Julia Fischer plays Sarasate

As a paid-up member of the Sarasate fan club, I immediately bought Julia Fischer's new CD of Sarasate vignettes for violin and piano. A superb CD with an attractive selection of pieces and highly virtuostic violin playing. Strongly recommended. Sarasate's music has delighted violinists and audiences for around 150 years now and looks a safe bet for the next 150 since it is attractively tuneful and beautifully written for the violin.

Inevitably I compared Ms Fischer in Sarasate to Tianwa Yang, who recently recorded eight CDs of all Sarasate's music for violin and piano, and violin and orchestra. Both the Chinese and the German are technically completely on top of the music. Comparing them is a bit like having to compare a good coq au vin with a good boeuf Bourguignon; Tianwa Yang comes over as the more sophisticated player, drawing attention a little more to the music and a little less to virtuoso violin technique. Julia Fischer is more of a bravura player here, and one notices first and foremost her exquisite violin playing and slightly self-conscious virtuosity. I compared Zigeunerweisen back-to-back and liked both, though Fischer takes fully one minute less over this eight minutes-or-so piece compared with Tianwa. Have to have both.