It is good to welcome an all-American performance of this most British of concertos that is so thrillingly passionate. David Zinman has said that of all concertos this is his favourite, something confirmed in the playing he draws from the Chicago Symphony, its richness as well as its characteristic polish. The detail revealed in the long tuttis also demonstrates the care with which Zinman has prepared this performance. The recording on the Canary Classics label (personal to the soloist, Gil Shaham) is taken from live performances, and that adds to the impact, with the opulent sound matching the playing. The Chicago orchestra here is even richer than the LPO for Nigel Kennedy.

The playing of the orchestra finds a perfect counterpart in the performance of Gil Shaham, always one of the most sensitive and responsive of the high-powered violin virtuosos. Amazingly, he has performed this work some 20 times in the last 10 years. His range of tone and of dynamic is extreme, some might feel too much so, when some of his pianissimos, as in the second subject of the first movement, are so gentle that they can barely be heard against the orchestra. Though in that key passage he slows from the basic speed – something adopted by virtually every soloist in this work – there is nothing self-indulgent or sentimental in it, rather less so than in Kennedy’s fine version with Vernon Handley conducting. Equally, Shaham’s pronounced vibrato is always perfectly controlled.

The slow movement brings refinement and purity, while the main Allegro in the finale is fast and light, leading to a deeply dedicated account of the long accompanied cadenza. This now stands as one of the very finest versions of this concerto, and even though the disc, unlike most, offers no coupling, it is well worth the price. Under Solti as music director, the Chicago Orchestra produced one or two fine Elgar recordings, but the playing here is even warmer under Zinman.