Ning Feng plays Bach

Back home from Asia, with the wind howling and the rain pouring, it is a good occasion to sit back and listen to old favourites. This evening it was Ning Feng (who better?) playing unaccompanied Bach. The music is wonderful, as is Ning Feng's playing. Technically he is immaculate, of course, but he also varies his bowing and dynamics to hold the interest and vary the sound. The chaconne of the second partita as presented here is a rare treat for lovers of Johann Sebastian Bach, chaconnes, and superb violin playing.

Ning Feng is now 38 years old and, presumably, at the height of his career. Formidable violinists proliferate at the moment; interesting violinists are rarer, and Mr Feng's violin playing is both subtle and interesting. I greatly enjoyed his Bach playing this evening, for the music, for the playing, and for the absence of “cult of personality” in the violin playing. Modern Bach at its best.