Signum’s first disc with Rodrigo Ruiz highlights the Mexican composer’s musical and literary passions, in performances by world-class soloists Kerenza Peacock, Huw Watkins and Laura van der Heijden. Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Ruiz has attracted commissions from a number of leading artists, with both the opening Violin Sonata and ‘A Riveder Le Stelle’ commissioned by Kerenza Peacock for this recording. The second work is a duo for violin and piano that is accompanied by poetic quotations from Canto XXXIV of Dante’s ‘Inferno’. The booklet notes include an interview with the composer by Jessica Duchen, who describes how the programme “clearly shows Rodrigo ́s roots in the traditions of Beethoven and Brahms, but with individual twists that clearly indicate we are in fact on new territory”.