Repin's… view of the Concerto is dangerously relaxed. There's no doubting the beauty of his tone, especially in pianissimo… but there are moments when the music threatens to grind to a halt…

Muti's conducting of the Concerto… always flexible and accommodating of his soloist, while the Vienna Philharmonic's playing is consistently warm in texture. The return to full tutti is carefully calculated, the beautifully played cadenza a little later on Kreisler's famous melding of themes, less fashionable nowadays than it once was, but wholly appropriate to Repin's reverential and warn-hearted interpretation. Repin's refined expressiveness and Argerich's powerhouse pianism happily relate, provided you can accept the "marriage of opposites" principle. Argerich is definitely the dominant partner.