Thursday 24 June 2010

It is difficult to hold the attention of a listener for a solid hour of "salon pieces" for violin and piano. Even if the composer is Sarasate. But, I have to say that Tianwa Yang managed it this evening. Many, many violinists have recorded a selection of Sarasate's Danses Espagnoles: Heifetz, Hassid and Kogan spring immediately to mind as benchmarks. But Ms Yang is a virtuoso in the true sense of the word and, moreover, she has a sure instinct for Sarasate's style and for the colour palette of the violin. St Klaus of Naxos has signed her up to record all Sarasate's music and I shall buy the complete collection with alacrity as and when the CDs are release. Playing like this is not to be missed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You CAN'T ommit Ricci-Persinger. I know you don't like him, but IMO there wasn't a better Sarasate.

Harry Collier said...

Early Ricci Sarasate was very good, I agree. But so was Katrin Scholz (1999) one of my personal favourites. And many others .... Sarasate has been lucky (there is even Sarasate playing Sarasate). Some performances, however are special (like Hassid, Kogan and Heifez). And I would add Tianwa Yang to these.