Excellent recordings of these two magnificent works are not lacking. Rostropovich and Ormandy set the standard in the First Concerto, while Schiff/Maxim Shostakovich, with the same orchestra as on the present release, are well-nigh unbeatable if you’re looking for the two works coupled together. Daniel Müller-Schott is a major talent, and he’s characterfully accompanied by Yakov Kreizberg. The partnership works best in the quick movements, which are taken so quickly that their bitter humor and sarcastic bite gets glossed over. Müller-Schott pours on the tone in such crucial places as the neurotic second subject of the First Concerto’s first movement, and in the climax of the Second Concerto’s finale.
That said, and for all Müller-Schott’s eloquence, he’s very slow indeed in the First Concerto’s Moderato second movement, never mind the mostly slow outer movements of the Second Concerto. In the former, he trails Rostropovich (no slouch in the expression department) by several minutes, and while the tempos are well sustained, some listeners might well find it to be too much of a good thing. Müller-Schott himself contributes some not terribly revealing notes. Then comes one of the most intellectually garbled and ridiculous essays on the composer ever written (all about whether Shostakovich worked from the Berlioz/Strauss or Rimsky-Korsakov orchestration treatises, as if we should care)–by a certain Marco Frei. If you collect these works and don’t mind slow tempos, I’d recommend giving this disc a listen. Otherwise, stick with the reference recordings listed above.
