Highlights from 2015
2015 has been a major year for Ning Feng. Highlights have included his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall, returns to the Singapore Symphony and to the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester with their Chief Conductor Ivan Fischer. In chamber music he returned to the Heidelberger Frühling festival and Kissinger Sommer and he joined the Hong Kong Philharmonic and their Music Director van Zweden on their landmark tour of Europe which included concerts in London, at the Tonhalle Zurich and Vienna’s Musikverein.
Looking ahead to the remainder of the 15/16, highlights include his debut with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, KBS Symphony (Seoul) and at the Schubertiade and to returning to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Western Australian Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia and Liszt Chamber orchestras.
Here are the highlights from the press:
“as the first bars of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto opened – so simple, so mild, so profound – the players visibly relaxed… Perhaps it was the confidence of knowing that their soloist, Ning Feng, had the music so fully under his skin and in his soul that he had begun to shape his performance even before he lifted his bow… Ning’s cool, slippery sound soared like a bird, the triplets beautifully shaped, the double-stopping in the Kreisler cadenzas pure and true, his vibrato lightly applied, just another colour in the palette.” The Times, March 2015 (Hong Kong Philharmonic, London)
“There are moments which you are glad to have witnessed, and one of these was the ‘Meistertrio im Kloster’ concert. They worked together well from the off: violinist Feng Ning, pianist Konstantin Shamray and cellist Kian Soltani… The three musicians broke entirely with this tradition and took a candid approach to the works, focusing on the power of the ideas and on realising them in as sculptural and entertaining a way as possible. It was wonderful to see how they interacted with each other and allowed themselves to be swept away by their own enthusiasm.” In Franken, June 2015 (Kissinger Sommer, Münnerstadt)
“Berlin-based Chinese violinist Ning Feng’s gentle opening notes of the Sibelius violin concerto were beautifully rounded, and his performance of the rest of the concerto showed great mastery of technique and tone production. Multiple prize-winning Feng’s playing was always admirable, and he produced some of the best violin tone heard at the Esplanade in recent times – strong and even from top to bottom” Straits Times, August 2015 (Singapore Symphony, Singapore)