Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, opus 77 (listed as opus 99)[a]; Sonata for Violin and Piano, opus 134[b].
Sakari Oramo, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra[a]; Leila Josefowicz (violin); John Novacek (piano)[b].
Warner Classics 2564 62997-2. DDD. TT 68:58.
Recorded (live[a]) in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 11 and 13 January 2006[a]; American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 25-26 March 2006[b].

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, opus 77 (listed as rev. 1955 as opus 99); Violin Concerto No. 2 in C# minor, opus 129; Romance from The Gadfly, opus 97 (arr. Lev Atovmyan).
Maxim Shostakovich, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Hope (violin).
Warner Classics 2564 62546-2. DDD. TT 77:55.
Recorded at Studio 1, BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, 7-9 November 2005.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, opus 77; Violin Concerto No. 2 in C# minor, opus 129.
Maxim Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Dmitri Kogan (violin).
Delos DE 3363. DDD. TT 71:38.
Recorded at Studio 5, Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting Company, "Kultura," Moscow, 17-20 September 2005.

These three recent recordings of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto all feature fine violinists who have already demonstrated their commitment to the composer's music.

The best of these releases, by Canadian-born violinist Leila Josefowicz, benefits from the superb partnership of Sakari Oramo and the City of Birmingham Symphony, who are beautifully subtle in this live performance at Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Oramo keeps his band hushed at critical points, giving the soloist freedom to breathe and to create extraordinary stillness. Josefowicz's second-movement Scherzo, though not perhaps as gutsy and impetuous as it could be, nonetheless builds with the CBSO's support to an exhilarating conclusion. Both the first-movement Nocturne and third-movement Passacaglia are filled with warmth and lyricism. At the close of the Passacaglia, the orchestra give Josefowicz a moment of hush to begin her cadenza, and she takes full advantage of it, spinning out a monologue of extraordinary drama and poise that must have had her Birmingham audience holding its breath. The Burleska-finale is light and fun, with jazzy accents. The few intonation problems—understandable in a live performance—are more than compensated for by the spirit and spontaneity of a soloist and orchestra obviously inspired by each other's work.

Coupled with the First Concerto on this disc is the Violin Sonata, the last of Shostakovich's three works (along with the two Concertos) for David Oistrakh. Josefowicz opens with a numb, vibrato-free sound, deathly pale. It rarely warms up in this performance, which has—quite intentionally, I am sure—a soulless, marionette-like quality. Here again, Josefowicz has chosen a fine partner in pianist John Novacek, whose subtle colouring gives her all the room she needs to explore the surreal landscapes of this sonata.

The stomping Allegretto takes the place of one of the composer's more humorous inner-movement scherzos. Occasional snippets of the scherzo-that-might-have-been are drowned out in virtuosic fury, delivered convincingly by Josefowicz and Novacek.

The passacaglia-finale opens, after an introduction, with the cold pizzicatos that haunt late Shostakovich chamber works, sounding, as Beethoven Quartet violinist Dmitri Tsyganov once said, like "sinister music, as if death itself is walking." Josefowicz delivers these in an appropriately ghostly fashion, but gradually gentles her tone to accompany Novacek, who also begins starkly, but soon moves into a loving Bach-like counterpoint-homage, the first beautiful music in the sonata. The performers demonstrate the versatility demanded by the finale's variations, which move from the tender neo-Bachian sound to surreal harmonics and the devilish trills of a Tartini sonata. Josefowicz uses vibrato sparingly, so that any warmth, when it does appear, seems almost estranged. The work ends with icy ponticello tremolos and empty oscillating fifths, and the two performers leave their listeners with a stunning, unflinching and imaginative portrayal of the Sonata's imagery. This recording is highly recommended.

The releases by Daniel Hope and Dmitri Kogan include both of the Shostakovich Violin Concertos, and each soloist is partnered with an orchestra conducted by the composer's busy son, Maxim. Both Hope and Kogan are sensitive players, but seem to lack Josefowicz's imagination. This is something of a partial judgement, however, since both are hampered by orchestral accompaniments that seem leaden and insensitive, allowing them little flexibility as to tempo or dynamics. Attempted whispering entries at the beginning of the First Concerto's Passacaglia by both violinists are defeated by the orchestras' heavy ground bass.

Similarly, as the Passacaglia ends and the music moves into the cadenza, Kogan again begins quietly, but needs to increase his sound to be heard over the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra's plonky pizzicatos. The Tchaikovsky orchestra members (or their conductor) are sometimes insensitive to Kogan's slight tempo changes, resulting in ensemble problems and a sense that they are rushing him. The BBC Symphony players treat Hope a little better, but are still too loud to allow him to establish a moment of true stillness.

In the Second Concerto, the violin is heard throughout the first movement over orchestral undercurrents, but both orchestras' heaviness defeats any attempt the soloists might have made to create the composer's spare "late style" texture. In many passages, both soloists show a capacity for warmth and lyricism, but confining orchestral accompaniments lead to results that seem more conventional and less interesting than the work deserves.

Daniel Hope's recording also includes the Romance from the composer's film music for The Gadfly, arranged for violin and orchestra by Atovmyan. Hope's jacket note describes this light music as a "seemingly romantic interlude between two giants (the concertos)" and justifies its inclusion "because the film's subject matter deals with a freedom fighter whose activities 'stung' the authorities." This seems to be stretching a point, since the film's revolutionary context is a highly conventional one for Soviet times. This popular work's triviality seems out of place on this disc, but it is certainly competently performed.

Judy Kuhn
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