Prokofiev: Violin Concertos 1 & 2
Leila Josefowicz is a young violinist whose brilliant tone and alert rhythmic sense are made for Prokofiev's Concertos. She also has an interpretive profile of her own, with lyric movements taken a bit slower than usual and faster moments full of slashing accents and powerfully sculpted phrasing. Technically, she displays the kind of wizardry that makes competitors look for day jobs, and in the Tchaikovsky, neatly placed between the Prokofiev works, she offers a rich lower register and seems to revel in the sentimental lyricism of the music. But impressive as her performances are, there's more poetry and depth to the Prokofiev Concertos, as witness the classic performances of David Oistrakh or even those of her contemporaries Maxim Vengerov and Gil Shahan. Dutoit's accompaniments are routine and the engineering favors the violin over the orchestra.--Dan Davis