The First Concerto can live or die by its own parody. Overplay it, and it's about as funny as bad slapstick, treat it straight and it's mesmerising in its black humour, always within a hair's-breadth of crossing the line into sheer insanity. Dmitri Alexeev is a gruff but never harsh soloist, the trumpet-playing of Philip Jones apparently effortless, the ECO sounding anything but English (a tribute to their conductor). The Second Concerto is, on the surface at least, a far more amiable animal, though with Shostakovich things are never quite as simple as they seem. The second movement contains one of his best melodies, a veritable love-song, which Alexeev plays simply and affectingly. As a bonus, you get the Assault On Beautiful Gorky. Written for a patriotic film, it's a stylistic flashback to the romanticism of Tchaikovsky and Miaskovsky. And, as if any further incentive were needed, the disc comes at budget price. --Harriet Smith
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