BBC Music Magazine
Christmas 2018
Concerto Choice

Grammy Awards
61st Awards (2019)
Nominee - Classical Instrumental Solo

Grammy Awards
61st Awards (2019)
Nominee - Contemporary Classical Composition

James Ehnes (violin), Andrew Armstrong (piano)

Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Ludovic Morlot, Cristian Măcelaru

Kernis: Violin Concerto
Howard, J N: Violin Concerto
Tovey, B: Stream of Limelight

Three works written for James Ehnes, and receiving their premiere recordings. James Newton Howard’s music will be familiar to movie fans the world over. His 120 film scores include ‘The Prince of Tides’, ‘Michael Clayton’, ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’, ‘The Village’, ‘Defiance’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ (the recording was produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett) and he is one of the most respected composers currently working in film. Commissioned to write a concerto for James Ehnes and the Pacific Symphony, Howard admitted to feeling ‘thrilled, excited, expectant and ultimately terrified’.

Pulitzer Prize (String Quartet No.2) winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis first composed for Ehnes in 2007 ‘Two movements (with Bells) and a few years later the violin concerto followed.

Bramwell Tovey and James Ehnes musical relationship goes back to 1990, and they have performed together countless times. Stream of Limelight gives James’s incredible technique ample opportunity to dazzle, and is a superb finale to this fascinating album of new compositions.