Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, London Symphony Orchestra, Maxim Shostakovich - Barber, Shostakovich: Violin Concertos (1992)

This EMI Angel release Barber & Shostakovich: Violin Concertos places a new package on a time-honored item, the Barber and Dmitry Shostakovich violin concerti as interpreted by violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Maxim Shostakovich. It originally came out in 1992, and the original release, while it was no "Chant," proved a dependable seller. By reducing the price and putting it into a new package, EMI Angel might seem to be hoping to attract buyers who missed it the first time around, but this is a special case in that it is making available again what may have been the finest recording made by Salerno-Sonnenberg under the terms of her EMI contract. Those who decide to take the plunge will be well rewarded, as Barber & Shostakovich: Violin Concertos is one of the finest violin concerto discs of the digital era, demonstrating Salerno-Sonnenberg at her absolute best.
Both of these works are associated very strongly with other artists; although Gil Shaham's recording of the Barber concerto came out a couple of years after Salerno-Sonnenberg's, it has become by far and away its best-known recording. In the Shostakovich, conventional wisdom dictates that no one can outstrip the standard set by the work's dedicatee, David Oistrakh. What makes the Salerno-Sonnenberg especially enjoyable is that she handles both works with equal care, her playing being a model of how to balance poise with passion. Likewise, Shostakovich's shepherding of the London Symphony Orchestra never overrides the soloist, maintaining a smooth, controlled texture; Shostakovich's orchestral underpinning falls beneath Salerno-Sonnenberg's violin like an expensive Berber carpet. But even as she is star of the show, Salerno-Sonnenberg doesn't let it get to her head; there is nothing of the "hot dogging" here that appears, to some degree, on all of Gil Shaham's recordings. Likewise, the wiriness of Oistrakh's violin is nowhere to be found here -- throughout, Salerno-Sonnenberg's playing is smooth like cream and very expressive, although when the emotional content of the music heats up, she reacts in kind. The sound she makes is pure -- one does not hear, or even think, of the contact the bow makes with the instrument. EMI's recording was state of the art in 1992, and is sonically worthy of most recordings being made even as this is reissued more than a dozen years afterward.