“Shostakovich’s alternately wry, acerbic, sorrowful Cello Concert No.1…delivered its requisite punch in a keen orchestral reading, crowned by a magisterial performance by cellist Alisa Weilerstein. This score sounded as natural a fit for Weilerstein’s temperament as it did for an orchestra [St. Petersburg Philharmonic] that has Shostakovich’s music in its DNA.  She offered trenchancy and atmospherically gritty playing when called for but, just as tellingly, was able to delve probingly into the solo part’s deep and troubled vein of introspection. Indeed, like Temirkanov, this is a musician who understands the value of fraught silence.”