According to Rachel Barton Pine, ‘There is perhaps no classical composer who is more beloved to metalheads than Shostakovich’. I’m not sure how she knows. But as an artist who straddles the divide, she is certainly more qualified than me to say. Shostakovich’s obsessional drive immediately suggests an affinity. And if it is the case that, as Earl Maneein puts it, quoting and endorsing radio commentator Will Berger, ‘Metal (and extreme music in general) is an expression of rage in reaction to the world we live in’, then the coupling on this album makes broad sense.

‘An acclaimed violinist and composer known for his unique and innovative fusion of western classical music, heavy metal, and hardcore punk’, Maneein also has interests in Buddhism. Accordingly, Dependent Arising consists of three movements entitled ‘Grasping at the self’, ‘The crows already knew of your grief. They will carry him home’ and ‘Gaté, Gaté Paragaté Parasangaté, Bodhi Svaha’ (from a Buddhist sutra, loosely translated as ‘Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone well beyond’). The music, especially in the outer movements, is generally rather more violent than the titles might suggest. If the whole comes across as more post-Shostakovich than heavy metal, that may be partly because the medium of the symphony orchestra steers it in that direction.

In fact, more than Shostakovich, Maneein’s concerto puts me in mind of Schnittke, certainly in the scrunchily uncompromising gestures of much of the violin-writing. That’s a full-on compliment, not a backhanded one. But the problem is that too much of the piece feels like an improvised cadenza. Where Shostakovich’s cadenza muses on, deconstructs and reconfigures ideas he has already enabled us to identify with emotionally, Maneein’s brand of hyperactivity comes at us without context and remains expressively mono-dimensional. Admittedly, there are rock/classical fusions that work less well than this. (Take Philip Glass’s Bowie symphonies. No really, take them – anywhere.) But there are also ones that, for me, hit the mark more tellingly (say, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Magnus Lindberg, Glenn Branca).

Rachel Barton Pine is a passionate advocate for both concertos. Her Shostakovich packs a powerful punch, and she finds an affectingly withdrawn quality for the passacaglia slow movement. The recorded balance places her so far forwards you can virtually see the rosin flying off the bow, with the unintended consequence that the orchestral contribution goes for less than it might – the entry after the cadenza sounds almost as though from the next room. But I do like the way all concerned push the finale through to the end, in a manner Pine calls ‘moshing’ (extreme dancing, in which participants deliberately bump into each other), effectively preparing us for the Maneein to follow.