Tianwa Yang, a Chinese violinist who was a mere 17 years old when this disc was recorded, shows prodigal talent in a recital of music by Pablo de Sarasate, one of the Victorian era's great violinists. (Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson take the afternoon off to go and hear him in The Red-Headed League.) Lacking recordings, we know the violinists of the nineteenth century partly by the music they wrote for themselves. In the music explored here, Sarasate stressed his Spanish heritage, evoking the flamenco and rural dance forms ...
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Tianwa Yang, a Chinese violinist who was a mere 17 years old when this disc was recorded, shows prodigal talent in a recital of music by Pablo de Sarasate, one of the Victorian era's great violinists. (Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson take the afternoon off to go and hear him in The Red-Headed League.) Lacking recordings, we know the violinists of the nineteenth century partly by the music they wrote for themselves. In the music explored here, Sarasate stressed his Spanish heritage, evoking the flamenco and rural dance forms of Spain with considerable subtlety. He did not turn to sheer fireworks as often as Paganini did, but there are still plenty of them in evidence on this program, and Yang turns them into fire and smoke. Sample track 3, the Malagueña, Op. 21/1, for an example of a difficult left-hand pizzicato passage executed with the kind of explosive snap that makes the audience sit up and quit rifling through the program notes. In matters of rhythm and articulation Yang is equally effective; each...
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