Virtuosismo
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1; Vieuxtemps: Violin Concerto No. 4 Ning Feng (violin) Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias/
Rossen Milanov
Channel Classics CCS 40719 68:20 mins Even in a market flooded with Paganini Ones, Ning Feng’s seemingly effortless, unflashy virtuosity really takes some believing. Whatever Paganini throws into the technical melting pot – high-speed chains of multiple stoppings (always especially challenging moving upwards), forced harmonics, high-wire acrobatics on all four strings, fingered octaves, left-hand pizzicato, and every conceivable style of ricochet, staccato and spiccato bowing – Feng emerges completely unscathed. Indeed, so complete is his command of every parameter that after a while one almost forgets the strenuous difficulty involved. But he’s not be a big-personality player like, say, Michael Rabin, Itzhak Perlman or Yehudi Menuhin (whose stereo account with Alberto Erede, despite the occasional rough edge and traditional cuts, uniquely makes Op. 6 sound like a bona fide masterpiece). His silvery tonal purity, immaculate intonation and gently beguiling musicality have a way of making most other players sound decidedly effortful by comparison, however.
Usefully, Feng opts to couple Op. 6 with Vieuxtemps’s Fourth Concerto, possibly the composer’s finest work. Here, in the haunting, extended orchestral introduction (which occupies virtually half the opening movement), Rossen Milanov and the fine Spanish orchestra of which he is music director, create a gloriously brooding atmosphere, so much so that one almost forgets that it this a concerto rather than a symphony. Mind you, Feng’s playing is so commanding throughout – the tricky first movement cadenza and third movement scherzo are almost impossibly silky-smooth – that one is left in absolutely no doubt who the real star of the show is. It sets the seal on arguably Feng’s finest release to date, captured in alluringly natural sound. Julian Haylock PERFORMANCE ★★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★★