Do we need another pairing of the Shostakovich violin concertos? The answer is an unequivocal yes when the playing is as sensational as this. Born in 1985 in Yerevan, Armenia, Sergey Khachatryan wowed the judges at last year’s prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (Brussels) having previously taken first prize at the International Jean Sibelius Competition (Helsinki). Not just a preternaturally gifted teen, he is a real rival to Maxim Vengerov in this repertoire: the Shostakovich No 1 is his party piece as well. Interpreting it with a less unyielding intensity, he too satisfies its demands as few have done since the great David Oistrakh. Rock-solid intonation is combined with wonderfully sweet tone.

Kurt Masur’s accompaniment is characteristic of him. You’ll hear the important tam-tam contributions in the first movement, which Rostropovich and/or his sound team fail to clarify, but you shouldn’t expect minatory timp thwacks when the third movement passacaglia launches with kapellmeisterish restraint. Masur’s lack of theatricality puts the focus on the way the music is put together. One drawback hereabouts is a microphone placement that captures soloistic sniffles, distracting if you do your listening on headphones. The finale is aptly lighter in style, with a dash to the finishing-line perfectly calculated to win prizes and bring the house down.

Authoritative booklet-notes portray the companion concerto as something of an also-ran, an impression the performance perhaps does too little to allay. There are some exquisite effects but Vengerov, Rostropovich and the LSO (Warner, 2/95R, A/97R) take us to another, darker place. In Paris the accompaniment has too much politesse and is backwardly balanced. Strongly recommended even so.