Complete Decca Recordings

The good news is that all of Kyung-Wha Chung's Decca and DG recordings are here in one box, and the price is right. The not-so-good news is that there was no effort to compress them as was done for the individual budget reissues. That said, it was an intense pleasure to work my way through the 19 CDs and the Mendelssohn DVD (with Solti) in the box. The album covers are the originals, and the notes, which discuss the artist's recording career, are interesting. While a few of these recordings (Beethoven, Bartok) have been bettered by the artist herself on another label, there is not a dud in the whole package.As to the violinist herself, suffice it to say that I almost always choose Chung's recordings when I listen to violin music. Her playing combines aristocratic polish with intense expression of feeling; scarcely a note or musical gesture is ill-considered or out of place. If this suggests unthinking adulation, so be it - I fell for her playing when I heard her first album (Tchaikovsky and Sibelius). If you love the violin, get this before it disappears.

what a gift to hear this box, a great violinist , and the better remaster sound, just as expected from decca, your favorite version? don't bother, every time you hear any of this cds you have easy going auditive pleasure.i have some of the previous versions of these cds, and compare these version with any of the older version (including decca originals series), just make me more happy, great improve in sound, great musicians great recordings great price.

Really great throughout. Chung is just an amazing musician, combining stunning virtuosity with a beautiful singing quality, with an obviously deeply mature musical knowledge backing up her art. Nice to have Decca's engineering particularities capturing her talent too.

Excellent compilation of KWC's early recordings. Her virtuosity and artistry is second to none. The DVD of the Mendelssohn concerto is a nice bonus, though the video is readily viewable on youtube.

These recordings display Chung's versatility and talented appeal which has thrilled many for ages. Great set!

An excellent collections by KW Chung.

Kust as expected

Kyung Wha Chung is a violinist with a formidable technique. I first became aware of her gifts as a great musician with the release of a pair of CDs featuring the Prokofiev/Stravinsky/Walton violin concertos, all of which are included in this collection. Her performances in these tonal modernist works border on incandescent white heat. Chung plays with a ferociously dramatic attack in the two Prokofiev concertos, with slightly less aggression and more circumspection in the Stravinsky concerto and a lovely probing lyricism that highlights her wide expressive range in the Walton. She is ably accompanied by Andre Previn, who makes a sympathetic partner, extracting an exciting performance from his band, the London Symphony Orchestra, while insuring that their performance remains discretely low-key whenever necessary in order to highlight Chung's violin. Previn and Chung were frequent collaborators who seemed to work well together.The Tchaikovsky and Sibelius concertos represent technicolor Romanticism that requires a broad, rich tone and florid legato without the kind of strident, forcefully insistent and absolutely precise playing that Chung uses to such great advantage in the great modernist Berg and Bartok concertos. Chung's playing is exemplified by an exceptionally wide emotional palette and her expressive range is impressive. Her approach is slightly tender in the Beethoven and Mendelssohn concertos, nobly magisterial with a touch of mystery in the Elgar, Bruch and Saint-Saens concertos and passionately lyrical in the Dvorak, Mendelssohn and Brahms piano trios. She seems equally adept at playing the star soloist in one of the famous concertos as she is in playing chamber works in relative anonymity.Chung's robust technique produces a depth of tone from her violin that features slightly more heft than that produced by a violinist like Anne-Sophie Mutter. Chung lacks Mutter's natural elegance and delicacy, however. Where Mutter is a skillful and sympathetic Mozartean, Chung's enthusiastically muscular style seems more attuned to the late-Romantic and modernist violin repertoire. The recordings in this excellent collection exhibit an emotional landscape that ranges from fiery to tender and a recording scale from intimately small to impersonally large. Kyung Wha Chung is a violinist of great technical skill and expressiveness and this collection does a superb job of showcasing her artistry. Decca's sound is excellent as usual. Their engineers are masterful, recording her violin so that its tone is rich, vibrant and full. A slight addition of reverb serves to accentuate the violin's warmth and to avoid any dryness in the recording. This is a set well worth collecting if you can manage to avoid duplications, always an issue when considering box sets. If you're a fan of great violin playing, this is one of the best collections currently available and at a very reasonable price. A DVD featuring Chung playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti playing Mendelssohn's Symphonies Nos.3 & 4 is included and makes a nice bonus disc.

Hi I'm a violin lover.I had been interested in various violinists including David Oistrakh, Arthur Grumiaux, Anne Sophie Mutter and Sarah Chang.Among various violinists Kyung Wha Chang takes a special post in my favorite. I lover her passion, delicacy and perfectionism in violin playing. Some say that she is passionate but I feel the perfectionism which makes the base of her passionate playing. Everytime I hear her playing, I think of her struggle with herself and I feel her near-perfect playing. She is not only passionate but also near-perfect in violin playing, at least I think so.And this set is the most precious in introducing and understanding her woirld of violin playing, including the most valuable Concertos by Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Bruch. I really appreciate them whenever I listen to her playing. The only hope from me is that it would contain the Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin from Bach. It is nothing but a bargain itself at this price!! Definitely recommended!!

Le meilleur de Kyung Wha Chung. Un jeu de feu allié avec imagination, musicalité et une excellente technique. Acheté à un prix raisonnable, une très bonne affaire.

Tra le tante proposte e le decine di cofanetti che le case discografiche stanno immettendo sul mercato questo dedicato all'artista coreana è sicuramente da non perdere. Interpretazioni sublimi delle grandi composizioni per violino, registrazioni allo stato dell'arte (quasi tutte Decca analogiche/digitali + 2 Dgg) fanno di questo cofanetto una delizia per gli amanti del genere. Bellissimo.

メインのCDプレーヤー（CH Precision D1）ではすべてのディスクがエラーが出て再生できませんでした。他のCDプレーヤー、BDレコーダーなどでは再生できるのでディスクの問題ではなくディスクとプレーヤの相性の問題なのでしょう。でもメインのシステムで再生できなかったのがとても残念です。付録でユニテル社が撮った1979年のメンデルスゾーンバイオリン協奏曲のDVDがついていますが、キョンファの妖怪の様な不気味な（？）演奏ぶりが楽しめる。その後CH Precision D1修理の際にゼファンにピックアップ調整をしっかりやってもらったら、全ディスク読み込めるようになりました。やはりプレーヤーの問題でした。なので星3つから5つに修正しました。

20枚をこの価格で買えるだけで、充分満足星５つです。廃盤ということで異常な高値だったCDも含まれているので、単体で買い集めたら果たしていくらになるんでしょうか？まだファンではないけど、キョンファに興味が出てこのページに辿り着いたあなた！躊躇わず買ってしまいなさい。とりあえず他に何か1枚買ったとしても、結果的に全部買い揃えることになるのだから。