Shostakovich: Violin Concertos 1 & 2

In the aftermath of Russia’s Great Patriotic War with Nazi Germany, once the rejoicing and relief had subsided, it was inevitable that national and personal trauma would find expression in the arts. Shostakovich channelled his troubles and those of the age into his First Violin Concerto, completed in 1948 but shelved until after the death of the tyrannical Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953. Alina Ibragimova probes the work’s unsettling blend of soul-searching, irony and pathos to uncover its rarely glimpsed, deeply moving poetic essence, mined here from the original score. She’s backed to the hilt by the State Academic Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, who bring out the concerto’s heft. Shostakovich’s introspective Second Violin Concerto also flourishes thanks to the focused eloquence of Ibragimova’s lyrical playing and purity of tone.