Xuefei (guitar) and Ning Feng (violin) have been friends since their time at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Both successful soloists on their respective instruments, and this time they reunite with a program of music for violin and guitar.

 

 

Known as the devil on the violin, Paganini is the perfect centre for the program as he also played guitar and wrote the Sonata Concertata for the combination. In addition Ning Feng is also a former winner of the Paganini competition. Schubert was also a natural choice. Not only did he use a guitar to compose (so it’s said), but having heard Paganini play in Vienna in 1828, Schubert wrote “I have heard an angel sing.”

Whilst both artists enjoy international careers, the program also pays homage to their shared homeland with a selection of pieces from the East. As a mark of their friendship each also plays a solo chosen from the core repertoire of the other instrument.

 

 

Ning Feng is recognised internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. He performs across the globe with major orchestras and conductors, and in recital and chamber concerts in some of the most important international series and festivals. The Washington Post has described him as “a wonderful player with a creamy, easy tone and an emotional honesty” and Gramophone magazine said of his recent Brahms Sonatas recording that his “tone is simply ravishing, even when it soars into the stratosphere…”.

 

Highlights in the 24/25 season include performance with Academy of St Martin in -the Fields on a tour to China, Aalborg Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestras. In recent seasons Ning Feng has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, National Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras in the US. In Europe he performs regularly with the very top orchestras, including Bavarian Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Vienna Radio, Helsinki Philharmonic and Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra and in the UK with orchestras including London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony. Elsewhere, he returned recently to the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony and KBS Symphony in Seoul. Conductors with whom he has worked include Gianandrea Noseda, Marin Alsop, Tugan Sokhiev, Vassily Petrenko, Long Yu, Jia Lv, Muhai Tang, Guoyong Zhang, Yang Yang, Xincao Li, Yi Zhang, Daye Lin, Yi Huang and etc.

 

In China, Ning is held in the highest regard, appearing with all the major Chinese orchestras, in recital and regularly with visiting international orchestras such as Hong Kong Philharmonic, with whom he has toured Asia, Europe and Australia with van Zweden and Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer, Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester and Lawrence Foster, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In 20/21 he was Artist-in-Residence with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and in 23/24 he was the Artist-in-Residence at China NCPA where he performed the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin and play-lead NCPA Orchestra to perform Mozart’s 5 Violin Concerti. This season he will perform extensively throughout China as concerto soloist and in solo and chamber recital.

 

 

Xuefei Yang is acclaimed as one of the world’s finest classical guitarists. She was hailed as a musical pioneer. Xuefei was the first-ever guitarist in China to enter a music school, and became the first internationally recognised Chinese guitarist on the world stage. Her first public appearance was at the age of ten and received such acclaim that the Spanish Ambassador in China presented her with a concert guitar. Her debut in Madrid at the age of 14 was attended by the composer Joaquín Rodrigo and, when John Williams heard her play, he gave two of his own instruments to Beijing’s Central Conservatoire especially for her and other advanced students.

 

Xuefei was born in Beijing, and is a graduate of Beijing’s Central Conservatoire of Music, and went on to become the first Chinese musician to receive a full scholarship for postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she received the Principal’s Prize on completion of her postgraduate study.

 

Her international success has led her to be invited to play in more than 50 countries at numerous prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall, all Southbank venues, and Royal Albert Hall in London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna, Auditorio Nacional de Espana, Barcelona Auditorium, Carnegie Hall & Lincoln Center New York. In Asia she has appeared at the National Concert Hall Taipei, Hong Kong City Hall & Cultural Center, Esplanade Singapore, Seoul Arts Centre and gave the first guitar recital and concerto in the Beijing National Center of Performing Arts. Xuefei has also been invited to perform at major music festivals such as BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Shanghai MISA Festival and the Beijing international Music Festival. In 2003 she performed 54 concerts for the “Night of the Proms” Tour, appearing in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, to a total audience of over 800,000 people.

 

Xuefei is frequently invited to play with the world’s leading orchestras including Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Scotland National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, China Philharmonic. Xuefei’s recent highlights include return performances with English Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Wintertour Philharmonic, debut performances with Beijing Symphony Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra giving the Asian premier of the The Albeniz Concerto written for Xuefei by Stephen Goss, and an Australian tour with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra which marked the Australian premier of Tan Dun’s guitar concerto, performance in BBC Proms with Ulster Orchestra, and performance with Orchestre National de France on Bastille Day.

 

Guitar & Violin

 

Johann Sebastian Bach（1685-1750）
Violin Sonata in G major, BWV 1021
I. Adagio
II. Vivace
III. Largo
IV. Presto

 

Franz Schubert（1797-1828）
Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D.821
I. Allegro moderato
II.Adagio
III.Allegretto

 

Intermission

 

Guitar & Violin

 

Niccolò Paganini（1782-1840）
Sonata Concertata in A major for Guitar and Violin, MS 2
I. Allegro spiritoso
II. Adagio, assai espressivo 
III. Allegretto con brio, scherzando

Violin Solo

 

Francisco Tarrega（1852-1909）
Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of the Alhambra)

 

Guitar Solo

 

Niccolò Paganini（1782-1840）
Caprice No.24 in A minor, Tema quasi presto - Variazioni - Finale

Guitar & Violin

 

Chinese Traditional Music
Fisherman’s Song by Moonlight

Sha Hankun（1926-2023）
Pastorale

 

Fritz Kreisler（1875-1962）
Tambourin Chinois

Bartók Béla（1881-1945）
Romanian Folk Dance, Sz.56
I. Jocul cu bâtă 
II. Brâul
III. Pe loc
IV. Buciumeana
V. Poarga românească
VI. Mărunțel

* The Program is subject to change.