Soloing and conducting (or anyway being responsible for) the accompaniment at the same time is difficult; but you would not think so to hear the present record. Unanimity is for practical purposes exact (separate conductors can easily produce worse than this!). And if Zukerman the soloist could play this programme any better (perhaps he can!) it would certainly be an uncommon pleasure to hear. The orchestra, too, seem to be at their very best; certainly their internal balance is excellent.
The programme illuminated by these performances is an interesting one, exploring the not at all overcrowded field of single-movement concertante solos. For once it is reasonable to suggest that Beethoven is not the strongest, noblest contributor: his Romances do not really lie in that field, instead in that of, well, romance, the gentler and less exciting but nevertheless agreeable enough feelings awakened and allowed to drift peacefully and comfortably for the allotted span. Dvorak, too, making use of the same generic title, takes pretty well the same view of the situation. So it is left to Schubert to stir things up a bit: his Polonaise, Konzertstuck and Rondo in verying degrees explore the concerto style which is otherwise pretty well ignored. (If you cannot find the Rondo in Schubert work-lists or catalogues, try under 'Chamber Music': it used to be thought the accompaniment was meant for string quartet.) All the three pieces are very agreeably varied, noticeably more symphonic than the Romances of the programme, and indeed making an excellent contrast with them.
The two Romances by Beethoven are agreeably separated, one on each side of the LP (of course they were never meant to follow one another: apart from anything else the two chosen keys of G major and F major are conclusive enough evidence for that). The separation helps, too, in the spacing of the generous disc (almost exactly 60 minutes), which is also a well-recorded one. Every one of the pieces concerned, of course, is ideal fill-up material (on disc) for a full-scale concerto; but gluttons for encore pieces and fill-up material generally are, I sometimes think, on to a good thing: often the encore is more enjoyable than the concerto itself!'