Designed like a recital programme, this CD is formed of items recorded between 1986 and 2008. The Locatelli Sonata, in Ysaÿe’s arrangement, presents a highly romanticised idea of Baroque music, and Lydia Mordkovitch’s performance is suitably extravagant; her rhapsodic style in the first and third movements is especially striking. The finale is perhaps too slow, and the second movement too forcefully accented. Similarly, Mordkovitch’s impassioned account of the Ysaÿe Sonata is slightly marred by excessive rubato – the fierce interruption of the initial Bach quotation is more effective if the rhythm isn’t so distorted. I find, too, that the Poco adagio second movement is rather too slow and rhythmically wayward, but the subsequent variations and finale are both entirely convincing.

There’s an element of extravagance in the Chausson, too, but what’s remarkable here is Mordkovitch’s range of tone and the way she finds the right sound for each episode of this emotionally charged drama. Even more impressive is the way she disciplines her natural exuberance to the uncompromising demands of the Shostakovich. This is a splendid performance, capturing powerfully the chilly atmosphere of the opening Andante, the furious energy of the following Allegretto and the gradually increasing intensity of the concluding Passacaglia.