Tuesday 17 January 2012

Tianwa Yang and Paganini

I had intended to listen to Sibelius's seventh symphony this evening, but became side-tracked when looking for a particular disc and ended up listening to Paganini's 24 Capricci instead. Highly enjoyable; the violinist was the extraordinary Tianwa Yang when she was young (!) – only 13 years old when this recording was made. But her considerable virtues as a violinist were much in evidence, even then: a silvery tone that becomes rich and golden only when justified by the music; a refusal to wow us with a stream of beautiful sound; an amazing clarity of diction and articulation (to borrow from practitioners of the spoken word); a formidable bowing arm; impeccable intonation; impeccable taste; her sensitivity to the nuances of the passages she is playing. Her accuracy in double-stopped passages is quite amazing, and it sounds almost as if two violinists are playing a duet. The CD is an object lesson in the performance of these evergreen exercises-cum-vignettes.

A good evening was completed with a simple but highly enjoyable meal of smoked salmon, filet steak, fresh fruit salad. A good Monday evening.

1 comment:

Lee said...

Wow! Another rave review for Tianwa Yang. She is really some violinist - even at 13 yrs old. How did you get this? Not easily available - I'm sure.