It has been a long wait for a recording of the young Shostakovich’s grotesque morality-opera that would rival Rozhdestvensky’s, made in 1975 for Melodiya following a stage production overseen by the composer. This new one from Gergiev and his Mariinsky forces is certainly not on the same level but it does at least include a full text and translation, unaccountably omitted from the 1998 CD reissue of Rozhdestvensky and Co, copies of which can still be found online.

Not that the new recording is any mean feat. Gergiev and his soloists give a scrupulously prepared account of the dauntingly rebarbative score, finding a suavity, euphony and poise that are anything but readily accessible. By most standards one might also claim for them a commendable vividness of characterisation. It seems ungrateful to crave more, especially when the recording quality is also top-notch. What is missing, however, is the sheer gleeful relish that Rozhdestvensky was so good at before he lost the fire in his belly sometime in the 1980s, and with which he somehow managed to infect both his singers and his instrumentalists. Whatever highlight one might pick on – the infamous percussion interlude or the following snoring scene, for instance, where Shostakovich most openly seeks to outdo and send up Wozzeck – there is an unmistakable extra panache and pungency in the older version.

I won’t waste space quibbling with the Mariinsky booklet essay or the Russian pronunciation guide. What I really regret is that we still do not have a DVD of this most visual of Russian operas. But at least now collectors can put the Mariinsky text and translation in with the Rozhdestvensky recording and get the best of both worlds.