Ning Feng

International star violinist plays Bach and Paganini

PROGRAMME:
BACH Partita No 2 in D Minor
YSAŸE Violin Sonata No 2 in A minor Op.27 “Jacques Thibaud”
YSAŸE Violin Sonata No 6 in E major Op.27 “Manuel Quiroga”
PAGANINI Caprices No 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23, 24

Acclaimed Chinese violinist Ning Feng takes on some of the most demanding music ever written for the instrument in a solo recital that spans two centuries. The evening opens with Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D minor, a cornerstone of the violin repertoire with its monumental Chaconne. Next come two sonatas by Belgian virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, each a musical dedication to a great violinist of his day. The recital closes with eleven of Paganini’s dazzling Caprices, including the famous No. 24.

Biography

Ning Feng is recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity; “his silvery tonal purity, immaculate intonation and gently beguiling musicality have a way of making most other players sound decidedly effortful by comparison” (BBC Music Magazine). He has performed across the globe with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and in recital and chamber concerts in some of the most important international series and festivals. The Washington Post has described him as “a wonderful player with a creamy, easy tone and an emotional honesty” and Gramophone said of his Brahms Sonatas recording that “[his] tone is simply ravishing, even when it soars into the stratosphere…”

Born in Chengdu, China, Ning Feng studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music with Weimin Hu, the Hanns Eisler School of Music (Berlin) with Antje Weithaas and the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Hu Kun. He was First Prize winner of both the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition (New Zealand) and 2006 International Paganini Competition. Ning Feng plays the 1710 Stradivari violin known as the ‘Vieuxtemps Hauser’, by kind arrangement with Premiere Performances of Hong Kong, and plays on strings by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna. He lives in Berlin and is a Violin Professor at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule and also holds the position of International Chair of Violin at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Academy at Zhejiang Conservatory of Music and Vice-Dean of the Violin Institute at Sichuan Conservatory of Music.