Shostakovichs Violin Concerto No.1 favourite recording

What is your favourite recording of that master-piece ? Maybe some of you won't like this: but the Vengerov+Rostropovich (LSO) version sounds like heaven The Mordkovitch+Jarvi is also great (better violin but worst Orchestra)

Of the few Sony Heritage Masterworks that are still being sold, they converted over to the regular jewel cases. Funny that you feel that you were 'lucky' to get the paper cases. I was thrilled when they reissued them in the jewel cases and wound up re-buying and then ebaying the paper versions. I couldn't stand them!

Not alone. While he certainly doesn't do a perfect job in this recording, it is as much the fault of Vengerov, who, the more I listen to him, strikes me as one of the most overrated violinists of the recent past. While I have enjoyed the Oistrakh/Mitropoulos recording, I throw in a vote for his reading with Mravinsky (or was it Kondrashin in the 1st?). Of the more recent recordings, I found tremendous pleasure in Hillary Hahn's.

There's certainly a mono recording with Mravinsky and the Leningrad PO on Praga (very good) and, I believe, another with the Moscow PO and Kondrashin on Russian Disc (now deleted). At least I think the latter is with Oistrakh and coupled with the 2nd concerto played by Leonid Kogan. I think I've got the two soloists the right way round but I don't have a copy of the disc and haven't heard it.

I have the old Melodiya Eurodisc edition (Vol. 7 of the Oistrakh Collection, sorry I was too lazy to check before I wrote my first reply). 1st concerto is indeed with Mrav and the Leningraders, 2nd is with Oistrakh/Moscow State Philharmonic/Kondrashin.

I agree with Vengerov. Sonenburg's recording is great as well.

(ok, so I haven't heard Ostrikah's...)

Bingo! None of the newer performances can equal the classic quartet of Oistrakh/Mitropoulos, Oistrakh/Mravinsky (Leningrad), Kogan/Kondrashin (if you get it on Supraphon you also get Sitkovetsky's terrific Sibelius), and the currently unobtainable Milanova/Stefanov. Mullova is OK, Mordkovitch better than that, but probably the best of the latter-day batch is Repin/Nagano. Vengerov and Salerno-Sonnenberg should be left in the bin; Hahn is terrific in the second movement, perfunctory elsewhere.

The things that make the Mullova more than OK for me are her finale, which just sizzles and Previn's very sympathetic accompaniment. I do feel she could have found more in the Nocturne, but overall I like it very much.

I haven't heard a lot, but I like the ones I have: Oistrakh/Mitropoulos, Vengerov, and Milanova.

Dave Cook

This has been a favorite for many years, but recently I have been reacquainting myself with Oistrakh's (possibly last) recording with Maksim Shostakovich conducting the New Philharmonia (rec. Nov. 1972), on a Japanese EMI CD TOCE-59186, and it is a splendid recording, very different from the earlier one (perhaps less incisive overall, but I would say with more depth and with a more heartfelt cadenza). This must have been a special occasion for both conductor and violinist. The CD reproduces the photo on the LP cover, with Maksim standing between Oistrakh and Old Dmitri himself, both of whom are seated in front of the score. This is one of those ART remasterings, so it might find its way Westward sometime soon, just as the Oistrakh's recording of the Brahms concerto with Szell did.

Ramon Khalona

I have never liked Salerno-Sonnenberg; she seems far more interested in projecting a 'personality' than in being a musician.