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Unsuk - Rocana Violin Concerto - Hagner Nagano

Unsuk Chin was born in Seoul, 14 July 1961. After studies in Korea she was awarded a German government scholarship, and moved to Europe in 1985. She had lessons in Hamburg with Ligeti, an important influence on her music, after which she settled in Berlin. She has won numerous awards and prizes, among them the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition in 2004 for her Violin Concerto.

I had been eagerly awaiting for a recording of Chin's violin concerto, after the announcement of the 2004 Grawemeyer Award. It finally appeared in 2009 and it did not disappoint. (Actually, I have yet to hear a Grawemeyer Award winning piece which is not a great delight.) What struck me first was Chin's ability to create new kinds of colors and soundworlds while keeping the orchestration and especially musical forms in the very traditional settings. (See notes below.) In a way it's "new wine in old bottles" and resembles Arnold Schoenberg's third string quartet in this respect. Another thing which immediately caught my ears was how lyrical, communicative and emotionally immediate Chin's Concerto is, in contrast to her own (Ligeti-inspired) Akrostichon-Wortspiel. In this respect, it reminds me of George Tsontakis's Violin Concerto No. 2. Of course, Chin's sound is decidedly more "revolutionary". - Not really a surprise since we are talking about Tsontakis!

dank aan originele poster!