After many years as the pianist in the celebrated Beaux Arts Trio, Menahem Pressler made a dramatic return to his first fame as a solo artist. And here, at the age of nearly 90, he makes you more than ever aware of his probing and deeply committed musicianship. His students were privileged indeed, though he could be a stern taskmaster. I recall a very public crossing of swords in Chicago when I objected to his cruel onslaught on a luckless young pianist. There, Pressler’s much-loved warmth and geniality vanished as if by perverse magic.

But at this recital one can only celebrate a blessedly old-fashioned freedom and intensity, a sense, most notably in Beethoven’s Op 110 and Schubert’s B flat Sonata, of the heavenly and transcendent. There is true exultance at the close of both sonatas, in music which provided a profound solace in the aftermath of Pressler’s escape from Nazi Germany, when he remained traumatised by bewilderment and pain. His performance of Estampes is gently chiming and caressing in ‘Pagodes’ and a far cry from a more clear-sighted if often pedestrian French wisdom. His Chopin, too, particularly the C sharp minor Nocturne, is enviably sensitive, making it hardly surprising that he has little time for the many immaculate, note-perfect but ultimately sterile competition-groomed performances of today. Beautifully and simply filmed, this DVD is a classic tribute to a great artist still active in the autumn of his career, and with only a passing and marginal frailty to suggest his age.