Walton, Grisi & Prokofiev: Heroes

Three large-scale works for viola and orchestra feature on the new recording by violist Adrien La Marca with the Liège Royal Philharmonic. Musically, a programme must tell a story: here the viola becomes the central hero of each work, in an almost cinematographic adventure. A hero who roams from the heart of Russian ballet music with Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, through the lyricism of interwar English music with Walton's Viola Concerto, to music of today by the Belgian composer Gwenaël Mario Grisi, whose On the Reel is literally 'scripted', written directly from analysis of film scenarios. Epic sweep, passions, contrasts . . . Everything you might expect from a great adventure movie is there in this music. Moments of powerful lyricism, love and tenderness