Vadim Repin's Beethoven Violin Concerto with the NZSO was one of the unforgettable live performances of last year, even if the Russian's expansive interpretation seemed at times to be struggling against Susanna Malkki's often rigorous baton.
Repin's first recording for Deutsche Grammophon finds him in more sympathetic surroundings
for the concerto.
Working with the Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti, Beethoven's magnum opus is a meeting-place of the greats.
Strings provide the warmest and richest of back-drops.
Woodwind, from the very opening phrase, flicker and swell with a life of their own.
The many finessed interpretative touches reveal how important this work is to soloist and conductor alike.
Check out Repin's understated, yet immaculately shaded entry and, at the other end of the spectrum, the generous, all-engulfing sound of the cadenza.
The melodic grace and shapeliness of the second movement is totally winning and we are treated to a Finale that does not get carried away by its own gusto.
A second bonus disc offers the Kreutzer Sonata, with Martha Argerich as a dynamic partner.
With these two talents teamed up, there are thrills aplenty from the first of Repin's opening chords to the final blaze of A major.
Miklos Rozsa is a name associated with the Golden Age of Hollywood, writing music for movies like Spellbound and Ben-Hur.
His Violin Concerto, penned as a concert piece for Jascha Heifetz in 1956, would even end up incorporated into Billy Wilder's 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
A new Naxos recording pairs this concerto with the composer's 1958 Sinfonia Concertante.
It is delivered by an all-Russian cast of violinist Anastasia Khitruk, cellist Andrey Tchekmazov, conductor Dmitry Yablonsky and the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra.
While the later work is a bit of a note-spinner, the Violin Concerto has no shortage of exotic charm, occasionally breaking out from its languor into outbursts of Slavic passion.
Khitruk has the full measure of the piece and, by holding back the tempo of the lovely first movement, ensures that the music yearns and smoulders appropriately.
Recorded with more presence than the much-lauded 2000 Telarc CD, featuring American Robert McDuffie, this disc also has the considerable benefit of a top-notch Russian orchestra.
Vadim Repin plays Beethoven (Deutsche Grammophon 4776596)
Miklos Rosza, Violin Concerto (Naxos 8.570350)
