Sarah Chang: Debut

Sarah Chang: Debut

This miraculous recital was Chang's debut recording, made when she was nine years old. In Sarasate's <I>Carmen</I> Fantasy you can hear some very minor flaws in the technique, which were gone when I heard her play it two years later. There's nothing else to indicate that this is a young violinist, not even the tone Chang draws from a quarter-size violin. While none of these pieces is very heavy in musical content, she shows a wide range of sympathies, from the singing lyricism of Chopin to a very hip-sounding "It Ain't Necessarily So" from Gershwin's <I>Porgy and Bess</I>. <I>--Leslie Gerber</I>