An evening with Min-Jung Kym

Unless you have the musical appreciation of C. S. Forester’s fictional hero Horatio Hornblower may I respectfully submit that you find http://www.minjungkym.co.uk/index.php
The name suggests her origin, Korea, but not her home, London, and her British nationality. I am sitting typing with her playing of a Mozart piano concerto coming out of the speakers.
Last night I had the double pleasure of attending her recital at the Al-Bustan Hotel, up in the hills about half an hours drive from Beirut, and then meeting the young lady in person afterwards.
I could go on about her music’s power and delicacy, her playing of passion balanced with grace and her use of astounding technique to create tidal waves of emotion but then I’d sound like a hyperbolistic music critic with a severe dictionary problem. A music critic I am not, and I’m trying to cut down on the dictionary.
Just give her a listen but be prepared to be made to laugh, as she chooses pieces which contain jokes and humour; but have the tissues ready too as she has made a specialty out of understanding her chosen composers’ emotional state at the time they wrote and seems to be able to convey that through the music.
And then a party happened – which could be almost a tag line for Lebanon – at the beautiful apartment of the lady who had born the brunt of organizing the event. Seven of us sat while champagne and conversation flowed.
When she had walked onto the stage, Ms Kym had filled it. Musicians have almost a personal, physical relationship with their chosen instrument, some appearing to have to wrestle with them to get the desired tone and volume, while with others, it’s the instrument that appears to be in charge; but for this lady, she leads and the piano willingly follows. I was surprised, then, to find that in person, she is petite and of delicate appearance, with no obvious hint of the power she can generate. Oh and she’s fun, intelligent and well, err, normal without being at all ordinary is the closest I can get to it, for example being just as happy chatting about Elton as Schumann.
Today’s light reading is going to have to come from one of Patrick O’Brien’s novels – his Captain Jack Aubrey was a musician as well as a frigate captain!