Excellent concert in Portsmouth last week. James Ehnes played the first Shostakovich violin concerto (Marin Alsop) then Alsop conducted Elgar's second symphony.
Technically, there has probably never been a finer performance of the Shostakovich. Ehnes really is a master violinist. In particular, the scherzo and the burleska sounded quite superb. Perhaps the notturno and the passagalia could have done with a little less head and a little more heart. But it was a very fine performance. I do, however, prefer the Sarah Chang / Simon Rattle performance; Chang also has an impressive technique, but she also has more heart, which this concerto certainly needs.
Alsop's conducting of the Elgar impressed me; speeds were swift and the music had plenty of backbone (which Elgar -- like Delius -- really needs in performance). It was all a glorious 55 minutes of Edwardian colour and didn't sound a minute too long. The audience really enjoyed it (and also listened to Ehnes's pianissimo passages and pauses in the Shostakovich concerto in rapt silence).