With the creation of our video channel, we intend to gradually make accessible to the visitors of our website the most exemplary recordings of Isang Yun’s compositions (see the video clips in the catalogue of works), as well as introductions to his works, and our concerts at the Yun-Haus Berlin. If you have the impression that your rights are being violated, please let us know.
In notation and sound, here is a recording of String Quartet VI, which took place in April 1992 after a rehearsal of the Amati Quartet in Berlin with and in the presence of Isang Yun. We put this online so that those interested can study the performance of the dynamic indications and other specifications of the notation. See also: Images (live from 5 Nov. 1997), Contemplation for two violas, etc.
The Annual General Meeting of our members is expected to take place in Berlin on Sunday, 20 (!) November 2022 at 11 a. m., probably at the Universität der Künste, Fasanenstr. 1B.
Walter-Wolfgang Sparrer “Isang Yun: His Life and Work in Pictures” (German, Korean, English)
Isang Yun: His Life and Work in Pictures 윤이상. 사진으로보는인생과예술 Isang Yun. Leben und Werk im Bild
Hardcover, 304 Seiten, dreisprachig (deutsch, koreanisch, englisch), 24 x 32 cm, 48 Euro Erstveröffentlichung: März 2020 Verlag: wolke, Wickerer Weg 19, 65719 Hofheim am Taunus, ISBN 978-3-95593-117-9 (Buchhandel) ISMN 979-0-2025-8103-2 (Musikalienhandel)
This book is the first pictorial monograph about the Korean-German composer Isang Yun, who was born in southern Korea in 1917 and died in Berlin in 1995. It was first in Germany, with influence from what around 1960 was then the avant-garde that he developed an individual musical language of his own. A little later Yun was drawn into the field of tension between political advocacy motivated by humanitarian, societal concerns and responding to ideological incitement, between imprisonment, torture, and reparation. It was in his compositional work that he found a place of refuge. His music proceeds from the primacy of melody and the sustained tone, which he found preformed in the traditional music of his native Korea and then succeeded in developing heterophonically and spatially. The resultant works were characterized by unusual intensity and rich tone colors.
Die erste Bild-Monografie über den koreanisch-deutschen Komponisten Isang Yun, der 1917 im Süden Koreas geboren wurde und 1995 in Berlin gestorben ist. Erst in Deutschland fand er unter dem Einfluss der damaligen Avantgarde um 1960 zu seiner eigenen, individuellen Musiksprache. Wenig später wurde Yun in das Spannungsfeld hineingezogen zwischen politischer Parteinahme aus humanitären, gesellschaftlichen Motiven und ideologischer Verhetzung, zwischen Haft, Folter und Wiedergutmachung. In der kompositorischen Arbeit fand er einen Zufluchtsort. Seine Musik geht aus vom Primat des Melodischen und des lang gezogenen Tons, den er in der traditionellen Musik seiner Heimat vorgefunden hatte und den er heterophon zu vervielfältigen und zu verräumlichen verstand. Entstanden sind Werke von ungewöhnlicher Intensität und klangfarblichem Reichtum.
The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä has produced three late works on CD, among them two first releases: the orchestral piece Silla and Yun’s Violin Concerto III, both from 1992. Soloist of the Violin Concerto is Sueye Park. These catalogue novelties are complemented by Yun’s Chamber Symphony I (1987). Yun’s partly appellative late style compels (like all of Yun’s works due to their event density) intensive following and has not been received without controversy.
BIS-2642 SACD
New recording of the Cello Concerto
We owe Luigi Piovano (violoncello) and Aldo Orvieto (piano) – virtuosos from Rome and Venice – a sonically opulent CD, which was released in early 2022 on the Viennese label Kairos. The new recording of the Cello Concerto was made in Tokyo in 2018 with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tatsuya Shimono. Espace I (1992) and Nore (1964) for violoncello and piano, Interludium A (1982) and the Five Pieces for Piano (1958) also have a particular artistic radiance.
Kairos 0015090 KAI
Organ Works by Pagh-Paan and Yun
Dominik Sustek has recorded an extraordinarily colorful CD with works by Younghi Pagh-Paan and Isang Yun at the organ of the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne. This is the first new recording after years of the Tuyaux sonores (1967) composed for Gerd Zacher and the Fragment (1975), which was also written for Zacher, but dedicated to Pastor Martin Hoberg and the Gemeinde of Hamburg-Wellingsbüttel, whose children had supported the liberation of Isang Yun with paintings and letters. Available from the Are-Verlag Cologne, info[et]are-verlag.de
Dominik Susteck spielt Orgelwerke von Pagh-Paan und Yun
Isang Yun und das Cello
Collected Works for Violoncello and Piano (Adele Bitter, Holger Groschopp) – Isang Yun talking (Salzburg Lectures, 1993, in conversation with Luise Rinser, 1976). Cybele KiG 011 (4 SACD)
Fascinated by a Single Tone: Yun – Scelsi (flute music)
Three late works – Silla, 3rd Violin Concerto, CS I – with Sueye Park, Seoul Philharmonic, Osmo Vänskä. New recording of the Cello Concerto with Luigi Piovano, Japan Philharmonic, Tatsuya Shimono & Aldo Orvieto (piano).
