Alexander Melnikov (piano),Jeroen Berwaerts (trumpet), Mahler Chamber Orchestra/ Teodor Currentzis, Isabelle Faust (violin) Harmonia Mundi HMC 902104****

Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto of 1933, with a solo part for trumpet, has a sometimes knockabout character, freely mixing musical manners and moods, ranging from the manic to the sentimental. The Second Concerto (1957), written for and premièred by the composers teenage son, Maxim, is a lighter, giddier piece in its outer movements, with a slow movement that borders on kitsch. The 1968 Violin Sonata, a 60th birthday present for the great violinist David Oistrakh, is a severe, blisteringly bleak work, not the kind of music to suggest anything remotely close to birthday cheer. Alexander Melnikov brings a fresh friskiness to the First Concerto, chameleon changes to the Second, and a probing ferocity with Isabelle Faust in the Violin Sonata. See url.ie/55ay