| Contemporary music |
James Lyon – Turning: Five Composers, One Violin, and a Lifetime of Music
Turning, the first solo album from violinist James Lyon, arrives quietly, carried by the confidence of someone who has nothing left to prove but everything to share. It is a magnificent album, built not around a single composer or style but around a life dedicated to listening to, interpreting, and teaching music, a life transformed by it.
The concept is disarmingly simple. After more than thirty-five years as Professor of Violin at Penn State University, James Lyon gathers five works connected to his time there, some by colleagues, one by a former student, one a rediscovered American gem, and lets them speak. No grand thesis, no attempt to forge a unified aesthetic. “Turn with me from one composer’s signature style to that of another”, he says, “enjoying the variety.” And what variety it is.
Albert Spalding’s Sonata in E for Violin Alone opens the album across its four movements (tracks 1–4) and immediately establishes Lyon as a storyteller as much as a virtuoso. The Spalding sonata is a genuine discovery: Lyon found the score in a box of donated sheet music, and the work deserves every bit of advocacy he brings to it. The opening Moderato, e con fantasia balances exploratory elegance with a touch of quiet melancholy, while the Allegro brings muscular rhythmic drive and real physical energy. The Poco adagio is the emotional heart of the four movements, tender, almost suspended in time, before the Allegro vivace closes with exhilarating forward momentum. Lyon navigates all of it with a technique so natural it barely announces itself, always in service of the music’s own expressive needs rather than his own.
Bruce Trinkley’s Courtyard Tango (track 5) is the album’s most immediately charming moment, a slow burning, warmly melodic dance inspired by a poem by Emily Grosholz, and originally written for solo viola before Lyon adapted it for violin. It lasts barely three minutes, but lingers considerably longer: a small, magical piece.
Baljinder Singh Sekhon II’s Praying Alone (track 6) is one of the album’s most quietly affecting pieces. Composed during a period of personal solitude in 2008 and later resonating with new meaning during the pandemic years, it explores the space between private and communal prayer through music that breathes slowly and deliberately. Lyon’s interpretation makes silence itself expressive, pauses function like breaths between unplayed notes, and restraint becomes, paradoxically, the most powerful communicative tool on the record.
The title track, Nalah Palmer’s Turning (track 7), is the album’s philosophical and emotional centrepiece. Written for Lyon by his former student, it takes as its subject the idea of triumphing over depression by turning corners, one at a time, until light begins to gather. At nearly nine minutes, it is the longest track, and Lyon gives it full weight: pizzicato, sustained upper-register tension, lyrical melody and restless rhythmic energy are woven into a narrative of perseverance that earns its quiet resolution. There is something deeply moving about a teacher performing a piece written for him by a student, a reversal of roles that speaks to everything Turning is about. A piece of music demonstrating how the relationship between a dedicated, charismatic teacher and a passionate, admiring, and talented student can result in a masterpiece of composition and performance.
Carolina Heredia’s Déjate Caer (track 8, “let yourself fall”) closes the album in a completely different sonic world. The album’s sole electroacoustic work, it surrounds Lyon’s violin with fixed electronic media inspired by Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik, creating a dreamlike, cinematic atmosphere that gently dissolves the boundary between concert hall and something more immersive and strange. It is a brave and entirely apt conclusion: after so much intimate acoustic storytelling, the album opens a window onto elsewhere, a new world.
What ensures the coherence of Turning is not the style, but the master violinist’s extreme sensitivity. Lyon’s unfailing attentiveness to what each composer is asking for, and his willingness to subordinate his own presence to the music’s needs. In its own way, this is the mark of a great teacher just as much as that of a great performer who deserves, yes, a standing ovation.
A remarkable album. Highly recommended.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, July 30th, 2026
Follow PARIS-MOVE on X
::::::::::::::::::::::::
Musician:
James Lyon: violin
Tracklisting:
- Albert Spalding: Sonata in E for Violin Alone – Moderato, e con fantasia 06:12
- Albert Spalding: Sonata in E for Violin Alone – Allegro 04:05
- Albert Spalding: Sonata in E for Violin Alone – Poco adagio 03:19
- Albert Spalding: Sonata in E for Violin Alone – Allegro vivace 03:28
- Bruce Trinkley: Courtyard Tango 02:57
- Baljinder Singh Sekhon, II: Praying Alone 05:49
- Nalah Palmer: Turning 08:49
- Carolina Heredia: Déjate Caer for Violin and Fixed Media 06:27