Sad Violin

An album of the late Baek Go San, North Korea`s finest violinist, was released in Korea.

During the Korean War, in 1951, a world renowned violinist David Oistrakh (1908-1974) volunteered to teach a young Korean violinist after seeing him play at the Music College of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. The student’s name was Baek Go San (1930-1997), a special research student invited to study in Moscow, and he played an unaccompanied arirang variation.

The solo album of Baek was released after his death, and his unaccompanied arirang variation, which moved Oistrakh, is the first song in the album. The song, which expresses the sadness of Koreans during the war and division, is regarded as his masterpiece.

Baek learned from Oistrakh, and in 1957 he won a prize at the First Tchaikovsky International Music Contest, and was selected a juror for the violin category in the Tchaikovsky Contest in 1978. Afterwards, he taught North Korean students as well as foreign students from China and Mongolia at the Pyongyang Music and Dance Academy.

He was not an all-time composer, but Baek enjoyed composing. Many of his composed songs are included in the album along with a photo of a music score with his autograph.

The album was made by Baek’s sound source from the open reel tapes that were owned by a Japanese recording company.

Seung-Hoon Cheon raphy@donga.com