These recordings, dating from 1956 57, show Leon Fleisher already at the height of his powers, long before the onset of the debilitating illness that curtailed his dazzling career. One of the few truly great American pianists, Fleisher’s early discs pre-date his Beethoven concerto performances made during the late Fifties and early Sixties for CBS with George Szell, and show him as unfailing in repose as he is in breathtaking bravura. Not even William Kapell’s record of the Second Concerto possessed greater verve and brilliance. How Schnabel, Fleisher’s guiding light and mentor, would have loved such relish of Beethoven’s early pioneering energy, and a shot-from-guns virtuosity is complemented by a no less remarkable clarity and focus in the central Adagio. In the Fourth Concerto Fleisher offers a radically different experience to, say, Myra Hess’s legendary warmth and humanity or Radu Lupu’s no less celebrated poetry, yet his readings, while bolder and more arresting, give us endless musical insights within a scintillating framework. Time and again he made me recall his exasperated cry to a notably prosaic student heard in a masterclass: “I want more than just the notes, I want a chatter of angels.” Criticism falls silent when confronted by such overwhelming mastery and there are no less memorable partnerships from Hans Rosbaud in the Second Concerto and Otto Klemperer in the Fourth. Klemperer’s calm and dignity in Gluck’s Iphigenie in Aulis Overture provides a crowning touch to recordings that transcend any possible sense of dated sound.