her how a visual medium of artistic expression, such as a painting, might be transformed into musical language.
Since then she has performed around the world, most of the time to critical acclaim. She has worked with most of the major orchestras including Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with many famous conductors including Georg Solti, André Previn, Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Charles Dutoit and Riccardo Muti. She has also worked with such celebrated pianists as Radu Lupu, Krystian Zimerman, Peter Frankl, Stephen Kovacevich and her younger brother Myung-whun Chung. She plays also in the Chung Trio, with her brother and her older sister, Myung-wha Chung. Her repertoire includes most of the famous concertos ranging from Beethoven to Tchaikovsky to Berg, and she has recorded several important sonatas such as the Brahms violin sonatas, Franck & Debussy sonatas, and Respighi & Strauss sonatas (with Krystian Zimerman, a recording which earned her a Gramophone Award for Best Chamber Recording). Her interpretations are known to be very passionate but at the same time well structured and with a wide range of tonal variation. Her early recordings show the degree of perfectionism which Chung pursued.
In 1997, she celebrated the 30th anniversary of her international debut at Barbican Centre in London and in her hometown of Seoul, Korea. Her most recent recordings include Vivaldi's Four Seasons (which was selected as Gramophone's editorial choice) and Brahms violin concerto with Vienna Philharmonic under Simon Rattle.
Read more about this topic: Kyung-wha Chung
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