Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Easy listening Chang
Comment: This collection, consisting mostly of reissues, showcases Chang's expressive qualities, with the emphasis being mostly on the slow and dreamy side of her art. One has the feeling that the producers envisioned this disc as background music for a romantic candlelight dinner or some such, and for that purpose it is perfectly sufficient. Chang, of course, is a major violinist and none of the playing here is less than topnotch. As a musical experience for connoisseurs, however, "Sweet Sorrow" has its drawbacks, chief among them being the sameness of mood and tempo. Also, the inclusion of fragments of works such the Vieuxtemps Fifth Concerto and the Tchaikovsky Concerto is musically unsatisfying; the latter is particularly irritating as it leaves the end of the slow movement simply hanging. It may be of some significance that some of the most engaging playing from Chang is heard on the earliest tracks, the Chopin Nocturne and Liszt Consolation, recorded in her child prodigy days; here a genuine love for the music comes through that is somewhat muffled in most of the other selections.
Customer Rating: Summary: total disappointment
Comment: In Chang's performance of the Vitali Chaconne, the feeling and passion initially apparent in her playing was wiped out by her
almost total lack of energy, expressed in a thin sound that often
made it difficult to distinguish the solo violin from the orchestra strings. By the second quarter of the piece, I was shocked to find the sound of her violin fading out in mid melody. It was so terrible, so embarrassing, I had to stop listening.
I think a much better interpretation of the Vitali is the one by Oistrakh, but sadly it is with piano accompaniment while Chang's is with orchestra - one that performs superbly... So that the aesthetic crime that is Chang's anemic, thin playing is doubly terrible.
