CLASSICAL

Prokofiev: "Violin Concertos; Sonata for solo violin".

Gil Shaham (violin), LSO/Andre Previn.

Deutsche Grammophon 447 758-2 (59 mins).

Dial-A-Track Code: 1751

Prokofiev's two violin concertos have of late unaccountably faded from view in Dublin's concert programmes. They are among the most immediately appealing of the composer's works - the more overtly poetic First is arguably the finest of all his concertos - and their ongoing popularity with listeners is clearly attested to by the number of recordings (over 20 in each case) currently available. The latest to arrive, by the 25 year old American Israeli violinist, Gil Shaham, is a rewarding addition to the list.

There's very little unaccompanied writing in either of the works, the opening bars of the second being the most notable exception. Shaham and conductor Andre Previn take this fact fully on board, and produce much tightly knit interplay which doesn't at all impinge on the sense of emotional freedom which the soloist brings to his part. Some of Shaham's distinguished rivals on disc sound cool and impersonal by comparison.

The fill up is altogether less well known, a late sonata written for performance by massed violins, though it's rarely played by other than a solo violin these days. It's close in character to the Op. 94 Sonata for violin and piano, direct and tuneful in its appeal. Nielsen: "Piano pieces". Leif Ove Andsnes.

Virgin Classics VC 5 45129 2 (54 mins).

Dial-A-Track Code: 1861

Piano music doesn't loom large in our perception of Denmark's best known composer, Carl Nielsen. As the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes remarks in a note to his new CD, the keyboard works are not well known, even among Scandinavian pianists.

Andsnes's own interest in the music began at the age of 12, when he was captivated by a performance of the often gritty, Bach inspired Chaconne, Op. 32, a work completed in 1916, the year of the Fourth Symphony (the Inextinguisliable). The Chaconne is placed at the start of his CD, and given a deeply probing performance, which carves it out as a work of real stature. It's followed by the severe, rather steely Suite Op. 45, and the Three Piano Pieces, Op. 59, of 1928, which began to chart paths the composer would not live to explore fully (he died in 1931).

Andsnes, who plays throughout with unstinting commitment, then returns to the last decade of the 19th century for two sets of pieces of altogether lighter tone (including an "Elf Dance" a "Doll's March" and a"Musical Clock") written around and just after the composition of the First Symphony.

Malcolm Arnold: "Symphony No 9". NSO/Andrew Penny.

Naxos 8.553540 (57 mins).

Dial A Track Code: 1971

Malcolm Arnold's Ninth Symphony managed to stir up a degree of controversy before a note of it had ever been performed. Ill health delayed its completion and when it was finished in 1986, conductors, orchestral managements and even the composer's publishers, Faber Music, fought shy of a work so transparent and bare. It was the ongoing championship of Charles Groves which resulted in the eventual premiere in 1992.

The two part writing of the opening sets the scene for what is to follow. The strongest flavour is that of Shostakovich (there are hints of Sibelius, too) and also a few early twirls of Arnold's native populist touch. Fans of Arnold's style may respond positively. To my ears, it all sounds unyieldingly banal.

The composer wrote the piece after enduring five years of "hell", and he ends it with a long Adagio, which accounts for around half the playing time. The nature and placing of the movement has prompted enthusiasts for Arnold's work to draw comparisons with Mahler's Ninth. However, these are comparisons which the more recent work does not bear well. The sincerity of the music is not in question, merely the richness of its musical substance.

The NSO's performance under Andrew Penny, recorded last year in the presence of the composer, is both idiomatic and atmospherically recorded. At under a fiver, and with the bonus of a 10 minute conversation between composer and con duetor, this is a disc which, for a modest outlay, will inform the curious and reward the already committed.