The Classical Collection

No contest this week for top billing. A concert recording of Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony by the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst (EMI 3 34569 2 ) scales the summit and seems set to stay there for some while.

Lustre of a quite different kind, refined rather than forceful, helps focus a warmly romantic orchestral backdrop for Leif Ove Andsnes' fastidious and carefully controlled accounts of Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 (EMI 4 74813 2 ). Andsnes studiously avoids barnstorming on the one hand or prissiness on the other: his is an intelligent, alert and at times austere middle road, with lightning reflexes in the First and a more reserved touch in the Second. Antonio Pappano and the Berlin Philharmonic counter Andsnes' occasional coolness with a more heart-on-sleeve approach, which suits the music.

I wish I could say that Maxim Vengerov's account of Beethoven's Violin Concerto (EMI 336 4032 , plus the two violin Romances) holds the attention as consistently. But with Mstislav Rostropovich opting for heavy emphases and often sluggish tempos, it sounds as if Vengerov is having trouble sustaining the line; not technically, but in terms of his overall concentration. This must be one of the sleepiest performances of Beethoven's first movement, and although Vengerov dispatches the notes with his usual expertise, and the LSO plays well, the results are disappointingly dull.

What a joy then to encounter cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras in Dvorak's Cello Concerto (Harmonia Mundi HMC 901867 ), where every phrase sings or sparkles, the heart-tugging second subject played with affecting tenderness. Jiri Belohlavek and his Prague Philharmonia provide strong accompaniments, and yet in some respects the coupling is even finer. As with Belohlavek's equally recommendable earlier release of Dvorak's Violin Concerto with Isabelle Faust (HMC 901833 ), the Cello Concerto comes coupled with a major Dvorak chamber piece, in this case the rustic Dumky Trio (the Violin Concerto has the great F minor Piano Trio for company). In both trios, Faust joins forces with Queyras and the pianist Alexander Melnikov. I do hope Harmonia Mundi takes the initiative to record this threesome in other key repertory - a complete set of the Brahms-Schumann piano trios would be enticing.

r.cowan@independent.co.uk