Momentum [1]: Walton, Respighi

Album review

With this Mirare release, Liya Petrova takes a big step forward from among the crowd of young violinists who have emerged in the early 2020s. The title, Momentum [1], is questionable, but the term could certainly apply to Petrova's career. The repertory is bold. Few players at this stage of a career would have picked such little-known works for an album; William Walton's Violin Concerto, Op. 30, is much less common than his cello concerto, and the Violin Sonata in B minor of Ottorino Respighi is an uncharacteristic work that usually appears on recordings of the composer's complete works in the genre. The pairing seems arbitrary, but various connections emerge. Both pieces are linked to Jascha Heifetz; for Respighi's Sonata, he was the dedicatee, and he commissioned and championed the Walton and made its first recording. There is a warm, Italianate tinge to both works; Walton wrote his concerto mostly in Italy, and the tarantella rhythm in the second movement was inspired by his experience of having been bitten by a tarantula. Petrova is not a Heifetz clone, but her combination of steely confidence in virtuoso passages (sample that Presto capriccioso) with an ability to turn on the sentiment may bring that master to mind. She seizes the listener's attention right from the start in the Walton, with its arresting combination of clarinet and solo violin, and she gets excellent support from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Duncan Ward and from her usual duet partner, Adam Laloum, in the Respighi. A very exciting release.
© James Manheim /TiVo