Next-gen Chung rising in Italy
OrchestrasThe troubled Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has booked Chung Min to conduct Brahms and Mendelssohn on February 23-24.
Chung Min, 39, is the son of conductor Myung Whun Chun and nephew of violinist Kyung Wha Chun.
He is music director of the Gangneung Philharmonic Orchestra in Gangwon Province, Korea.
In Korea, the son also rises.
I didn’t know that Myung Whun Chun hves a son conductor. But I know that Myung Whun Chun is for me without doubt one of 4-5 best conductors today. I have seen him last month with the RCO for Bruckner 7th. It was my choice for the musical director. And I don’t understand why DG seems to have stop to make records with him. But there are so many things with them I don’t understand…
Chung was also among my top 3 choice for Concertgebouw MD, which didn’t include Mäkelä. He was for sure to have an even bigger career if he wasn’t Asian.
In 2018-2019 maybe for some members of the orochestras he was too old for being MD. But when he’s directing this orchestra there’s something special and I think after Janson that he was the good person to hire. Don’t forget that almost every year he doing two weeks with the orchestra since 2008 and he did many concerts before and even a super Romeo Prokofiev album in the mid 90’s.
In 2018 Chung was 65 and apparently healthy. He didn’t compare unfavorably against Jansons in 2002. In 2002 was 59, but had a history of serious heart problems, Jansons had survived a serious heart attack in 1996. Unless we argued that after their experience with Jansons they didn’t want to take any chances.
Chin’s DG recordings were not great sellers, although in many ways admirable. That’s why he hasn’t had been championed and promulgated as a front line conductor for the yellow label. Most of his VPO and other European-based recordings were deleted from the catalog quickly, and the scandal of the Seoul Philharmonic didn’t help him.
According to Il Giorno, witnesses at La Scala said that Muti used a racist nickname (“Il Cinese”) to refer to Maestro Chung’s father.
Both Chungs are from Korea, not China.
https://www.ilgiorno.it/cultura/teatro-scala-muti-be7c12
I am not criticizing and I trust I am in compliance with SD new policies.