It is highly debatable whether Grillparzer (a contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert) knew Bach’s six works for violin solo. Nevertheless he manages in this poem, without actually intending to do so, to go right to their core. It seems as if Bach demands the extremes from the violin, even more than it is capable of.

Was there any violinist during Bach’s lifetime capable of playing them? Maybe Pisendel, the leading German violinist of his time? Or had he intended his solo works for none other than himself? We still aren’t sure, but what is for sure is that Ning Feng would have impressed Bach with his reading of the complicated chords and figurations.

Established at the highest level in China, Feng performs regularly with major international and local orchestras, in recital and with the Dragon Quartet which he founded in 2012. Now based in Berlin and enjoying a global career, Ning Feng has developed a reputation internationally as an artist of great lyricism and emotional transparency, displaying tremendous bravura and awe-inspiring technical accomplishment.

Played on a 1721 Stradivari violin, known as the ‘MacMillan’

A ‘tribute to the greatest musician of all time’ – Ning Feng