Gone are the days when Shostakovich’s First Concerto meant one or other frequently inaccessible David Oistrakh LP. Today’s young virtuosi are queuing up to record the piece and new versions from Daniel Hope, Leila Josefowicz and Sergey Khachatryan are expected in the composer’s centenary year. In making the transition from wunderkind to mature artist, Sarah Chang and EMI have previously played it safe, setting down lesser known concertos to general acclaim.

This live recording from Berlin moves into more demanding territory with results that invite comparison with established classics. The soloist is fortunate to be partnered by Sir Simon Rattle and his Berliners. If you didn’t warm to his stylised Schubert Ninth (EMI, 3/06), this is a reminder of his unambiguous excellence as a concerto accompanist. Notwithstanding a sound-stage that feels overstuffed at high decibels, the effect is quite different from those rival accounts where the orchestral part is painted in shades of grey. The sophisticated sense of colour and control of line anchor the performance.

What you might miss is that indefinable factor ‘authenticity of experience’. Not that Sarah Chang lacks heart, courage or individuality. She plunges excitedly into climactic passages, determined to give her big dark sound a scorching edge. The technical control is mightily impressive if less sovereign than Vengerov’s. Chang’s deployment of vibrato, perhaps a little wide and unvaried for some tastes, is unashamed; ditto the blood-and-guts bowing. Her ability to fine down her tone to a barely audible pianissimo is spellbinding in the opening Nocturne. So what if there’s a momentary lapse of intonation; this is great playing, perhaps the best she has yet given us. While the Passacaglia third movement is somehow less eloquent, it’s well worth sampling a recording which, like Repin’s, ensures that the music can actually be heard as variations on a ground.

The Prokofiev goes well, too, positively projected but never over-personalised à la Josefowicz (Philips, 12/01 – nla), less consistently winsome than in the hands of Chung or Fischer.