The young Australianviolinist has now won twoof the world’s biggestperformance prizes, makinghim hot property. Hisdebut for Sony, featuringmusic by Bach, Tartini, Franck and Wieniawski,struck me at first as being very muchabout showing off Chen’s versatility, so I wassurprised by how coherent the program felton listening – each work defined by a certainkind of passionate energy, the production ofwhich seems to be one of Chen’s particularstrengths. The Tartini is appropriatelyfurious. The Franck sonata is a truly greatversion and calls for the kind of drama Chendelivers – as does the Wieniawski, a personalfavourite of Chen’s, and evidently so.

Evan Meagher is from Readings Hawthorn.