Vilde Frang, Violin
Reviews
Spellbinding
The Strad, 1 March 2010
Sibelius:
Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47
Humoresques nos. 1, 2 & %
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto no. 1 in D major, op. 19
Vilde Frang with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne/Thomas Søndergård
EMI Classics 6 844132
Even bearing in mind such timeless accounts of the Sibelius as those by Jascha Heifetz (RCA), Isaac Stern (Sony) and Christian Ferras (EMI DVD), Vilde Frang is just that extra bit special. Supported to the hilt by Thomas Søndergård and his outstanding Cologne Orchestra, Frang weaves an emotional narrative that is utterly spellbinding, from the work's ravishingly cool, vibratoless opening bars to the bracingly exultant finale.
What makes this recording so special is not so much Frang's seductive, sinewy yet voluptuous tone, nor her effortless technical mastery; it is her startling emotional sincerity and inspired musical imagination that rivet the attention. Phrases that one has heard turned with indifference countless times before are nurtured and caressed by Frang with such daring expressive openness and honesty that it feels as though the music's inner soul is being revealed for the very first time.
The magic continues in the Prokofiev, whose dreamy opening Frang shapes with an exquisite sensitivity to rival even Schlomo Mintz (DG) and David Oistrakh (EMI). In the whiplash scherzo, she somehow finds time to characterise Prokofiev's moto perpetuo figurations with a myriad of subtle phrasal inflections that reveal the human side of this exhilarating outburst of mechanistic mayhem. The Sibelius Humoresques are no less revelatory, making the perfect end to a luminously engineered disc that is surely bound for classic status.
By: Julian Haylock
Magnificent
Jyllandsposten, 6 February 2010
Although Carl Nielsen was a violinist himself he composed as tortuosly for the violin as for all other instruments. Precisely because of this it was wonderful to hear his at once inspired and strained violin concerto from 1912 played with so much drama, surfeit and unreserved aggression as the still only 23 year old Vilde Frang plays it. Annoyingly the orchestra and conductor Lan Shui did not follow up on her furious interpretation. They seemed, in spite of solid security, to be in a more indolent and less energetic sphere.
An Intense Sonority Of Poetry
Politiken, 6 February 2010
"The wonder violinist Vilde Frang delivered virtuosity and poetry"
Together with a Copenhagen Philharmonic full of energy the young Norwegian comet Vilde Frang played a mindblowing concert in the old Radio House.
Most of the time Vilde Frang played with her eyes closed. Completely devoted to Carl Nielsen's cunningly playing violin concerto, attempting to create an intense sonority of poetry and free play. In a forestgreen dress without music and with her troll hair let down, Frang resembled a fairy tale character from the Norwegian mountains about to conquer the city with intuitive and natural means. But appearances were deceptive. Frang did conquer the concert hall but it was as a professional artist in control to the fingertips (...)
It was impressing how the violinists stole the image in the beautiful concert hall. Vilde Frang accomplished the task with Carl Nielsen's music with nuances and vigour. (...)
The concert was, according to the composer, supposed to be "eventful, popular and splendid without becoming superficial". That is - both poetically and musically challenging in an image of sound that is at the same time full of violin virtuosity and simple romance. Vilde Frang kept the balance by changing between long, coherent phrases of vibrant notes and tight conclusions. With her natural authority she created an elbowroom for herself in which she could slow down the tempo to make silent statements and immediately after speed it up with playing and teasing.
Conductor: Lan Shui
The concert hall of the Royal Academy of Music, Copenhagen, February 5, 2010
Great Feeling And Finesse
Svenska Dagbladet, 14 November 2009
It was a fresh initiative to invite Vilde Frang to take part in the Berwald Hall Mendelssohn celebrations. Since her debut at the age of 12 her career has steadily taken an international direction. In January EMI will release her debut album with violin concertos by Sibelius and Prokofiev.
Frang's round and soft sound matched her slight figure. Instead of the usual, polished Mendelssohn elegance she gave the music a powerful energy which caused one to pause and think. Her style can remind one of her mentor Anne-Sophie Mutter, whose Freundeskreis has supported Vilde Frang for six years.
Vilde Frang took the lead to such an extent that both John Storgårds and the orchestra occasionally found themselves left behind. She created a little drama of the solo cadenza in the first movement, and in the andante and the following allegretto before the finale the violin sound shivered with feeling and finesse.
