JEAN SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Concert Pieces for Violin and Orchestra
Overture in E major and Ballet Scene

musicweb-international.com [January 2007]:
"The two Serenades ‘sung’ by the more rapturously Oistrakh-like Kang are sentimental and are recorded with rich immediacy. The Six Humoresques also arrive courtesy of Kang. These are magical bonbons - each weighted and balanced to perfection even though I favour the rawer vintage set glowingly recorded by Rosand and still available on Vox. True Sibelians must not miss these works and Kang and his orchestra do catch these silvery spells and confident little drinking songs - pride and eloquence, seduction and midnight poetry haunt these pages and it's all one especially well." --Rob Barnett (from the review of The Essential Sibelius, BIS-CD-1697-1700)

New York Times magazine:
DONG-SUK KANG
"Readers of the right age may recall Dong-Suk Kang’s high profile during the 1980s. With several prominent competition prizes and international débuts under his belt, his career went from strength to strength in the early CD era and his recordings won awards including the Grand Prix du Disque.
Kang’s playing is easily identifiable as being of the strong, post - Romantic American school: his major training was with Galamian as one of the first flush of Far Eastern string players to emerge after World War II. His tone has great depth and, perhaps more than some of his contemporaries, extraordinary ease and fluency of which technique is the servant, making his recordings of late - Romantic and twentieth - century music particularly compelling. Isaac Stern’s observation upon Korean artists is revealing: ‘They are called the Italians of the Orient — they are cruder, warmer, more loutish … The freedom, turbulence, and passion show in their music making.’"

Six Humoresques, Op.87 and Op.89 for violin and orchestra
01. Humoresque No.1 in D minor, Op.87 No.1 (1917/ca.1939) [3'25]
02. Humoresque No.2 in D major, Op.87 No.2 (1917) [2'15]
03. Humoresque No.3 in G minor, Op.89a (1917) [4'08]
04. Humoresque No.4 in G minor, Op.89b (1917) [4'00]
05. Humoresque No.5 in E flat major, Op.89c (1917) [3'05]
06. Humoresque No.6 in G minor, Op.89d (1918) [3'01]
Two Serenades, Op.69 for violin and orchestra
07. Serenade No.1 in D major (1912) [6'16]
08. Serenade No.2 in G minor (1913) [6'51]
Two Pieces (Serious Melodies), Op.77 for violin and orchestra
09. Cantique (Laetare anima mea) (1914) [5'08]
10. Devotion (Ab imo pectore) (1915) [3'20]
Overture in E major, JS 145 (1891)
11. Allegro [10'40]
Ballet Scene, JS 163 (1891)
12. Allegro moderato [7'46]
Total playing time: 61'42

Dong-Suk Kang, violin (Guidantus, 1718) (Tracks 1-10)
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi

Recording data: 1989-08-24/25 at the Gothenburg Concert Hall, Sweden
Producer: Lennart Dehn
Recording engineer & digital editing: Michael Bergek
© & ® 1989 & 1990, Grammofon AB BIS, Djursholm
BIS-CD-472