Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 14

“A winning lyrical approach to a trio of virtuoso showpieces … a naturally balanced recording round out a fine release” The Strad, April 2013

“Vigorous playing in these Romantic showpieces, although greater tonal weight and focus is needed, especially in the lyrical moments” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 ***

“Soo-Hyun Park embraces all the challenges without turning a hair, and also contrives to give Wieniawski's passagework an expressive and poetic quality...Park's reflective approach to the Vieuxtemps results in a beautiful performance that's certainly not short of vivacity but maybe it doesn't capture the work's extrovert theatricality...The accompaniments, too, are excellent.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2013

“He rises to the challenge and produces lively accounts of both works, topped off with a short work by the 19th-century Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull. He plumbs no imaginative depths, but then there aren’t many to plumb.” The Telegraph, 6th September 2011 ***

“From the moment Charlie Siem makes his first swashbuckling entry in the Wieniawski...one feels in the safest of virtuoso hands as he goes on negotiate even the blackest of staves with an almost nonchalant disregard for their difficulty. Yet what impresses most is Siem's tonal purity and emotional intensity, which combine in the Bruch to create a reading of tender sincerity and coruscating brilliance.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 ****

“although Siem has all the necessary technical fireworks to get round the challenging passagework of the Wieniawski and the faster sections of the Bull, the steady stream of scales and arpeggios in both works have a rather mechanical impact here...Siem offers more interest in the Bruch, shaping the cantabile lines in the slow movement with sensitivity.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 ***

“The good news is that this is a really fine performance [of the Bruch]. Siem, young man that he still is, has been playing it since he was 16. He has its technical measure and brings freshness and relish to it, although his continuous intensity can be a bit much...The Ole Bull is quite delightful overall, not least in its contrasts and a Haydn-like surprise! Siem plays it with evident affection.” International Record Review, January 2012

“The transfer to CD of this early seventies recording is every bit as satisfying as that on the comparably magical Paganini recording reviewed on page 1222. Hearing these two recordings, both over ten years old, next to Perlman's Philadelphia recording of the Tchaikovsky (reviewed on page 1228), brings it home how, with analogue recording in the seventies, good engineering in a sympathetic venue was of vital importance in conveying realism. Like the Paganini this brings rich, full sound immediate and real, firm in perspective against an open, believable acoustic, all to the credit of Suvi Raj Grubb as producer and Bob Gooch as engineer. The version of No. 2 which Perlman recorded in Paris ten years later for DG is less sympathetic to my ear for all its brilliance in both sound and performance. It can be reasonably recommended if you want the Saint-Saens coupling, but for an apter coupling in a performance even more winning I would opt for the EMI disc with no feeling of losing out on quality of sound, rather the opposite.” Gramophone Magazine

“Perlman gives scintillating performances, full of flair, and is excellently accompanied, The recordings, from 1973, is warm, vivid and well balanced.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“[Bisengaliev] his technique is formidable, with a wide tonal range. His gentle half-tones in the slow movements of both works are strikingly beautiful.” Gramophone Magazine