Her close reading of the solo part where many details blossomed as new, made one almost feel as though one heard Mendelssohn's well known music for the first time. This, united with a disarming freshness, which in the fast, at times a little sketchlike performed finale, made Frang's performance an experience, one of the very top events in this season.
Convincing Apprenticeship
Dagsavisen, 15 September 2009
Vilde Frang debutes convincingly on an international scale.
When did we see it last? Never, I would say. Because Kirsten Flagstad, Arve Tellefsen, Truls Mørk and Leif Ove Andsnes, just to mention a few, have all gone via local companies before they got the opportunity to present themselves on recordings internationally. But now it is happening, and it is EMI who are responsible for this deed. We Norwegians can cheer and let trumpets and drums sound for Vilde Frang, who can present her first 'child'. And she presents it with flying colours. And not with small insignificant pieces either. No, it happens with with two of the heaviest works in the violin literature. The result is so impressive that it is numbing. These are concertos with which only the greatest soloists achieve triumphs. And here stands a slim, young Norwegian lady and plays as though she has a whole life of experience to base it on.
We have been aware of Vilde's talent since she performed with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra when 10, and now she is ready to lay the world at her feet. This release is in my opinion and in my ears a brilliant apprenticeship. You hear it at once. I cannot remember hearing such a tender opening in the introduction of the Sibelius. Every entry uncovers something special. Listen to the different passages in the first movement. What impresses me the most is the high level. She has full control and her playing is so natural and effortless that it quite takes the breath of this reviewer away. And it seems as though she is completely without nervous tension, the intonation is perfect and the dreaming passage towards the end of the second movement is taken care of with superiority. Her tone is seducing and the attack in the beginning of the third movement is intimate and swinging. She plays it as though it is the easiest thing in the world, and everything sounds slim and elegant.
Prokofiev is not bad either. Here is rhythm and humour. With delicate harmonics and seething temperament. In addition Vilde Frang gives us three Sibelius Humoresques as encores on a release which should catch international attention. All in all I am extremely impressed by this debut. One has to look high and low to find its match.
Vilde Frang To The Top
Aftenposten, 14 September 2009
With this recording the violinist Vilde Frang has taken the step into the ranks of grown violinists. The works on this recording belong to some of the most demanding, and she has the maturity to take on the challenges. It is simply just to sit down and listen. Here she displays technical ability and a musical insight which is impressive - from the first to last note. Norwegian orchestras should line up to engage her.
The two concertos - by Sibelius and Prokofiev - can be seen as connected. The technical and musical challenges put them in a particularly demanding category. It is natural to focus on this when dealing with a violinist like Vilde Frang. She tackles the music without reservations. Mastering the music with exemplary control calls for great admiration and she is on top all the time.
The very first movement of Sibelius is very difficult and she is there on the spot and as a matter of course frolicks about in the most complicated passages. One can detect no kind of playing safe. She plays with a maturity which one can only admire. In her playing can be found the warmth, brilliance and direction and where she on the top all the way.
Buy and listen. The soloist is one of the best from our part of the world.
Idar Karevold
Masterly
VG, 8 September 2009
The 23 year old violinist has definitely joined the ranks of the adult. Foreign press hails her as 'Miss Violin' and she has performed together with Anne-Sophie Mutter, just to mention a name.
This new CD with concertos by Sibelius and Prokofiev strengthens the impression that she is on the way to becoming one of the great violinists of our time. She plays with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, Cologne conducted by Thomas Søndergård. And her playing is brilliant. She has a fantastic sound and she manages masterly the balance between emphasising the solo part and blending with the orchestra. She is amazing when she tip-toes into the music in the beginning of the Sibelius.
On the more merry side the Sibelius Humoresques are some of the very best. The CD shows an artist we have not heard the last of.
Tori Skrede
A Concert In Harmony
Göteborgs-Posten, 13 February 2009
Vilde Frang impresses as soloist in Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto with an interpretation which unites breathless technique with an expansive and extremely expressive way of playing. Quite involuntarily Leif Ove Andsnes' depths of sound come to mind. Vilde Frang is a musician of same calibre.
Time Stood Still
Sydsvenska Dagbladet, 13 February 2009
Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto might be one of his least inspiring works. One can hear him sigh in the struggle of making something sensible out of the incredibly beautiful opening theme and tie his desperate ideas together.
