Kyung Wha Chung plays Bach 'Air on G' (from Orchestral Suite No.3)

1997 marked Ms Chung's 30th anniversary of her international debut, and she gave a series of celebratory concerts in her motherland, Japan and the UK; in Korea, it was consisted with the performances of Brahms concerto, Bach & Vivaldi concertos with the chamber orchestra organized for the occasion, and a duo recital with pianist Itamar Golan.
Kyung-Wha Chung is most remembered by her passionate interpretation of major violin concertos, but it is through an evening of chamber recital that she shines all her characters and depth, which often can be overlooked under the grand scale of big concertos. This video record of the anniversary recital proves it to the point. Through 3 weighty main program of Brahms, Bartók and Schumann and down to 4 encores, she simply gives her all.
For the first encore of the evening, Ms Chung plays the famous Air of Bach, as arranged by August Wilhelmj for violin solo. Seamlessly playing it entirely on the G string, she makes this over-played and over-popular tune into unusually soulful, almost religious confession. In a later interview, she mentioned that this was the piece she played for her late father at his death bed, and for that heart-wrenching memory she had avoided playing the Air up until this very recital.
* the rest of the program from the same evening
Brahms violin sonata No.1: • Kyung Wha Chung plays ...
Bartók violin sonata No.2: • Kyung Wha Chung plays ...
Schumann violin sonata No.2: • Kyung Wha Chung plays ...
Poldini 'Dancing Doll': • Kyung Wha Chung plays ...
Brahms 'Scherzo': • Kyung Wha Chung plays ...
Debussy 'Beau Soir': • Kyung Wha Chung plays ...