Shostakovich planned his Second Violin Concerto as a 60th birthday tribute to Oistrakh. He made a mistake with the date, however, but righted his error the following year by composing the Violin and Piano Sonata. Meanwhile, Oistrakh had played the new concerto three times in Russia before this Western premiere in London. Barring a few insignificant moments of imprecision, there’s no need to make allowances for it being a new work for conductor and orchestra; it’s a splendid performance, and very well recorded, as we can hear already in the introductory Bliss Fanfare, an extraordinary contrast to the sombre Concerto. Oistrakh appears to command the stage effortlessly and to catch the mood exactly, whether it’s the melancholy musings at the start, the fierce, declamatory interruption in the slow movement or the finale’s cadenza, emerging in Oistrakh’s hands as a mad devil’s dance. In this movement the LSO sounds wonderfully confident and forceful and, throughout the Concerto, alert to every expressive nuance. Barry Tuckwell’s account of the prominent first horn part is quite magnificent.

I can’t imagine becoming tired of Oistrakh’s Tchaikovsky. The perfect timing of the first movement’s cadenza and the slightly inebriated characterisation of the finale’s second subject are just two examples of the detail and richness of his interpretation. This is, however, a more routine performance than of the Shostakovich, with not all the orchestral details precisely in place. The recorded sound and balance, too, aren’t as impressive. Not a main choice for Oistrakh’s Tchaikovsky, then, but the Shostakovich is an immensely valuable record.