"Do You Like Brahms?" drama: Episode's 21 and 22 recap

 Air Dates: August 31st until October 20, 2020  Monday and Tuesdays at 10:00 pm on SBS

Ratings for these two episodes, 3.9 and 5.2%

Main Cast: The college referred to is Seoryeong University, a very prestigious music school though it does have many other programs.

Park Eun-Bin as Chae Song-Ah.... 'Chae' sounds quite a bit like the Korean word for sorry and she constantly has to tell others it's her real name. Song-Ah is 29 and graduated from the university at 22 with a business degree. However she hasn't had a steady job since then as her first love was playing the violin. After four attempts she was finally accepted into the school's musical program, she's finished three years yet is still not a very accomplished player.

Kim Min-Jae as Park Joon-Young.... He's an award winning pianist and the same age as 
Song-Ah. He too graduated from Seoryeong University and for many years has been touring the world performing concerts. He's a very respected pianist yet has returned to the university for their graduate program but see no reason why.

Lee You-Jin as Yoon Dong-Yun.... Friend of Song-Ah's and went out briefly with Min-Seong. We didn't see him in this first episode as he was in Italy but has just returned in this show. He owns a violin shop though doesn't play much these days.

Bae Da-Bin as Kang Min-Seong.... Song-Ah's best friend who is going to the same college, she's getting her Masters in Chemistry.

Park Ji-Hyun as Lee Jung-Kyung.... She's just returned from America where she tried so hard to become a professor of music at some colleges but failed. She's a violinist whose mother died when she was fourteen, she's been semi-dating Hyun-Ho though she secretly wishes to be with Joog-Young

Kim Seong Cheol as Han Hyun-Ho.... He too has just returned from America and is a talented cello player. He's best friends with Joon-Young and has been dating Jung-Kyung but he's more serious about their relationship than she is.

Lee Ji-Won as Kim Ha-Nae....Also a violinist who is seven years younger than Song-Ah but both have just started at a Summer internship for the Kyunghoo Foundation.

Seo Jung-Yeon as Cha Young-In.... Manager of Song-Ah and Ha-Nae at the foundation.

Choi Dae-Hoon as Park Sung-Jae.... Employee at the foundation.

Ahn Sang-Ein as Jung Da-Woon..... Another foundation employee

Ye Soo-Young as Na Moon-Sook.... Director of the Kyunghoo Foundation and whose daughter died in 2006 who was the mother of Jung-Kyung.

Yoon Chan-Young as Seung Ji-Min.... Very talented younger popular pianist

Baek Ji-Won as Professor Lee.... Song-Ah's professor who is pushing her to enter the graduate program but is more interested in who she knows than Song-Ah's music

Joo Suk-Tae as Yoo Tae-Jin.... Joon-Young's music teacher from the ages of 14 to 22. Their relationship was a bit rocky but the pair are now working together again.

  
  The ratings were almost the same as the previous two episodes yet there was another drop of total viewers to 920,000+ for these pair of shows. Don't ask me why that happened as it's a fine drama and seems most viewers have really enjoyed it. Have two recaps for today which will bring us up to episode 24 or 75% of the way there. Will be taking next week off with recaps and then have four in a row the following week for shows 25-32. Though we're 3/4 of the way through with this series I have no clue how things will turn out which is actually a very huge plus. No new characters were introduced but there may be one for the final shows who is a young piano wunderkind.

 Song-Ah has been down in the dumps for the past few shows, her relationship with Joon-Young is going fine but that's about it in her life. Song-Ah is slightly jealous of how well Jung-Kyung and 

Joon-Young play together, he'll be accompanying her for the recital which is for the professor position she's applying for at Seoryeoung University. Jung-Kyung is doing a sonata by Franck and so isn't

Song-Ah for her graduate program recital, did Jung-Kyung steal her idea? Things are going horrible with the woman who will be playing the piano for Song-Ah at her recital and as she's says above she's quite discouraged. Joon-Young though is still standing 100% behind her and I still think he'll end up playing at her recital. Song-Ah is also having issues with her main professor Lee who has used 

Sang-Ah more than what's acceptable and think she's finally getting a bit fed up with it.

 Lee has told her to dump Hyun-Ho from her chamber orchestra which will be having a concert very soon. Lee heard how Hyun-Ho had dated Jung-Kyung, though they've broken up she still wants him tossed from the concert but he is such an excellent cellist. Song-Ah gets stuck with doing all of that dirty work, mainly because she feels Lee can get her into graduate school but having my doubts. 

Song-Ah eventually contacted Hyun-Ho with the bad news, he was a bit dejected for he's also going for the professor opening at the university and it would have helped his cause. In an extremely odd scene he spent the night with Jung-Kyung, Joon-Young had called his friend to let him know she was going to a bar to drown her sorrows. She got a bit tipsy and was brought to a hotel but nothing took place between the pair yet just have this feeling the two will somehow end up dating again.

