Rostropovich has famously said that when he heard Jacqueline du Pré's classic recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto, he resolved never to perform the work again himself. He was of course misguided. There is ample room for two contrasted interpretations, the taut Rostropovich set against the warmly expansive du Pré, and this live recording, made when Rostropovich performed a sequence of more than 30 concertos in 1965, confirms it.

It may not have the depth of du Pré, but the intensity is comparable, and it comes in a generous coupling with two of the other concertos in that epic sequence, the Haydn C major and the Saint-Saëns First, both also fine performances. In the Elgar the weight of Rostropovich's double-stopping is formidable, set against the subtler shaping of du Pré and her hushed account of the epilogue. Rostropovich's speeds are consistently faster than du Pré's, and the sequence of three works makes for a satisfying and contrasted programme, on the whole well recorded though in mono only. The Brahms disc, recorded at the same period, is equally illuminating and powerful. In 1965 Rostropovich, one suspects, was just a bit in awe of his senior colleague, but that does not prevent him from giving a powerful and characterful reading. As in the Violin Concerto, one of the marvels of Oistrakh's playing is the purity and precision of his playing above the stave, magical in its delicacy, yet overall the impression is of supreme power held in check. This stands as an ideal coupling on the whole, well recorded but again in mono only.