Album: Higdon / Tchaikovsky, Violin Concertos – Hahn / Petrenko / Royal Liverpool Phil (Deutsche Grammophon)

Tailor-made for Hilary Hahn's cool, brilliant sound, Jennifer Higdon's 2008 Violin Concerto has the swagger of an established favourite.

There's a strong Russian influence in the artless piccolo solo of the first movement and big-boned lyricism in the second. This is a vivid, well-crafted work, and Hahn is outstanding in Higdon's quasi-Baroque laser-cut figurations. Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto completes an impressive disc, with the RLP fragrant of tone under Vasily Petrenko.