For the third time this year a new issue has appeared of this ideal and generous coupling, but I fear the new contender on the Pyramid label is hardly competitive at full price. When so much fine material from Eastern Europe is appearing on bargain labels, it is surprising to find an issue so obviously flawed which comes at premium price. The playing of Nell Gotkovsky, a fine violinist too long neglected by the record companies, is strong and vibrant, akin to that of Lydia Mordkovitch if with few of her inner subtleties, but the impossible recording balance coupled with very rough playing from the Bulgarian Radio orchestra still put the record out of court.
The digital sound is full and wide-ranging, but unkindly you might say that the engineers have brought forward the element in the performances of real quality, the brilliant and richly enjoyable playing of the soloist, so as to hide the orchestra's inadequacies. It means that Gotkovsky is allowed no dynamic less than mezzo-forte, so that there is none of the sense of an intimate meditation that marks the playing of Mordkovitch in the yearning melodies that open both concertos. Mordkovitch's Chandos version, winner of the Concerto section in last year's Gramophone Awards remains a clear first choice, but Sitkovetsky's refined and more withdrawn reading for Virgin remains a first-rate recommendation too, if you want a more classical approach.'