The special about Vilde Frang is not her sound nor her instrument but her tremendous musical empathy in every phrase. In a disarming way she succeeded in tying the loose ends of the concerto together. And of the theme in a humoresque by Sibelius she fashioned a small piece of art which made time stand still.
Carl-Gunnar Åhlén
Irresistible
Svenska Dagbladet, 10 February 2009
The very peculiar thing about Vilde Frang is not her sound or her brilliant instrument but the tremendous musical expression she puts into every phrase. In a disarming manner she succeeded in binding the loose ends of the concerto together. And in the perpetual theme in a humoresque by Sibelius she shaped a small piece of art which made time stand still.
Intense Vilde Frang
Upsala Nya Tidning, 8 February 2009
Shimmering beauty and intense emotions were portrayed by Vilde Frang when she played Prokofiev's 2 Concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Exquisite rubato brought forward details and a whole which absolutely deserved the standing ovations.
Soloist In Top Form
Aftenposten, 7 February 2009
The star of the evening was Vilde Frang. She has over the last few years developed into a fully fledged violinist with full control of technique, surplus and an incredible joy of interpretation. The Prokofiev concerto was brilliant without being too extrovert and this gave it a shade of becoming contemplativeness. The concentration she showed witnessed of maturity which promises the best. She is in no doubt in the process of developing into a soloist on an international level. The deeply felt concentration was intense and conveyed the underlying musical suspense. The concerto became a journey in emotions where the highlights in each movements were harmonised. The audience showed its appreciation through lengthy applause and Vilde Frang gave an encore.
Star Soloist
VG, 7 February 2009
She is only 21 but a soloist in demand all over Europe. and to hear her play Prokofiev's 2. Concerto was a pleasure. The concerto combines the rough with beautiful melodic phrases which Frang played intenisty and sparkling loveliness. Heer sound can still grow but she has a way of phrasing which is very promising for the future.
Frang In Full Blossom
Dagbladet, 6 February 2009
Vilde Frang had conquered the audience before she had played one single note. And after only a few bars it became evident for everybody that this young and premature talent has grown up and become a soloist of the finest calibre. With a clear pure tone she mastered the technical challenges in Prokofiev Second Violin Concerto one after the other, so effortlessly as only a musician with an exquisite technque can do it. Her sound is yet a little slight but beautiful. Her frasing is already so varied and secure that it is a joy to follow her.
Glowing Empathy
Svenska Dagbladet, 10 November 2008
Anne-Sophie Mutter's recording of Brahms' Violin Concerto inspired Mats Ek in the choreography of his new ballet. In the Swedish Opera it is Mutter's student - Norwegian Vilde Frang, who deals with the demanding solo part with glowing empathy.
The Highlight Of The Evening
Dagens Nyheter, 8 November 2008
Finally we had "Rättika", Mats Ek's new ballet for 16 dancers. Dancing to the music of Brahms Violin Concerto. Soloist Vilde Frang was probably the highlight of the evening.
Örjan Abrahamsson
Frang In The Blood
Expressen, 8 November 2008
From the orchestra pit violinist Vilde Frang gives Brahms Violin Concerto body, dance and poetry. With Frang in their blood the dancers are so musical one wants to cry.
Gunilla Brodrej
Fantastic
TeaterStockholm, 8 November 2008
When the dancers enter the stage one is convinced. In addition Vilde Frang's performance of Brahms Violin Concerto is absolutely fantastic and she receives the greatest applause when the curtain falls.
The Soloist Was The Highlight Of The Evening
Politiken, 18 August 2008
Tivoli's regular visitor - 22 year old Vilde Frang, was a happy and fortunate replacement as soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto no. 5. It is her wonderfully precise and at the same time sensitive playing which secures the third heart of this review.
Thomas Michelsen
Masterful
Jyllandsposten, 17 August 2008
Vilde Frang put the evening in perspective by displaying poetry, dynamics, originality and technical championship in her playing. The two stars in this review are solely due to her.
Jens Cornelius
Sparks Were Flying
Jyllandsposten, 9 June 2008
The Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang and the Danish/Swedish cellist Andreas Brantelid have both caused sensations as children. Now they are on their way into the music's international adult world. They seem to have develop from concert to concert and it was a very special experience to hear them with Tivoli Symphony Orchestra.
