The Strad - Session report
“…It would take a stony heart, listening ot Dego's playing, to resist the extroverted Paganini-meets-Brahms appeal of the Busoni Concerto… Indeed, her approach to both this and the Brahms on the new album illuminates just how deeply Busoni was influenced by Brahms's example, working in some near-direct quotations, and thus also where he went his own way with a lightness of spirit that he struggled to emulate in his later music.”
— The Strad (March 2024)
Gramophone - The musician and the score
Mozart’s First Piano Quartet, K478.
“Of course, we know the story about Mozart losing the publisher’s commission for this quartet because it was too difficult for amateurs,” muses Dego, “and it’s true - but the difficulty is also musical. You need to understand what it’s saying here, and create all the different voices. It isn’t one of the sight-readable things that were fashionable at that time. It has all the theatre, it has all of Mozart, it’s extraordinary.”
September 2023
The Strad - Sentimental Work
“When asked for their favourite composer, a lot of musicians will say ‘whoever I’m playing right now.’ For me, it wouldn’t be true – it’s always Brahms! In particular I’ve performed his Violin Concerto around 50 times and whenever I play it I feel mountains of energy of all different kinds. It’s been a part of me since I first played it aged 15, and I feel as though I’ve matured with it”
July 2023
Archi magazine Cover Feature
«Norrington mi diceva: “Se non sei in grado di sederti per terra e far ridere un bambino non puoi suonare Mozart”»
October 2022
Strings Magazine
“There are so many details that jump out in the recordings—the interplay between the first and second violins, the way the forte and piano sections nestle into each other, the way the flutes and horns play with both fun and beauty—that combined with Dego’s fresh, inspired playing and the audiophile-quality recording, it is like listening to three-dimensional Mozart. Stylistically, this body of work is a striking example of the intersection of the old and new traditions, using modern instruments but infused with Norrington’s more than 60 years of research and experience…”
September 2022
The Strad Cover Feature
“For Italian violinist Francesca Dego, the opportunity to perform and record on Paganini’s “Il Cannone” Guarneri Del Gesù of 1743 was a dream come true. She shares her experiences with the rarely accessed instrument - which came complete with security guards and its own dressing room”
March 2021
Musica Magazine Cover Feature
“Primo album per Chandos per la violinista italiana, che costruisce un programma attorno al mito paganiniano, con le sue propaggini novecentesche e contemporanee, utilizzando lo strumento più celebrato del grande musicista genovese”
February 2021
The Guardian - Facing the Music
“The young violinist on her musical inspirations – Busoni, mezzosoprano Anita Rachvelishvili, solo Bach under the fake stars and Rossini under the real ones”
February 2017