By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Xue Wei is one of China's top violinists, and has just released a remarkable CD. Entitled "The Romance of Cremona", he explores a number of classical pieces by the likes of Schumann, Gluck, Paganini and Rachmaninov - nothing new there you may think - but plays each one on a different violin manufactured in the Italian town of Cremona. For those of you not familiar with the town - quite simply, it is the birthplace of the violin itself. Violin manufacturing began here in the middle of the 1500's, and continued for over 300 years. Classic names such as Antonio Stradivarius made some of the most exquisite and prized violins ever produced, and Xue Wei, in a collection loaned from the British Royal Academy of Music, performs nineteen pieces, using nineteen such violins.

Accordingly then, it is the instruments themselves then that are the stars here. Xue begins in chronological order, commencing the set with Gluck-Kreisler's "Melody", performed on a 1629 vintage Amati violin.

Wieniawski's "Capriccio-Valse" is performed on a 1665 Guarneri, and Stradivari appears, with seven violins bequeathed by the maker himself to the Academy, each played to seven pieces - Brahms, Rachmaninov and Paganini especially showcasing the virtuosity of the instruments superbly well. The history just seeps out of the speakers - a rare ‘tenor' viola - dated 1620 is the principal star at close to 400 years old, and is deservedly shown off in full tonal quality in the closing, fourth movement of Schumanns "Marchenbilder".

Xue Wei himself was born in 1963, and educated at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.  In 1986, he won the silver medal in the Tchaiovsky Violin Competition in Moscow, and two weeks later returned to London to participate in the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition. He won all of the prizes, including the Sonata Performance Prize, orchestra and audience prize, and the annual prize for young soloists. Basing himself in Britain, he has been acknowledged by Gramophone magazine as "one of today's most outstanding violinists", while the Guardian regarded him as "an invincible performer, with extraordinary skills, excellent presentation capability, and high variety."  From 1989, Xue Wei was engaged as a professor by British Royal Conservatory of Music, with whom he collaborated with on this extraordinary release. This is quality music at it's most sublime, and Xue Wei and the Royal Academy of Music have provided a rare service in showcasing not just the violinists talent, but also the outstanding collection of the violins on display.        

Related Links:

Chinese Classical Music 

You Tube:

Xue Wei performing Vitali’s “Chaconne in G Minor”