Leia Zhu plays Saint-Saëns

One often has the impression listening to the music for violin and orchestra of Camille Saint-Saëns that the soloist has played it once too often (particularly in the cases of the Havanaise, and the Rondo Capriccioso). Not so the new recording by an 18 year old girl called Leia Zhu. The performances of the two works sound fresh and youthful. Ms Zhu can be tender; she can be fierce. Dynamics are admirably varied; technique is impeccable. I enjoyed the performance here of the first concerto, but particularly of the second.

I got to know the Saint-Saëns second concerto years ago by the Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis. In the second movement, Gitlis slobbered all over the lovely themes and indulged in an ugly on-off vibrato I have never forgotten. It was so awful! Ms Zhu is far more tasteful, and gives a lovely performance of the work.

The CD is well recorded and well balanced, and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Griffiths makes an admirable contribution. Altogether, a highly satisfactory CD to which I shall often return, particularly for Leia Zhu's fresh, tasteful and enthusiastic playing.

Maria Dueñas astonishes in Paganini

Niccolò Paganini was a great virtuoso of the violin. Also, by all contemporary accounts, he was a great showman, as befits someone growing up in the early 19th century Italian operatic world. His 24 Capricci are not merely technical exercises, and we can imagine Paganini's playing wooing and astonishing according to the music. I was thus really impressed with the CD of the capricci from Maria Dueñas, still in her late teens when the recording was made, I think. I like the way she personalises the capricci; to her, they are not mere etudes. She has a wide dynamic range, and an incredible technique that means you are not constantly alert for weaknesses.

Even though I've heard Paganini's capricci a couple of times too often, after nearly 70 years of listening, Ms Duenas held my attention, and I found her playing fascinating. She certainly individualises these pieces, and one would never confuse her playing here with any of her many rivals. The way she makes the music swoon and swoop brings a true Mediterranean flavour to it, unlike the more sober renditions of James Ehnes, Ning Feng, Augustin Hadelich, Alina Ibragimova, Leonidas Kavakos, and many other excellent versions of note. Whenever I want to hear the capricci again, I'll turn to Maria Dueñas before anyone else. A subjective approach to much music is normally discouraged, and I am not eager to hear Maria Dueñas in Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven. But she's the girl to rival Paganini's showmanship and willingness to wallow in the music.

The Bennewitz String Quartet in 1784

An admirable new CD purports to reproduce an evening in Vienna in 1784 where Josef Haydn played the first violin, Mozart the viola, Baron von Dittersdorf the second violin, and Johann Baptist Vanhal the cello in an evening of string quartets written by the four players. Mozart's "Dissonant" quartet is familiar, as is Haydn's Op 33 No.5. Less well known are Dittersdorf's E flat quartet, and Vanhal's A major quartet. The four composers and their music are reunited on this splendid recording by the Bennewitz String Quartet, given its usual first class recording by the Supraphon team. All four works are highly enjoyable, the Vanhal perhaps being a big surprise, coming from a composer of whom I had never heard (his name is also sometimes spelled as "Wanhal"). Here, von Dittersdorf is in fourth place.

The Bennewitz Quartet has to be one of the very best currently playing. The four players are beautifully integrated, and play like one giant player with eight hands. This is a CD to keep at hand for whenever one wants to sit back and just listen to first-class music, expertly played and recorded. If it were not for the fact that it is still February, this would be my Record of the Year for 2025. But it's early days, yet.