"Do You Like Brahms?" drama: Episode's 23 and 24 recap

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

Ratings for these two episodes, 4.1 and 5.4%

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.

  
  Slight increase in the ratings yet the viewership dropped to it's lowest level since episodes three and four, I'm confused why  it happened as these were a fine pair of shows. Thanks for reading these recaps if you have and do admit they're not all that exciting. But all drama recaps/reviews are like that and I do read many at other sites. I'm more of a play by play announcer as I mainly relate what's taken place and only about 20% of a post is about personal reflections. But have enjoyed this series immensely and hopefully these recaps have had a few of you readers check this show out.

 Quite a bit happened in these two shows and hope I can continue in making a recap a reasonable length. Last recap ended up with Song-Ah and Joon-Young waiting for a bus in Daejeon to return to Seoul, that's his hometown but the reason for going there was for Song-Ah to pick up a brooch for her professor Lee. They did bump into Joon-Young's mother and had a pleasant dinner in her diner, more on the mother coming up soon and as usual it's not good news for Joon-Young. Good news wasn't coming Song-Ah's way either as her recital pianist Cecilia backed out of playing for Song-Ah. Cecilia used the excuse of 'family problems' but the real problem was she just couldn't stand playing for Song-Ah as the pair never played well together. You could say that it was Song-Ah's fault as she had never played one on one with a pianist and just couldn't get in sync with the person. Song-Ah did confess to Joon-Young about her problem and as you can see above he may have a solution.

 That's for him to accompany Song-Ah at her recital, it's very important to her as how she plays may decide if she gets into Seoryeong University's graduate program. Song-Ah was extremely hesitant at first, doesn't Joon-Young already have too much on his plate? It is true that he does as he'll also be the accompanist for Jung-Kyung at her recital but she'll be playing the same sonata by Franck and still wonder if she stole the idea from Song-Ah? For now her answer was no but as she left the school building it had been raining out, Joon-Young appeared with an umbrella and during their chat is when Song-Ah agreed to having him play at her recital. In the opening scene she had given Joon-Young a present when they returned to Seoul, it was an umbrella as he had told Song-Ah he had never owned one. But in this scene Joon-Young had his own and admitted to Song-Ah that he did lie about never owning one, know there's some significance to his fib but don't understand what.

 May as well stay on Joon-Young for this part too. His mother had just received a threatening letter from a loan agency, once again Joon-Young's father failed at opening a business and lost all of his money. But worse than that is he put up his wife's diner for collateral and the money is overdue. To her regret the Jong-Young's mother told her son what had happened and how she may lose the diner unless she can come up with $30,000 which of course he doesn't have. But there may be a way out as his new Korean manager Park has told Joon-Young the Kyunghoon Foundation's credit card division wants him to play a private show. Until now Joon-Young has refused all of Park's requests to play or be on TV but when he heard the fee would be $30,000 he naturally jumped at the chance to save his mother. Had he not taken his sabbatical Joon-Young might not be so pressed for money as he mentions below and wonder why he didn't abort that and go back to performing concerts?

 Above was the only time Hyun-Ho appeared in a scene and can't understand why his role has gotten smaller. He is estranged from his best friend Joon-Young and has broken up with Jung-Kyung but he was vying for a professor's position at the university against her which should have been an important part of the story. Least Hyun-Ho's one appearance did save the day for Jung-Kyung who was about to be told off by a young student's mother. In the last recap mentioned the girl Ji-Won who is about fourteen and is so talented at the violin. But the pressure she's been getting from her mother and teacher has become unbearable, to Ji-Won Jung-Kyung was the only person she could talk to it about the problem. Jung-Kyung knows all so well what the young girl was going through as she too had an overbearing mother when she was young. So in private Jung-Kyung had been giving Ji-Won some tutoring on the violin which has improved her playing. 

 But as Hyun-Ho said that's a very strict no-no as only a student's teacher should instruct her and when the mother found out she was about to lash out at Jung-Kyung until he bailed her out. Ji-Won's teacher was the professor Song who is about to retire, her position is the one Hyun-Ho and Jung-Kyung are applying for. When Song heard Ji-Won play the music a bit differently at their next practice she told her to stop immediately and go back to the way she instructed her. Ji-Won remained mum on why she changed but Song saw her music sheets and realized Jung-Kyung was responsible for the change in music. Shortly after Ji-Won did win her next recital playing that piece of music though didn't look too happy, to her Jung-Kyung's changes did sound better. But the main question arising out of that secret tutoring with Song's student is will it affect Jung-Kyung's chances of becoming a professor?

 That situation was never mentioned again but sure something major about Jung-Kyung's tutoring will be key to her (not) getting the soon to be open professor's position. She's also having issues at home and mainly with her grandmother Na who runs the foundation which was named after Jung-Kyung's deceased mother. Jung-Kyung is on the board of director's at the foundation but only part time, Na wants her to quit her dream of playing music and become next in line to be the foundation's main director. Jung-Kyung is dead set against it and for once had some harsh words her grandmother, did she name the foundation after her daughter because of guilt?

 The relationship between the new love birds Song-Ah and Joon-Young continues to go well and it's really improved since he began opening up more to her. But what's not improving is their lives when they're not together, both ended off the episode with some dire news. First off Joon-Young has heard from Park that the Kyunghoon Foundation's credit card division now refuses to sponsor a concert with Joon-Young playing solo. His popularity has really waned plus the news of him dating Song-Ah isn't doing Joon-Young's image much good and he doesn't know how it's spread like wildfire on media sites. At least there's the upcoming Tchaikovsky competition for if he wins the prize is a large sum of money which he desperately needs. However Joon-Young is not enthused at all about it and is really disappointing his professor Yoo with how badly he's playing. It's also not helping Joon-Young that he has no piano at home plus the good one he used at the university is damaged.

 Song-Ah's professor Lee has her major chamber orchestra readying for an end off the year performance and with all Song-Ah has done to help her professor out she presumed she'd be part of the show. In such a cruel moment Lee told Song-Ah that there was no way she would be playing as she wasn't good enough and this concert could be a major stepping stone in her career. So naturally that left Song-Ah dejected to no end and I've really hated the way Lee has treated her. If Song-Ah isn't allowed to play at the performance and practice with the orchestra how can she get better and enter graduate school? At this rate the chances are becoming quite slim, another reason for the low chance is that Song-Ah keeps putting off practicing with Joon-Young and they haven't rehearsed once. There's no doubt Song-Ah is still jealous of how well he plays with Jung-Kyung.

 Song-Ah had been at a dinner for the orchestra and at least Lee did give her credit for setting the upcoming performance up. As Song-Ah was departing the restaurant after the dinner she noticed a car stopped at a light, who should be in the back seat but Joon-Young and Jung-Kyung! Song-Ah knew the pair were practicing that night for Jung-Kyung's recital so she wasn't upset for them being together for that reason but was when she saw them together in a car. Joon-Young had told Song-Ah he couldn't see her after the rehearsal because his mother suddenly appeared in Seoul and needed to stay at his place. What he said was all true but it appeared at the very end that Song-Ah didn't believe the story and has in her mind that the pair will be spending the night together! Of course that'll never happen and this misunderstanding ends this recap and may start off the following episode.

 We're now 75% through with this series, eight more shows to go. Final episode airs on the 20th so will be taking next week off with these pair of recaps and will have four in a row shortly after the drama ends. Not sure what to view next when this is done, there are a few I'm interested in yet none are being subbed. "Startup" begins on October 17th and that's a show I will be checking out, if it's a solid drama that will be up next for recaps.