Various Composers - 'Con Amore' Violin Encores [Chung/Moll]'Con Amore' meaning 'with love', one of the nicest violin & piano encores discs i own, i actually sold one of these discs on Ebay for £63!, nice money, this has many of the usual pieces you would expect to get on a recital like this, but it also has a few rarer pieces which are welcome, the longest piece is track 16, the Saint-Saens / Ysaye work [over 8 minutes], and maybe slightly out of place, almost all the pieces last between 2-4 minutes [13 of them], but everything is nicely apt for the gist of the whole thing.[11th March 2012].
Kyung-Wha Chung is South Korean, now 63 years old, she made this recording in1985, the front cover photo is wonderful [by Vivianne Rome], a lovely portrait, the fur hat, and the orange shawl give it a certain regal look, and the golden necklace on black top really stands out, the brown background also works wonders, one of the best photos for a disc cover.
Lots to enjoy here, my favourite tracks were 1-2,4-5, 9-10 & 16, and surprisingly it was track 9, the 'Moto Perpetuo' by Novacek that i found really compelling, and as the title suggests, it's a motorised type of piece that just goes on and on for 3 minutes, it opens angrily as a piano introduction [0:00-0:12], Chung comes in with rapid bowing, the focus isn't so much on a tune, but on developing tension and dynamism, of course there is a tune, but it only seems secondary as you listen to the piece closer, it's ideas come at you in waves, there seems no beginning or ending of the theme, it's like one big loop, it's great the way Novacek weaves violin and piano together, the Pianist [Phillip Moll] mostly plays a supporting background role, it's a 3 minute tightrope walk, i'm thankful i listened to this work i don't know all that well, but i certainly know it better now.
Here's Novacek's 'Moto Perpetuo' being played on YouTube.
