Ning Feng

Ning Feng – Virtuosismo: Paganini & Vieuxtemps (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:08:19 minutes | 2,15 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Channel Classics

From his first spectacular performance the eleven-year-old violin prodigy Niccolò Paganini took Italy and the rest of Europe by storm. His success as a virtuoso was due both to his mysterious, demonic aura and to his unsurpassed technique, with countless double stops, flageolets, pizzicatos, and his habit of playing only on the G string. Many considered him to be the best violinist of their age. We are proud to have violinist Ning Feng, hailed for his great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity and blessed with an impeccable technique and a silken tone, perform Paganini’s virtuosic violin concerto in D major.

Another child prodigy of that time was Henry Vieuxtemps, who enjoyed an outstanding career as a violinist from the age of six, studying in Vienna and Paris and touring Europe, Russia and the USA. The concerto No. 4 in D minor was his own favourite concerto.

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Ning Feng – Paganini: 24 Caprices + 1 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:19:29 minutes | 2,66 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Channel Classics

Paganini’s success as a violin virtuoso was naturally only partly based on the fantastical, mysterious and demonic atmosphere that surrounded him. What his professional admirers captivated most of all was his unparalleled playing technique. The best impression of his musical and technical accomplishment can be gained from his most talkedabout work, the 24 Caprices opus 1 (1817), which were modelled on the similarly named pieces by Pietro Locatelli (1733). To this day the 24 Caprices are still considered the bible of violin technique. Ning Feng, First Prize winner at the 2006 International Violin Competition Premio Paganini, gives us a fresh take on his 2017 Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin, and concludes the program with the remarkable Caprice d’Adieu.

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Ning Feng – Bach – Partitas and Sonatas for solo violin (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:27:11 minutes | 4,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Channel Classics

The album establishes Feng as the first Chinese violinist to have recorded all six of Bach’s Partitas and Sonatas, regarded to be the pinnacle of the solo violin repertoire. It is also Feng’s third solo release after Solo and Solo 2. Feng says of the album: “Bach’s solo works have always been a part of my musical life … and I started recording these masterworks… to pay my tribute to the greatest musician of all time.”

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Ning Feng – Elgar & Finzi : Violin Concertos (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:05 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Channel Classics

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has played Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, many times, but the work gets new dashes of flavor here from Chinese violinist Ning Feng and Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto. Regardless of your reaction to them, this release from Channel Classics is worth your time for the inclusion of the delightful little Violin Concerto by Gerald Finzi, which did not have its premiere until 1999. Few recordings are available. The blame for the work’s suppression lies with Finzi himself, who considered it an imperfect youthful effort. Perhaps the middle movement lacks the concision of the other two (this was his objection), but it’s an exceptionally attractive little neoclassical work, and Finzi was 26 when he wrote it, no teenager. Sample the vigorous hornpipe rondo finale. In the Elgar, Feng studiously avoids the work’s reputation for sentimentality, and one could wish for a bit more expression to be applied, say, in the lower register at the beginning of the first movement. The slow movement is ethereal, however, with Prieto keeping the energy moving in an even flow and Feng handling the abundant technical challenges with ease. You may favor his interpretation, and with the Finzi you will be getting in almost on the ground floor.

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