Customer Reviews

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Why did Kyung Wha Chung make this CD? She has produced recorded performances of legendary artistry, such as the Mendelssohn with Dutoit, the Sibelius Tchaikovsy Bruch (& Scottish Fantasy) with Previn, the Bruch and Beethoven with Tennstedt, and the fabulous Bartok 2 and Brahms with Sir Simon Rattle. Also there is the exquisite Franck Sonata with Radu Lupu.
Meanwhile, the 4 seasons has over the years endured all sorts of pillage and torture, the likes of Nigel Kennedy making mavericke with it etc. So, why did this legend in her own lifetime decide to record these concerti? After listening to this CD over and over, the answer is crystal clear. This is purely and simply an opportunity for magical music-making. Playing Vivaldi with sparklingly unmannered joy shows just how wonderful and fresh this music can be. Listen to the first movement of Winter - a perfectly glacial display of immaculate articulation, but never devoid of feeling. In short, an ensemble performance without exaggeration, without oversentimentalising, but delicious.
My favourite performance till now has been the silvery classics for pleasure version with Kenneth Sillito, now sadly deleted. This new release by Kyung Wha Chung has some of the same spontaneity, and is a very good choice. A pity it's full price, it could have been offered with additional material. Nevertheless, this is one disc you will listen to again and again.

I have heard and I own many great performances of The Four Seasons including Gil Shaham, Claudio Scimone and Neville Mariner. But Kyun Wha Chung's new recording of the Four Seaons became my instant favorite. I have never heard any Four Seasons this intense and this animated and yet stylistically correct. This, certainly, is not a dinner music or a background music. But start this CD, lie in your bathtub and close your eyes. You will live four seasons in forty minutes.

Kyung-Wha chung offer a superly imaginative version

of Vivaldi's Four season on modern instruments. The solo playing

is powerful and warmly expressive. Some collectors will find

full price a bit steep for 41 minutes, however excellent

performance and recording.

This was the first recording of the Four Seasons for me, and I found it absolutely fascinating. As Kyung Wha Chung played the Four Seasons, it caught my attention right away. The softness in the slow passages and the power and intensity in fast movements combine to create a nice CD for you to listen to, especially if you have a good understanding of classical music. I personally didn't understand people who disliked this recording(no offense), because I liked this recording and it instantly became my favorite. Maybe I need to listen to other versions of the Four Seasons, but I would definitely recommend this for just about anyone who likes to listen to classical music. It would be a nice gift as well.

This recording is Chung's first Vivaldi 4 Seasons recording.
She looks beautiful, She sound beautiful, and she is still very passionate.
But this recording is too hard to understand for non-musicians. She is performing it with a lot of thing in it but you can't notice it fast.
To hear a refreshing and powerful Vivaldi, I would recommend Anne-Sophie Mutter's second recording with Trondheim.

I am a great fan of Kyung Wha-Chung in things like the Beethoven or Brahms concertos, unfortunately her Vivaldi is as boring and old fashioned as I Musici's. Great things have happened in the last 40 years regarding baroque music. At this point it is quite simply impossible to ignore what Harnoncourt, Leonhardt, Gardiner and several others have found about period performance practice. If you want a lively, interesting and very well played Quattro Stagioni go for Fabio Biondi and L'Europa Galante in OPUS111 or Il Giardino Armonico on TELDEC. May Kyung Wha-Chung look for the Elgar or Korngold concertos next time or learn how to play the baroque fiddle.

If you were to hear this performance live you might be mildly pleased,but that does not explain adding another thoroughly mediocre performance of The Four Seasons to the catalogue.Simply a misfire.