Award-winning Chinese violinist Ning Feng will play all 10 violin sonatas by Beethoven in three concerts at the Shenzhen Concert Hall on Sept. 13 to mark the German composer’s 250th birth anniversary. Huang Qiuning will play the piano.
Ning Feng. Lawrence-Tsang
Beethoven’s violin sonatas sit at the heart of the repertoire for violin and piano. They are time-honored favorites of violinists, pianists and music lovers and reflect the great composer’s determination to make the interrelationship between the violin and the piano intimate and to create a more even and intricate balance between the two instruments than had previously existed in the genre.
Ning is recognized internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. Blessed with an impeccable technique and a silken tone, his violin sound colors range from intimate delicacy to a ferocious intensity. The Berlin-based Chinese violinist performs across the globe with major orchestras and conductors, in recital and chamber concerts.
Ning studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin with Antje Weithaas and the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hu Kun.
The recipient of prizes at the Hanover International, Queen Elisabeth and Yehudi Menuhin International violin competitions, Ning was first prize winner of the 2005 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and in 2006 won first prize in the Paganini Competition.
Ning records for Channel Classics in the Netherlands and his new disc “Virtuosismo” featuring Paganini’s “Violin Concerto No. 1” and Vieuxtemps’ “Violin Concerto No. 4” was released in September 2019. His earlier recording of Bach’s complete solo works for violin was hailed by Gramophone as “the illusion of a freewheeling conversation projected from within.”
Other discs include recordings of the Elgar and Finzi violin concertos with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky violin concerto and Bruch’s “Scottish Fantasy” with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, “Apasionado” with the Orchestra Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias featuring works by Sarasate, Lalo, Ravel and Bizet/Waxman, two releases with the Dragon Quartet featuring string quartets by Schubert, Dvorak, Borodin, Shostakovich and Weinberg, and two CDs of violin solo repertoire.
Ning plays a 1721 Stradivari violin, known as the “MacMillan.”
Time: 2 p.m. (sonatas 1-4), 4:30 p.m. (sonatas 5-7), 8 p.m. (sonatas 8-10), Sept. 13
Tickets: 180-480 yuan (The price is for one concert. Audience members who buy all three concerts’ tickets in the same price level can enjoy 15 percent off. No discounts for the 180-yuan tickets. Tickets can be purchased on WeChat account “szyyt_piao”)
Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, Futian District (福田区深圳音乐厅)
Metro: Line 3 or 4 to Children’s Palace Station (少年宫站), Exit D