Released here for the first time are two live recordings with the internationally renowned cellist Lynn Harrell, a consummate collaborator with the RLPO and Gerard Schwarz. Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto by its very name acknowledges the complex writing for the orchestra which vies with the solo cello in a contest of virtuosity. The work was written for Mstislav Rostropovich, as was the Second Cello Concerto by Shostakovich, who greatly admired his older colleague’s earlier work, hence the echoes in the concerto’s three-movement structure with a sardonic scherzo in the middle. The coupling of these two works is unique.