‘The most astounding genius I have ever heard’, declared Leopold Stokowski after hearing the seven-year-old Oscar Shumsky, who made his debut under Stokowski in 1924. Sixty years later Shumsky, by then a force to reckon with even among some formidable younger rivals, taped this in many ways remarkable recording of the Brahms Concerto, which until now has remained unissued; thanks to ‘two Erics’, Oscar’s son and the tireless teacher and mastermind behind the Biddulph label Eric Wen, it is finally seeing the light of day. Broadly paced, red-blooded, assured and stylistically an approximate cross between Old Russia’s firebrand Jascha Heifetz and the more relaxed, even luxuriant Brahms style of the Soviet master David Oistrakh, Shumsky inspires confidence from his very first entry. The cut and thrust of Joachim’s first-movement cadenza is a fair match for anyone’s and more compelling than most; Shumsky goes solo with passion and commitment, accurately too, and were it not for the somewhat subfusc orchestral accompaniment we’d likely be on to a winner.

The slow movement is lovely, my only reservation being that Shumsky’s first entry at 2'28" (after the oboe solo), although dolce, is hardly piano (compare Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta in the same passage, or Janine Jansen and Antonio Pappano), though the unevenly balanced Shumsky recording – from whatever source (we’re not told) – might be partly to blame. Then again, as the movement progresses Shumsky’s gently rhapsodising approach pays high musical dividends: it’s the old story of making the music sound spontaneously improvised, and not everyone is capable of doing that. The finale has an appealing lilt to it, and I’d say that if you’re into quality fiddling, Shumsky’s Brahms is a class act, albeit minutely flawed. It’s certainly a worthy addition to his discography. I’d recommend you hear it, at the very least.