The concerto demands two fully developed soloists. One has heard it like this before and it sounded like that this time too. But it had gotten something in addition which is very rare. Often you imagine that you can hear when two soloists meet up for the first time and rehearse in order to melt two personal interpretations. Frang and Brantelid played up against each other and with each other with a mutual sensitivity and a temperament controlled through the corner of the eye. They opened new sides to Brahms' music. Their interaction ignited sparks. It sounded as though the piece had been composed for them and as though they were just discovering it in the moment.
The Youngsters' Evening
Politiken, 8 June 2008
he years are 1986 and 1987. Violinist Vilde Frang's and Andreas Brantelid's birthdates. It was the soloists and not the conductor who carried the evening's concert in Tivoli.'
'The best came after the intermission. Andreas Brantelid is a major promising name storming forward. He has just released his debut cd on the EMI label. Norwegian Vilde Frang has already performed in Tivoli numerous times although she is only in the beginning of her twenties.
How brilliantly they suited each other in Brams Double Concerto. She seemed more at ease than when she performed not long ago with Anne-Sophie Mutter, but certainly not less focused than he. They both released Brahms' oil colours onto the canvas with light, vivid and constantly supple bowings.
The weight which can seem a little exhausting in Brahms rather compact concerto was gone. It was all Richard Hickox and the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra could do but attempt to support what the standing audience afterwards excitedly applauded and cheered. The four hearts in this review are to be seen as an average for the concert on the whole, but with a little jump upwards, thanks to the soloists'.
Magic Nordic Violin Sound. Vilde Frang Convinces In The Spring Festival.
Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung, 11 April 2008
So young and so gifted. 21 year old violinist Vilde Frang revealed herself as an astoundingly expressive musical interpreter. In contrast to many of her piers who are marketed as stars and hailed as such, Vilde Frang is far more than a promising talent.
Above all the passionate, expressive music seems to run in the blood of this young Oslo girl. After a slightly suppressed opening of the Schubert Sonata, she released her true temperament in the last two movements. Vilde Frang excited the audience with her youthful exuberance, mastering technical difficulties and displaying a glowing intensity. The opening of the andante movement was played with a dreamlike magic tone, and the finale was a luminous stream of embers of sounds.'
'The second half of the concert began with music from Scandinavia. In Sibelius ' Three Humoresques' Vilde Frang did not only display her overwhelming virtuosity, but also highlighted the humourous points in the music with a violonistic attack. The grandiose peak of the evening was Strauss' Sonata in E flat Major. Frang and her intense accompanist filled the three movements with compelling dynamic liveliness, excellent bowing technique paired with a bewitching sound, created an unbelievably colourful sonorous experience.
By Dietholf Zerweck
Wonder Violinist
Stuttgarter Zeitung, 11 April 2008
It has only been a question of time before the next magic Miss Violin would announce herself. Here she is. Vilde Frang is the name of the delicate young lady from the high North, who has the promise of going all the way to the top. As part of the Ludwigsburger Festival Spring concerts, the Norwegian has together with pianist Julien Quentin given a concert who will be one of the most memorable ever in the Ordenssaal. They began with Schubert Sonata in A Major and already with this piece Vilde Frang captured her audience: musically intense, she showed a great feeling for the sonata's moments of longing, which are forever present in Schubert's music. This is the most astounding thing about this only 21 year old: not only does she master it all technically, but it is how she uses her technique, as though the violin was a human voice, she speaks with her violin, catches impressions and shapes the sound. There is nothing polished and calculated in her playing, everything is displayed and it matches the style to perfection.
Like in Fauré: she met the dreamlike, elegic tone language with a concentrated and expressive sound, which clearly portrayed the composer's intention with the music.
Almost provokingly virtuoso but yet with a feeling for the lyricism in the music, Vilde played Three Humoresques by Sibelius.
If one at all had been in doubt that she is a great musician, it vanished with her moving interpretation of the Strauss Sonata.
By JAB
Norwegian Violin Princess
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 28 February 2008
When the Norwegian violin princess launched the fuga from Bartok Solo Sonata at us, one forgot the warm energy from the previous Schubert Sonata. Even though she in the Scherzo in this sonata showed bite and life. But as the 21 year old threw herself into the three part fuga with bristling brightness, followed by the "melodia" as a dialectic counterpart with a mediator's softness, one knew that one here had a master. The Prokofiev D Major Sonata provided us with a stirring and intense closing of the evening.
