*** 180g Vinyl LP ***

Kyung-Wha Chung's début record, the coupling of the Sibelius and Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos, has widely been regarded as a benchmark, milestone album for over fifty years. It received a rapturous review upon its release from Gramophone's chief critic Edward Greenfield and was later selected as a top recommendation on BBC Radio 3's Building a Library.

In 1967, Chung won the Edgar Leventritt Competition jointly with Pinchas Zukerman. This prize led to several engagements in North America with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Her next major opportunity came in 1970 as a substitute for Itzhak Perlman with the London Symphony Orchestra, where audiences responded immediately to her playing. It was soon after this that Decca signed Chung as an exclusive recording artist.

This 1970 recording of these two great concertos, recorded in Kingsway Hall, propelled the then twenty-two-year-old Chung onto the world stage. Not only does Chung's playing display an extraordinary combination of crispness and fluidity, she also portrays a remarkable range of emotions across both concertos, from tenderness and lyricism to strength, determination and resolve.

Recorded by Decca at Kingsway Hall, London, in June 1970, the original ¼-inch, two-track stereo tapes have been mastered by Rainer Maillard and cut by Sidney C. Meyer at Emil Berliner Studios.

"Refinement is the keynote of Miss Chung's approach, and this is matched not only in the finely balanced recording quality but in the accompanying of André Previn, not to mention the playing of the orchestra... It is a deeply satisfying record, and the recording quality is outstandingly faithful." – Edward Greenfield, Gramophone

The Decca Pure Analogue series has attracted widespread acclaim from critics and collectors alike, praised for its meticulous production standards, fully analogue mastering chain and revelatory sound quality.