“From the fabulously virtuosic first, the trademark rapid string skittering is exhilaratingly done..Feng’s sound has great warmth in the lower register and lightness up top – there is nothing grandstandingly showy here, but a virtuosic truth to the music, which might sound contradictory given that we are talking about Paganini, but brings remarkable clarity.”
BBC Music Magazine, March 2021,
THE STRAD RECOMMENDS
“Stunning virtuosity from a violinist who holds a musical universe in his hands… This disc, containing Paganini playing that drives every other performance out of my mind while I am listening to it, makes me a Ning Feng fan. The Berlin-based Chinese violinist…clearly at his peak when he made it in January 2020.
The Strad March 2021
“Many violinists will be humbled by Ning Feng’s musical and technical capabilities but more important than that is his ability to make the music palatable for listeners…. The more you listen, the more you want to listen. The competition is fierce… But Ning Feng is up there with the best of them, and he’s beautifully recorded to boot.”
Gramophone March 2021
“The thrill of listening to virtuoso pieces is that you hear and feel that someone is being challenged, usually it just works out.. We have now reached such a level that that element has disappeared. And that without any “look at me”. The decapricciofication is complete, what remains is music full of passion. Ning Feng has played out Paganini.”
de Volkskrant February 2021 ★★★★★
