Vito Palumbo (born 1972) has an imagination for timbre and texture. His half-hour one-movement Violin Concerto (2015) sustains its length easily through atmosphere, a sense of theatre, and plenty of large-orchestra incident, the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lee Reynolds (recorded vividly at Abbey Road Studio 1); musical substance, too – if I were looking for an Italian composer forebear to whom Palumbo might be referenced, it would be Luciano Berio – which engages the listener over its dramatic and expressive interstellar course, and which invited an immediate second listen, new aspects to discover, and I am sure the looked-forward-to-third will go further in finding even more within this complex and intriguing opus. Francesco D’Orazio is the excellent soloist, the LSO and Reynolds giving unstinting support, and he goes on to take part in Chaconne (2019-20) for electric violin and electronics, the latter realised by Francesco Abbrescia. On paper, perhaps not the most enticing of sound combinations; to the ear, however, it’s twenty-seven fascinating minutes, the two movements – ‘Woven Lights’ & ‘The Glows in the Dark’ (the latter involving “30 pre-recorded electric violin parts”) – that are gently hallucinatory and transporting, brought off with sophistication. BIS-2625 is enthusiastically recommended.
https://bis.se/performers/d-orazio-francesco/vito-palumbo-woven-lights