SOLO RECITAL IN JORDAN HALL, BOSTON

"Musical advocacy, with broadly eloquent tone, generosity of expression and superb technique... Feng captured the hearts of those present. He “owned” the work, and we had the chance to hear his mastery."

BRAHMS & GOLDMARK, VIOLIN CONCERTOS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“marvellously exciting, his thoughtful cadenza is absolutely stunning… the sweetness and tenderness in Feng’s sound is absolutely beautiful.”

RECORDING : BRAHMS VIOLIN SONATAS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“Ning Feng and Zee Zee (also known as Zhang Zuo) create an intimate, homey atmosphere rather than seeming to play to the last row of a recital hall.

Technically, Feng’s playing is beyond reproach. His tone is simply ravishing, even when it soars into the stratosphere – try, say, in the coda of Op 78’s first movement (at 9'42") or near the end of Op 100’s Andante tranquillo (at 5'17") – and his double-stops are always immaculately in tune. He and Zee Zee sound exceptionally well matched, too, and not just in terms of singing tone, clarity of articulation and far-sighted phrasing but also because their playing is always heartfelt but never heart-on-the-sleeve.”

RECORDING : BRAHMS VIOLIN SONATAS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“From the beginning there's a superb rapport between them; they create rapt, almost candlelit atmospheres that can pull you in and hold you through to the end.”

RECORDING : BRAHMS VIOLIN SONATAS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“Ning Feng presents the violin sonatas in an amiable, intimate and lived through way in flawless (perfectly in tune), lively and lilting dialogues with the talented pianist Zee Zee. His Brahms album is a true ode to the composer and to the noble art of the violin playing.”

RECORDING : BRAHMS VIOLIN SONATAS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“With beauty of tone and easy access, the performers show their sophisticated instrumental skills. In general, Feng and Zee move through these classics of chamber music with a seemingly natural simplicity. In this way, they create a cohesive world that doesn’t sweep you away, but doesn’t scare you off with excessive pathos either.”

RECORDING : PAGANINI: 24 CAPRICES + 1 (CHANNEL CLASSICS)  

“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...Ning’s mastery of the technical difficulties is so complete that he can concentrate on the narrative, poetic operatic content of each piece."

RECORDING : PAGANINI: 24 CAPRICES + 1 (CHANNEL CLASSICS)  

"Ning Feng, who lifts the music out of the flashy virtuoso catchment and places it squarely among the noble masterpieces for the instrument...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 who wouldn’t normally gravitate to a sequence of 25 unaccompanied violin miniatures. The more you listen, the more you want to listen."

RECORDING : PAGANINI: 24 CAPRICES + 1 (CHANNEL CLASSICS)  

"How would the violin legend and composer Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) have reacted if he heard Ning Feng play his capriccios? Maybe he would have made them more difficult. The 24 capriccios for solo violin, published in 1817, are considered the bible for violin technique. They are intended to showcase the virtuosity, to raise the bar of the violin playing.

But Ning Feng cycles through it so whistling that the unsuspecting listener will hardly realize what complex finger grips it takes to suggest that two violinists are playing at the same time. He recorded the solos, with the Caprice d'adieu as an encore, which began last year in the Remonstrant church of Renswoude. It is beautiful how much ear he has for Paganini's imitation of other instruments.

The thrill of listening to virtuoso pieces is that you hear and feel that someone is being challenged, usually it júst 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."

SCHUBERT / SCHUBERTIADE SCHWARZENBERG 

“Levit and Feng dazzle….They partnered each other beautifully in tone, general musicality and sense of phrase. Two friends were at ease with Schubert and each other, and they were clearly enjoying themselves.”

“The thrill of listening to virtuoso pieces is that you hear and feel that someone is being challenged, usually it júst 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."

RECORDING : ELGAR & FINZI VIOLIN CONCERTOS / ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA COND. CARLOS MIGUEL PRIETO (CHANNEL CLASSICS 2018)   

"Ning Feng makes light work of Elgar’s challenging intricacies, ensuring the music shimmers and takes flight….Feng also avoids the interpretative pitfall of over-ruminating, yet when the music turns magically inward … he finds a way of capturing its half-whispered intimacy without becoming bogged down in a mire of portamento-laden espressivo."

PAGANINI VIOLIN CONCERTO NO.1 / SÃO PAULO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA TOUR, COND. MARIN ALSOP / JINAN, BEIJING, HONG KONG    

"The Chinese musician's astounding technique is undeniable. But along with his furious double-stopped passages and largely whistle-clean harmonics, which drew audible gasps of disbelief and admiration, Feng also showed his musical depth, producing an ever sweet and focused sound"

TCHAIKOVSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO / CALGARY PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, COND. RUNE BERGMANN 

"Everywhere his playing was tremendously, even miraculously, fluent. The demanding opening movement had everything one could want in technical command, and the slow movement was poetry itself. But the best came at the end, with a lickety-split final movement...This was, however, not just fast playing, it was also clear as a bell, with every note audible.”

MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO / ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, COND. ADAM HICKOX 

“The delicate tone and thoughtful phrasing continued in a serene central andante, while the violinist showcased the nimblest of virtuosic technique in a finale that was very speedy and certainly ‘molto vivace’ – ably abetted by a similarly fleetfooted Phil.”

KORNGOLD VIOLIN CONCERTO / HALLÉ ORCHESTRA / COND. RODOLFO BARRAEZ 

“From the very first notes our soloist Ning Feng took a more introspective approach than some players and, as a result, the first movement was serious and gripping throughout. He played with an exquisite sweetness that had the audience hanging on every note.”

BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO / AUCKLAND PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA, COND. GIORDANO BELLINCAMPI 

"With every note given its due weight and nuance, it was Feng's sweet unfaltering lyricism that registered most vividly; not only in the Larghetto but throughout the dramatic reach of the first movement. It seemed significant that he chose Fritz Kreisler's very romantic cadenza and gave us understated, almost whispered Bach at encore time."

TCHAIKOVSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO / NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, COND. GIANANDREA NOSEDA 

"He elicited a honeyed tone from the 1721 “MacMillan” Stradivarius, dulcet and never raucous in his hands….in the third movement, as light as it was lively, every note was clean and distinct in off-the-string passages. In the little folkish interludes, the NSO made a charming imitation of some droning, homespun instrument, capped by the growling huskiness of Ning’s G-string sound."

BRAHMS VIOLIN CONCERTO / BOURNEMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, COND. MICHAEL SEAL 

"The overall approach was serious, musically thought out and structured; the soloist had great technical ease, youthful virility, a sweet sound and the ability to phrase as if singing, enabling one to listen afresh to what may sometimes seem overly cosy and familiar in performance."

BRUCH SCOTTISH FANTASY / HONG KONG PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, COND. YANG YANG 

"We could not help being captured by his silky and warm tone...The soloist’s flawless handling of pianissimo high notes and double stops put paid to any doubts about his mastery of the instrument"

J.S. BACH SOLO VIOLIN SONATAS AND PARTITAS (CHANNEL CLASSICS, 2018) 

"Ning Feng's solo Bach is quite unlike anyone else's... it's the illusion of a freewheeling conversation projected from within that held me captive... - that, and the expressive scope of his playing, emotionally potent yet with the most discreet use of vibrato... there are other players on the current circuit whose Bach-playing on disc I greatly admire... but Feng's manner catches my breath in the way theirs doesn't, quite."

PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH: VIOLIN CONCERTOS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

"...Ning proves once again that he is one of the best violinists in the world....With the Bochumer Symphoniker led by the orchestra's Taiwanese chief conductor Tung-Chieh Chuang, he recorded Shostakovich and Prokofiev's First Violin Concertos. The result creeps mercilessly under your skin. Like that seemingly endless cadenza in Shostakovich's third movement; Ning's piercing tone is like a hypnotic mantra....In the finale, wild, folksy and rousing, Chuang lets the woodwinds dominate shrilly and the passacaglia theme is highlighted for a moment, but then Ning, rising far above technique, hammers things up in a blazing accelerando to the final notes."

PROKOFIEV & SHOSTAKOVICH : VIOLIN CONCERTOS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“Ning Feng plays the opening melody of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto with veiled, mournful tone, before demonstrating gleaming, beautifully focused sound in the heights of the E string… The Scherzo snaps and sparkles, surging along on a wave of impeccable technique.  Ning Feng is supple in the long-breathed melodies of the third movement, which he moulds with magisterial control, variously sinuous, caustic and luminous. This is an altogether winning performance.”

ELGAR VIOLIN CONCERTO / ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, COND. VASILY PETRENKO 

"The Chinese violinist Ning Feng gave a rich-toned and muscular account [of Elgar's violin concerto]. It may not have been in what one might call the English tradition, but the scope of the Elgar concerto can take it and there was real musical depth to the performance. As always, in its final bars, there was an overwhelming sense that soloist and orchestra were returning from a very distant place after a long journey. Ning Feng’s encore, Paganini’s variations on God Save the King, was absolutely dazzling."

RECORDING : PAGANINI / VIEUXTEMPS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“His silvery tonal purity, immaculate intonation and gently beguiling musicality have a way of making most other players sound decidedly effortful by comparison, however.

Feng’s playing is so commanding throughout – the tricky first movement cadenza and third movement scherzo are almost impossibly silky-smooth – that one is left in absolutely no doubt who the real star of the show is. It sets the seal on arguably Feng’s finest release to date, captured in alluringly natural sound.”

RECORDING : PAGANINI / VIEUXTEMPS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

"His empathy and sovereign technique guarantee magical moments."

RECORDING : PAGANINI / VIEUXTEMPS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

"The Chinese violinist’s distinctive, honey-sweet timbre suits these two contrasting showcases by virtuoso violinist-composers to perfection: Feng wears their often fearsome technical demands disarmingly lightly, and is fully alive to the operatic qualities of the Paganini in particular, phrasing bel canto melodies and filigree passagework like a nineteenth-century diva at the top of her game."

RECORDING: PAGANINI / VIEUXTEMPS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

“He seems to have time and technique to spare, so much so that I found myself wondering if it robbed Paganini."

“An absolute delight to hear a violinist so at ease with Paganini. So beautifully equipped to deal elegantly with any demand that he makes."

RECORDING: PAGANINI / VIEUXTEMPS (CHANNEL CLASSICS) 

"a wonderful player with a creamy, easy tone and an emotional honesty….The Tchaikovsky concerto showcased an ability to bring flair and warmth beyond the virtuosity, and to take risks. I hope the NSO is bringing him back."

MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO / NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, COND. DIMA SLOBODENIOUK 

"His podium presence is understated: thoughtful, expressive but not flamboyant bowing--he lets the music speak for itself…Feng was fearless. He handled the fast scales, the arpeggios, all of the technical hurdles with skill."

MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO / NEW JERSEY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, COND. DIMA SLOBODENIOUK 

"Feng dug in with vigor plumbing the nuances of virtually every passage…he also delivered the most tender passages in a bright and spirited pace - providing some of his most lyrical playing of the evening.

The famous third movement was something to truly behold"