“Paganini on the viola” – the finest chamber music in Ratingen

An English summary of the German review "Ratingen: Feinste Kammermusik in der Wasserburg" (The finest chamber music in the moated castle), Westdeutsche Zeitung, 14 September 2019. Read the original on wz.de

The concert, titled Solo, Duo, Trio und Quartett, took place at the Wasserburg (moated castle) in Ratingen, near Düsseldorf. Pianist Soomija Park and violinist Noé Inui – long-time guests of the castle's cultural foundation since their student days at the Robert Schumann Hochschule – brought two friends along: Marc Sabbah, viola, and David Cohen, cello. Together they had prepared a programme "full of pearls of chamber music" especially for the evening, which the critic called unique in a double sense.

• Marc Sabbah played Henri Vieuxtemps' Capriccio for solo viola. The critic wrote that the New York-born violist, now a professor in Belgium, made it clear why he is called "Paganini auf der Bratsche" – Paganini on the viola – and that he frees the instrument from its image of being dull.
• David Cohen, described as the youngest principal in the history of the Philharmonia Orchestra London, impressed with Paganini's Cantabile on his 1715 Domenico Montagnana cello.
• Noé Inui showed his warm, lyrical side in Ysaÿe's Sarabande, and with Soomija Park closed the first half with Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy, "an ecstatic firework" of technical brilliance.
• The programme also included the Poco Adagio from Dvořák's Piano Trio No. 3.

This quote was previously credited to RP-online on the old website; it comes from the Westdeutsche Zeitung.