 Joon-Young's practicing for the upcoming Tchaikovsky competition isn't going so well. He's reunited with his old teacher Yoo who I thought would make a difference in Joon-Young's playing but not so far. Joon-Young's main reason for entering it is to win the first prize which is a good amount of money, he still can't get over how poor he is after being such a major star for seven years. But he could have a rival at the competition whose name is Kim Kyu-Hee who we only saw for about a minute. She's much younger than Joon-Young but has looked up to him for so many years and is the wunderkind I mentioned above. Yoo even told Joon-Young at a practice session to get his act together quickly, how would it look to lose to such a young fan?

 That's Jung-Kyung right above, still wouldn't consider her to be a nice person but she's not the devil woman she was for the first fourteen or so episodes. She did confess to Joon-Young about many of her problems which is why he's playing at her recital, she also admitted she had zero friends these days which is why he contacted Hyun-Ho. In that screenshot Jung-Kyung was talking to a talented young teen violinist named Ji-Won, she also helped the youngster out at a recital many recaps ago. Ji-Won is facing so much pressure from her mother and teacher, she's very talented but is losing her enthusiasm for playing. Jung-Kyung knows what she's going through as her own mother was quite relentless too when it came to playing. Ji-Won really looks up to her and visits Jung-Kyung at her home later on for more advice.

 Took a break and watched the next pair of shows, that relationship between Jung-Kyung and Ji-Won begins to become a bit intense due to other parties. Mentioned Hyun-Ho briefly above and that was the only time we saw him in these episodes but do have a feeling he'll become important again. Not sure if the same can be said of Min-Seong and Dong-Yun, both character's roles have gotten so much smaller and there's really no sense talking about them. Seems when they're on screen it's so they've done something to collect their check, really though Dong-Yun would be key to the story. But one person's role becoming larger is that of Park who four episodes quit the Kyunghoon Foundation. He's hooked up with Joon-Young's main agency which is located in America, Park has been assigned to be his manager but can't get Joon-Young to accept any kind of work.

 What Park really wants Joon-Young to do is star in a reality TV show with his mother which he flat out refuses to do. Can't say Park is a solid manager yet but he is trying to get Joon-Young back in the spotlight as his popularity has really waned, being on a sabbatical isn't helping his cause. Park even met up with Song-Ah twice and though he was a bit cruel in their conversation he did say things she may have needed to hear. Such as Song-Ah has no future in the music industry, not that she's a bad violinist but she began her career too late and is so far behind everyone else plus a few other barbs. Of course

Song-Ah didn't want to hear any of it but deep down she knew Park was correct, she's extremely dejected but what other options does she have at the age of 29?

 Park's role when he was at the Kyunghoon Foundation was also a bit big but it's become so more important which continues into the next recap. He heard Joon-Young and Song-Ah were dating, Park came up with the bright idea to get Joon-Young to agree to his suggestions is to have Song-Ah become his assistant. Not a bad idea and she could use the money but refused Park's offer as  there just wasn't enough time to practice her violin, attend school and help out her professor Lee. Joon-Young did hear about Park's discussions and wasn't pleased though that passed but he didn't hear about the job offer. Haven't quite hated professor Lee but that's slowly changing, especially with what happened in the next pair of shows. Lee is using Song-Ah too much for her own personal gains, am getting the impression that Lee may not be able to get Song-Ah into graduate school.

 Not that Song-Ah can't but if she does don't think it'll be because of Lee who has sent Song-Ah on another personal errand. That's to travel all the way out to Daejong to pick up a brooch she purchased, Song-Ah doesn't drive so had to take the bus. Joon-Young heard of the trip and just as the bus was leaving he jumped aboard in a scene that only happens in dramas. Joon-Young knows the town well as he grew up there, after Song-Ah picked up the brooch he showed her some of his childhood highlights such as where he went to piano school. Of course it being his hometown that meant the pair ran into 

Joon-Young's mother who he wanted to avoid, Song-Ah had no clue who the lady was.

 His mother owns a small diner where the couple had a pleasant dinner, Joon-Young does have family problems but they're mainly of his father's doing and his mother is a decent woman. Song-Ah thought so too and didn't quite understand why Joon-Young wasn't closer to her. In the final scene the pair were having tea in a different cafe while they waited for the bus to return to Seoul. Joon-Young finally confessed what was going on with his family problems which were because of his father. We still haven't met the man but he's failed at so many businesses and investments, Joon-Young has had to bail him out often and it's easy to see why he too is in such financial despair. There was one mini scene towards the end too with Jung-Kyung and Lee, it had to deal with the chamber orchestra. What took place will be popping up again so will discuss it then.

 As mentioned the main characters have changed since the beginning of the series, three we don't see too often while two have more important roles. That's not a bad thing as the drama does revolve around the above pair who truly are such a nice and innocent couple. Many key developments took place in the next two episodes and the recap for them is the next post.