Two Souls. An ideal title for the debut recording album of a young violinist whose heritage draws from Armenian and American backgrounds. To highlight these two divergent cultural influences, violinist
Mikhail Simonyan has chosen the violin concertos of
Aram Khachaturian and Samuel Barber. The flamboyantly virtuosic
Khachaturian concerto is punched out with authoritative bravura, gripping power of tone, and a musical excitement that keeps listeners rapt from start to finish. Making this particular recording even noteworthy is the new cadenza that
Simonyan commissioned in an effort to highlight the distinctively Armenian musical idiom.
Simonyan's heritage truly emerges throughout the hauntingly beautiful cadenza, contrasting marvelously with the concerto's many aggressive moments. Deutshe Grammophon's sound in this concerto appropriately highlights the edgy, gritty tone that
Simonyan produces and is nicely balanced with the superb playing by the
London Symphony Orchestra under
Kristjan Järvi. This same close sound does not serve the Barber concerto quite as well. A bit more warmth and softness would have greatly helped the first and second movements.
Simonyan makes the curious choice to tone down the frenetic nature of the Presto Finale, opting for a slower, more deliberate tempo that doesn't make for quite as exciting a finish as this talented young violinist is capable of.