CD REVIEW
– CHRISTIAN
LI
DISCOVERING MENDELSSOHN
Decca 485 3987
[70:41]
Christian Li was
born in Australia to Chinese
parents in 2007. Beginning to
play the violin aged five, at age
10 he was the youngest winner
ever of the junior prize at the
Yehudi Menuhin International
Competition for Young Violinists.
In 2020 he became the youngest
musician to sign for Decca
Classics, and two years ago his
first album, Vivaldi's 'The
Four Seasons', was an
immediate classical chart topper
on its release.
This, his second
album, includes pieces by
Mendelssohn (1809-47) and the
equally short-lived Mozart
(1756-91), who are among the most
tuneful of classical composers,
and it ought not be passed by.
Li follows in the
footsteps of the first-named to
Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Munich,
Venice and London; all places
that influenced the composer
throughout his musical life. A
bravura performance of his 27½
minute Violin Concerto in E
minor, accompanied by the
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
(MSO) under Sir Andrew Davis,
forms the centrepiece of the
album.
Other pieces by
Mendelssohn are On Wings of
Song with chamber ensemble
and harpist Yinuo Mu, a lively Rondo
capriccioso – like Li,
written as a teenager – and Spring
Song and Venetian
Gondola Song from ‘Songs
Without Words', the latter
with Xuefei Yang on guitar. A
couple of items are in
arrangements by the
much-in-demand Simon Parkin.
As well as
Mozart's cheery Violin Sonata
No.2, a tad over 11 minutes
is taken up by Schubert's Serenade
from his 'Swan Song',
and JS Bach's Have mercy, my
God from his 'St Matthew
Passion', which features
David Berlin's solo cello.
Pianists Laurence
Matheson and James Baillieu share
four of the album's tracks with
Li, who plays a 1737 ex-Paulsen
Guarneri del Gesł violin, on
loan from a generous benefactor.
The recordings
were made 'Down Under' in the
Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne
Recital Centre, and in the UK at
The Menuhin Hall, Cobham, Surrey.
It is a very
listenable album, with some
well-known melodies, played by a
phenomenally gifted young
performer.
©
Peter Burt, July 2023
|
