Jean Sibelius / Carl Nielsen: Violin Concertos - Maxim Vengerov / Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Daniel Barenboim

If the music of this Finnish master has ever seemed chilly and remote, this performance is likely to be a revelation. While Maxim Vengerov doesn't deliver the spectacular Northern Lights that Isaac Stern achieved early in his career, the hot-fingered Siberian goes for the underlying angst that gives this music a whole new level of depth. Conductor Barenboim, who's not known for his Sibelius, is similarly on his toes. The Nielsen performance is inevitably less seasoned; even the piece's strongest advocates have trouble convincing anybody to let them play it, though it's a first-class work. Thus, it's gratifying simply to hear such charismatic forces playing it, with its Danish sensibility making compatible bedfellows with Sibelius's sparer, Nordic manner. --David Patrick Stearns