The fun pieces here are the neglected two-piano works: the rip-roaring Concertino written in 1953 by Shostakovich for his son Maxim, and the frantic Tarantella, an adaptation from his film score for The Gadfly, which was the last piano piece he wrote. Both of these are closely recorded, dispatched with total unanimity and bite by Anna Vinnitskaya and Ivan Rudin, bringing Shostakovich’s sense of irony to the fore. It’s difficult to avoid the slight feeling of cynicism in Piano Concerto No 2, where the dreamy slow movement tries to out-Rachmaninov that composer (or is it too a satire?), and because both piano and orchestra are set far back in the sound picture and Vinnitskaya does not project strongly. But the trumpet in the racy finale of the First Concerto sparkles.
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