Russian music has a soul that defies translation. Or, rather, its innermost meanings can come only if the musicians involved have part of that soul in themselves.

Violinist Maxim Vengerov and conductor (in this case) Mstislav Rostropovich are Russian to their fingertips and psyches, and on their new album they exhibit those qualities in spades.

They can be heard in the symmetry of feeling that encloses all these works, which span more than a century of composition.

Vengerov and Rostropovich start with the most recent material, Shchedrin's Concerto Cantabile (RealAudio excerpt) (written in the 1990s) and work their way back in time — and styles — through works by Stravinsky (begun in 1930) and Tchaikovsky (1875).

Whether negotiating the sumptuous melody of Tchaikovsky's Sérénade mélancolique (RealAudio excerpt) or skidding and sliding through the austere landscape of Stravinsky's neo-classical concerto, Vengerov invests his playing with both a passion and power that transcend the notes themselves. Similarly, his playing on Concerto Cantabile has an emotional subtlety that seems to defy the abstraction of the piece.

Throughout, Rostropovich and the LSO display an innate sense of timing, dynamics and ensemble grandeur that provide a rich musical tapestry against which Vengerov spins his expressive wonders.