SHOSTAKOVICH, D.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (Kogan, Moscow Radio Tchaikovksy Symphony, Shostakovich, M.) (Dmitry Shostakovich)

Album review

How can it miss? First, it has the advantage of coupling both Shostakovich's violin concertos on a single disc. Second, it has the advantage of having as the conductor Maxim Shostakovich, the composer's son. Third, it has the advantage of having Dmitril Kogan as the soloist, the great violinist's grandson. Fourth, it has the advantage of having the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra as the orchestra, formerly the Moscow Radio Symphony. Fifth and finally, it has the advantage of having Delos, the American high-end audio label, as the recording company.
It doesn't miss. Maxim Shostakovich is a skillful conductor whose understanding of his father's music runs deeper and truer than any other living conductor's. Back in the late stereo era, he recorded both these works with David Oistrakh, the dedicatee, and he has long known how to balance the introverted and the extroverted, the agonizing and the exhilarating, and the abysmal and the exalted. Dmitri Kogan comes from a long and distinguished line of Shostakovich interpreters and his feeling for the music comes straight from the source. Coupled with the agile and powerful playing of the Tchaikovsky Symphony and captured in Delos' unbelievably realistic recording, Shostakovich and Kogan's performances hit the mark dead center. Anyone who knows and loves these concertos owes it to themselves to hear this disc.

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