Concert in Herkulessaal, Munich
Klaus P. Richter
Poetic
Jyllandsposten, 15 February 2008
Norwegian Vilde Frang played Beethoven's two lyrical romances. A musical natural with an intuitive expressiveness, which put Lan Shui's perfectionism in perspective. His Beethoven is a museum piece in marble, her's a poetic reality.
Favourite Violinist
Berlingske Tidende, 13 February 2008
"The young Norwegian violinist is one of the favourites you most of all want to hear- perhaps because she gives it all"
One never tires of seeing the 21 year old Norwegian standing in front of the Copenhagen Philharmonic. So likable. So present. So close to normality. Thank you for listening.
Almost unbelievably she also belongs to the very best. Not only does she leave her listeners deeply touched - she shows all sides of herself - both her nervousness and her dexterity. And because the music itself could not find a better interpreter.
In this case Beethoven's rarely heard romances. Take her flair for colours, drama and changing moods...In this she even reminds one of the young Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Enchantingly Audacious 'Seasons'
Politiken, 7 September 2007
We have previously had the pleasure of enjoying Vilde Frang in serious challenges, and I must admit that I in advance was a little disappointed in her choice of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons'. Quite unjustified. The charming Norwegian spellbinds the listener with beautiful sound and expressive presence and interprets Vivaldi's naive but expressive musical pictures with a imaginative and playful freshness one perhaps must be just twenty to possess. She undauntingly reads the annotations in the score as pure playing directions.
Marvellous liberty in the forming of sound was given with such conviction that it must pacify even the baroque police. A picturesque and impulsive change of tempi invited the accompanying musicians and in particular cellist Henrik Brendstrup to an alert chamber musical conversation.
Jan Jacoby
Music For The Future In The Black Diamond
Jyllandsposten, 5 September 2007
Norwegian Vilde Frang is such a powerful talent, that her mentor Anne-Sophie Mutter has to watch out. Or one might claim that Vilde Frang already has found her own space. Although she plays with tremendous surplus, she prefers taking chances rather than playing it safe. She explores every corner of the music and adds to its poetic drama, and she draws her fellow musicians with her in first one direction, then another.
Thus Vivaldi's baroque music in Vilde Frang's hands is so much more than the very well known character pieces. It is a constant ongoing process where new sides of the music is highlighted, whether it concerns surprises, provocations or just obvious truths.
One does not need to expect less from a concert. If Vilde Frang fulfils the promises she so convincingly has given us already, she will be worth hearing no matter what she plays for many years to come.
Masterpiece In Master Hands
Politiken, 22 July 2007
Vilde Frang is more than a virtuoso violinist. She is a great and rare artist only 20 years old.
A string broke in the middle of Béla Bartók's great sonata for solo violin. Finito! The soloist left the stage and we were sent to the intermission with a promise that the interrupted movement would be played as an encore after the second half.
That a string breaks is what can happen; but rarely has one gone to the intermission with such an acute bodily unrest. Oppressed and shaken.
The oppression can be ascribed to the fact that a breathlessly intense experience was brutally interrupted, and this made it, in spite of the interval, difficult to tune into such a lyrically vague universe as Fauré's Violin Sonata. But one would have been shaken, also if Bartók had been completed, because this was magnificent; despite the accident it was a concert one will not forget.
At only 20 years of age Vilde Frang is not only fantastically unrestrained by Bartók's tremendous technical challenges; she is also equal to the work's musical complexity and magnitude. The sonata's tremendous opening movement gathers contrasting elements and thereby gave the richest space for her fascinating colourful sound and expressive variating vibrato; and throughout all the changes in the music, she managed to maintain the heavy, swaying suspension and drive of the chaconne rhythm. Violent and sudden contrasts locked the various elements in dramatic discussion in the heroically relentless tempo. The fugue was dominated by sharp division of layers and a frenetic energy, which naturally highlighted the extreme violinistic effects, while the slow movement was a calming point of lyrical expressiveness and secretive quietude before the finale with the contrasts of diabolical hissing and dansante forthrightness.
The piece is furiously virtuoso and seeks to make use of the collected resources of violin playing, but the effect is never a goal in itself, and it is no aim for Vilde Frang to boast with her skills: She can do what she wants, and she wants more than most; but what she wants is completely shaped by an insightful respect for the work.
