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Session Report: Violinist Ning Feng on recording the Goldmark and Brahms violin concertos

2026-01-02T10:12:00

Session report

Violinist Ning Feng speaks to Harry White about recording two contrasting 19th-century concertos – Goldmark’s First and Brahms’s mighty warhorse – and how he strives to serve the voice of the composer above all

Karl Goldmark did it the hard way. Born in 1830 in a small Hungarian village into a poor family, he was one of many children. Both his schooling and his musical education were haphazard and he was largely self-taught. But at the age of 14 he was sent to Vienna, where he eventually studied violin under the formidable pedagogue Georg Böhm. Thereafter, he grew into a leading musical figure of the city as a composer and music journalist. In 1877 Goldmark wrote his Violin Concerto no.1 which, despite apparent scepticism from fellow critic Eduard Hanslick, became his most frequently performed work…

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