Tomorrow night, the New York Philharmonic will begin a four-concert subscription series of particular interest. What’s so interesting? Mstislav Rostropovich will be on the podium, and Maxim Vengerov will be the soloist. They will perform music of Shostakovich: the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Symphony No. 10.

Mr. Rostropovich is the best cellist in history, and no mean conductor. Next year we will celebrate his 80th birthday. Maxim Vengerov is one of the best violinists in memory. He only recently celebrated his 30th birthday. These two men formed their partnership when Mr. Vengerov was a mere teenager. We all remarked at the time that they seemed very glad to have found each other – not to have missed each other: Mr. Rostropovich in his later years, Mr.Vengerov in his earlier.

They are kindred musical spirits.

Speaking of birthdays, we are celebrating, this year, Shostakovich’s centennial. The big birthday this year, of course, is Mozart’s 250th. But Shostakovich is holding his own.

Mr. Rostropovich knew the composer very well. (Shostakovich died in 1975, when Mr. Rostropovich was almost 50.) Mr.Rostropovich is tirelessly dedicated to Shostakovich, performing him repeatedly. For example, he brought the London Symphony Orchestra to New York in 2002. They played three concerts of Shostakovich.

This relationship began when Mr. Rostropovich was 16 at the Moscow Conservatory. The young man wanted to sit in on Shostakovich’s orchestration class. The composer had him play the cello for him. When he was through, the great man said, “It would be an honor – a high honor – for me if you attended my class.”

Shostakovich would write several pieces for Mr.Rostropovich,and also for the cellist’s wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, a soprano. But they never asked him to write a piece. As Elizabeth Wilson relates in her acclaimed book on Shostakovich – “Shostakovich: A Life Remembered” – they learned from Shostakovich’s wife that the surest way not to get a piece from him was to ask. They never did, and it paid.

Shostakovich wrote both his cello concertos for Mr. Rostropovich.The cello sonata was an earlier work – 1934 – but the composer and Mr. Rostropovich recorded it together, in addition to performing it many, many times. (Shostakovich, recall, was a pretty fair pianist.)

A quick, funny story about the Cello Concerto No. 1: Mr. Rostropovich suggested a certain change, making the music harder. Shostakovich responded, “Aha! You just want to ensure that no one else will be able to play it!”

Shostakovich’s cello works are inextricably linked to Mr. Rostropovich. But bear this in mind: Mr. Rostropovich has occasioned virtually the entire modern cello repertory. (“Modern” meaning from World War II on.) And he has known virtually all the important composers of his time. Prokofiev wrote for him, as did Khachaturian. Britten did, and so did Bernstein – and Messiaen, and Berio, and Bliss, and on and on and on.

It is true, however, that Mr. Rostropovich’s relationship with Shostakovich was particularly touching. It could hardly be otherwise, given the demented realities of the Soviet Union. Sometimes, Mr. Rostropovich would visit Shostakovich’s home, and merely sit in silence with him.

Shostakovich was not the political warrior that Mr. Rostropovich was. For instance, Mr. Rostropovich sheltered Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, at obvious cost to himself. Shostakovich initially cooperated in the official campaign against Mr. Solzhenitsyn, before reversing himself, with deep remorse. Shostakovich did many shameful things during his difficult life.And – to say once more – he was deeply ashamed of those things.

But he also exhibited bravery. Mainly, he worked decade after decade in the Soviet Union, and kept both his life and his dignity (most of the time).

The circumstances of the violin concerto on this week’s New York Philharmonic program are well-known. Shostakovich completed the work in 1948, in a dire hour of his life. He was out of favor with the regime, under a virtual death sentence. He “put the piece in the drawer,” as he had to do with many pieces throughout his career. It was not premiered until 1955, two years after Stalin’s death.

He wrote the Symphony No. 10 largely in 1953, the year in which Stalin finally left the scene. The second movement, a scherzo, is thought to be a musical portrait of the dictator himself. (Never mind that “scherzo,” strictly speaking, means “joke”!)

The circumstances of their birth aside – indeed, all history aside – the Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Symphony No. 10 are very great works of music. They speak, for all time, for themselves.

Messrs. Rostropovich and Vengerov recorded the concerto together when the violinist was 19. They clearly enjoy each other, drawing strength from each other. They understand each other, not as Russians, I would say, but as musicians – extravagantly talented ones.

And I will say now what I always say about Mr. Rostropovich and Shostakovich: Yes, he plays Shostakovich brilliantly, on the cello; and, yes, he conducts him well too. But, you know what? He plays and conducts a lot of people brilliantly, or well.There is not a better interpreter of Bach. Period. And Mr. Rostropovich never met JSB. He never absorbed the atmosphere of Germany in the first half of the 18th century. He never sat with the composer, whether in silence or not.

He simply knows him – knows music.

Mr. Rostropovich has delivered some great accounts of Shostakovich symphonies, to be sure. But he has also de livered some mediocre ones. As with music in general, it depends – on mood, rehearsal time, etc.Antonio Pappano, a young Italian-British conductor, led the New York Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Tenth in 2004. Will Mr. Rostropovich’s performance tomorrow night be better? I can’t say.

Mr. Vengerov never met Shostakovich, and never lived in the worst of the Soviet Union, lucky fellow. The Violin Concerto No. 1 – like the Violin Concerto No. 2 – was written for David Oistrakh. Will Mr. Vengerov be even better in it? Gee, that would be neat; and it is not impossible.

One simply has to show up.That’s the way it is in concert life, and in other types of life, too.

Mstislav Rostropovich will conduct the New York Philharmonic on April 19, 20, 21 & 22 at Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center, 212-875-5656).