Maxim Vengerov's recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto last year fell on disapproving ears in many quarters.
Too many found the tempi lugubrious and the Russian's original cadenzas distracting. The partnership with conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, such a joy when they gave us Britten and Walton concertos in 2003,
was a letdown.
The violinist's new Mozart disc, containing the violin concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante K364, is supposedly the first of a set of two CDs containing the composer's complete concerted works for violin.
For Vengerov, this has been something of a sabbatical assignment. A year off the concert stage has allowed him to chart the territory, retreating with the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra to a kibbutz to "work on an equal footing and commune with Mozart".
The results are not so far from last year's Beethoven, but, Mozart being Mozart, there are no 27-minute first movements. This is no crinoline and powdered-wig classicism - Vengerov's Mozart is now a dashing romantic hero.
The Sinfonia Concertante sounds anew. Its opening Allegro maestoso, majestically paced for once, opens with the chordal clout of Beethoven's Eroica.
Pizzicatos spark from background to foreground. Vengerov and violist Lawrence Power duet like lovers in a grand operatic tryst.
The Andante, with the Verbier strings at their most responsive, is a symphony of sighs, the EMI engineers doing wonders to mesh soloists and orchestra in sumptuous harmony.
The Violin Concertos, both in D, are untroubled sunny works, written by a composer just out of his teens - a young man who takes himself very seriously indeed in both of the opening movements.
Yet when Vengerov enters, in both cases, the mood switches to one of exultant lyricism, with playing designed to turn vulnerable hearts to putty.
My moment of magic came in the Andante from the K218 concerto. It is here you feel most tellingly the communal solidarity of soloist and players.
But when Vengerov has the stage to himself, it is difficult not to be transported by the elegance of his cadenza, complete with double-stops that are the nearest thing in music to Viennese pastries with double cream.
* Maxim Vengerov, Mozart Violin Concertos (EMI 78374)
