Warhorses Get Their Due

Two cornerstones of the core romantic violin conceto repertoire on this disk, the Concerto in D major by Tchaikovsky and the Concerto in D minor by Sibelius. They are very familiar works that have long justified their popularity and there's little point in me adding to all that has been written about them, except to say that there is nothing wrong with accessability or indeed popularity if it isn't flogged to death. Of more interest to me on this disk is the soloist Viktoria Mullova who is accompanied here by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa. The disk is a remastering of a recording made in 1985 by a very young Mullova not long after her defection. She apparently had a reputation then ( long before I became interested in classical music so I am just repeating hearsay ) of being an ice maiden but I find the technique and fire in the playing here to be far from icy. But over the years, she has become a much changed musician and while she still takes the occasional gig to play in front of a full scale orchestra playing one of the big five blockbuster concertos, she seems more interested in pursuing the dual paths of period instrument baroque performance and contemporary collaborative work in small ensembles with the odd bit of intelligent crossover thrown in. As for this disk, if you don't have the works and want a solid reliable performance at a bargain price, you can't go wrong.