Petteri Iivonen – Art of the Violin vol. I

Petteri commands his instrument with ease. While much of his music is exceptionally beautiful, it is not beautiful for the sake of being pretty. The modern concert world has heard few violinist’s with Petteri’s ability to control color and timbre, and even fewer who use this ability for such musical and appropriate ends. Listen, just for some examples among many, to the colors Petteri employs in the first movement of the Debussy sonata, especially in the flautando sections. Or the extreme tenderness of the second movement of Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 2. And then compare that with the icy brilliance of the same sonata’s fourth movement after the one minute mark. Note too the yearning of an entire nation, perhaps the entire Twentieth Century, in the arrival of the Eli Eli theme in tracks eight and nine. Enjoy the world of color and emotion that Petteri delivers in these works on our recording.