交響曲第５番『運命』、ピアノ協奏曲第５番『皇帝』　チョン・ミョンフン＆ソウル・フィル、キム・ソヌク

I was there at the concert at the time of the live recording. The CD sounds every bit as exciting as I can recall from that night. The rich and expressive strings, rock solid brass and percussion, colorful woodwinds are the hallmark of this fabulous orchestra and this CD shows. Kim’s playing is, to say the least, virtuosic and classy. He is a remarkably assured young pianist who is also learning conducting at the moment. Chung’s conducting certainly takes these into account leaning toward classicism, but he unleashes all the romantic flair in the following Symphony No. 5. For the performance of the symphony, Mo Chung expanded the brass section. If my recollection is correct, he expanded the woodwinds as well. As a result, you will hear in this edition a lot of the romantic, forward-looking side of Beethoven. The exposition repeat in the fourth movements is observed. As for the sonics, it sounds a lot like old LPs - with a slightly less dynamic range than what we normally expect of modern digital recordings, but otherwise it is warm and vibrant. To quote Michael Fine who produced the CD, ”I like good digital sound which should be no different than good analogue sound except cleaner!”. I cannot agree with him more. In the Emperor concerto, the balance slightly favors Kim but that reveals the soloist’s extraordinary skill very vividly and powerfully. This is a fantastic release overall, a worthy successor to the previous DG recordings by Chung/SPO including Debussy, Mahler and Tchaikovsky.

演奏はドイツ的で重厚な良い演奏だと思うが、残念ながら録音が悪すぎる。何かヴェールで塞がれたような音であり、しかもエコーがやたら掛かっている。ドイツグラモフォンのエンジニアがこのような録音を行うのは聴いたことがない。このような録音のやり方だとどんな名演でも安っぽく聴こえてしまう。しかし、もし細部がしっかり聴こえたなら、いろいろ不備が聴こえてくるのかもしれないが・・・。あるがままの真実を聴きたかったので星は三つとする。