Less complicated lyrical works as Franz Schubert's Sonata in A Major and the already mentioned Fauré did not actually add anything to the picture of Frang's abilities, alhtough one could mention her harmonic and naturally flowing cooperation with the competent, delicate and dynamically creative piano. They were an undivided pleasure with the warm tone, but never with romancing sweetness, exquisite nuances, the long flowing and expansive lines in Fauré and the graceful, youthful and playful intimacy in Schuberg. One wished for nothing different, but Bartók's masterpiece will be remembered the longest.
Jan Jacoby
Boisterousness And Gentleness
Nordkurier, 29 June 2007
With energy and elegance as well as stirring emotions Vilde Frang and Julija Botchkovskaia delighted in the Neustrelitzer Orangerie.
...The young Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang stood slim and tall, dressed in black at head of the room. She played Bartók's Solo Sonata for violin composed in 1944, his last fully completed work, extremely complicated, full of violinistic finesses. They presented no problem for Vilde Frang. With powerful youthful energy she stormed through the many voices of the Ciaconna and the Fuga, and brought forth a powerful sound, full of intensity and elegance from her Villaume violin (a loan from Anne-Sophie Mutter).
When she with closed eyes settled in quietude, she drove her energetic playing to implacability, and from here she could shift with lightening swiftness in tender and gentle constraint. Once in a while she opened her eyes, as though to check if the audience could follow her through the mountainous scenery of sound. The slow movement was played with an intense sound, as though she had a longing need to display the melody. For the Presto-Finale she mixed her youthful energy with wild Balcan fireworks, inspired by Hungarian folk music. What a splendid piece! What fascinating playing!"
Vilde Frang On Tour With Mutter
VG, 9 February 2007
The fireworks sparkled between Anne-Sophie Mutter and Vilde Frang in Bach's double Concerto for two violins; an enticing atmosphere already from the start. Vilde Frang really showed that she can hold her own in company with one of the greatest.
Youthful Magic
Augsburger Allgemeine, 8 March 2006
A brew of freshness, purity and blossoming sound characterized Vilde Frang's violinplaying in "Klassik im Kurhaus", where young European talents perform. As such the Norwegian did not tread in old footsteps, but already from the beginning she boldly set two partitas up against each other; Bach and Lutoslawski.
Silvery light sound, swaying dancing rhythms, lightning clear double stops and virtuoso character dominated her Bach interpretation.
She interpretated Lutoslawski spontaneously, freshly and with unconditional devotedness.
Mozart, 250, Brilliantly Interpreted By Frang, 19
Vestmanlands Tidning, 3 February 2006
Many concertgoers remember Norwegian Vilde Frang from her last visit when she was 17, playing Tchaikovsky. She made a tremendous impression with her already mature to the music and to her instrument.
Now she is 19 and it has only moved forward.. In his fifth concerto MOzart has left room for a soloist's virtuosity, and Vilde Frang took care of all features. Careful with details but all the time friving forward in an impressive unity with elegance and fervour. The sound was strong and elastic and inobtrusive i even the most sophisticated forte passages.
She is unbelievably concentrated on stage, touchingly conscious of the orchestra around her, and not in the least sucking up to the audience. With her somewhat introvert playing she manages to draw the audience to her, and yesterday she certainly must have felt that the audience was with her. Standing ovations.
Dazzling Violinist
Stavanger Aftenblad, 9 December 2005
She is only 19 but Vilde Frang is developing into a violinist in the absolute international top class. Yesterday she was soloist in Tchaikovsky's very demanding violin concerto, and she played it as few can do today. She has a technique which makes even the most neckbreaking passages seem easy, intonation is always faultless even in intricate double stops. Her bowing gives nerve and energy to every note in the music and she has the ability to create a whole and context in the music. There are many virtuosos in the world, but Vilde Frang's playing is more than just technique. She has a personal interpretation which portrays a profound understanding of music and performs with authority, empathy and true commitment.
Monumental Bach-Playing By Teenager
Politiken, 24 October 2005
Had the concert ended after the first piece, we would have awarded the concert 5 or 6 stars. Norwegian Vilde Frang played Bach's solo sonata in C Major, so one clung to every note, colour and figure. It was so exciting! And beautiful. And serene. And she is yet not twenty!
Photo: Sussie Ahlburg