Riccardo Chailly's concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra presented two mid-century Russian masterpieces. But Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto and Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet are completely contrasting responses to the challenges of writing music under Stalinism. Chailly himself arranged a selection of numbers from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites. Every gesture was vividly dramatised, from the military swagger of the Montagues and Capulets to the lamenting string lines of Juliet's Death. But the orchestra's most impressive playing was reserved for the irrepressible moto perpetuo of Tybalt's Death. The music's ferocious energy was severed only by the hammer blows of an enormous, repeated chord.

It's another world from Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto. The uncompromising intensity of the concerto hardly chimes with Stalinist dogma. Violinist Vadim Repin's performance was revelatory. His technical assurance is second to none, but it was his mastery of the work's expressive ebb and flow that was so striking. The opening Nocturne is one of Shostakovich's most sombre, introverted movements. But Repin's concentration made the music compelling. The scherzo second movement was an eruption of sardonic wit, with Repin cast as a surreal, supercharged folk fiddler.

The dramatic journey from introspection to extroversion was repeated and intensified in the next two movements. Repin transformed the formal rigour of the passacaglia third movement into a moving elegy, and the finale was a wave of unstoppable energy. A cadenza links these two movements. In Repin's performance, it was as if the emotional extremes of the whole concerto music had imploded into this single passage. Chailly and the Concertgebouw were magnificent accompanists, alive to the subtleties of Repin's interpretation.

· A version of this review appeared in later editions of yesterday's paper.