[... Here is a programme of fireworks and sweetmeats to showcase Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker´s technical brilliance. The gifted young German violinist´s silky virtuosity makes light of the hair-raising difficulties the music presents. Yet amid the frothy pleasures of Sarasate´s Habanera and Wieniawski´s Fantaisie brillante on themes from Gounod´s Faust, we have the more serious exploration of technique in the single movement of Ysaÿe´s Sixth Sonata, where pages of double-stopping display Höpcker´s impeccable intonation.

Almost without a pause between the tracks, the piano introduces Saint-Saëns´s Havanaise, where subsequently Höpcker´s fingers fly around the fingerboard with dazzling speed, and precision is interspersed with her honeyed tone in slow passages. ... It serves to heighten Höpcker´s mercurial dexterity in the final Allegro molto vivace, however, and it is a device she uses later in the disc when slow and fast sections sit side by side. Fabio Bidini is the responsive and well-balanced partner. ...]

The STRAD, David Denton, March 2013