How shocking that this inspired reading of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, with Menuhin directing his own Festival Orchestra, should have lain unpublished for over 30 years. How sad that he never lived to see its distinctive merits appreciated, even next to those of his four earlier versions. What the opening tutti instantly establishes is the freshness of response from the players closest to him. This is a more alert account of that introduction than even those under the distinguished conductors listed, with lighter chamber orchestra textures, so that the triplet figure from violas and cellos (2'00" into track 2) is clarified.

When Menuhin enters with his first solo, it is more evident still what extra expressive freedom is achieved when he is directing his accompanists. His passagework, always individual, is more impulsive than when a conductor is in charge, and though that may occasionally bring a momentary imprecision of ensemble (none that worried me, I confess), with unmarked accelerandi leading up to the tuttis, the result is consistently spontaneous-sounding. The recording is fuller and better balanced than on any of the earlier accounts, with dynamic contrasts more sharply conveyed. The soloist is not as spotlit as he his with Silvestri (1960) or Klemperer (1965), and the silvery beauty of his playing above the stave, too, is at least as bewitching as on the earlier versions.

As in his other recordings, Menuhin uses the Kreisler cadenzas – the big first movement cadenza is again more freely expressive than before. The central Larghetto is remarkable for the steadiness of pulse in the orchestra, against which the soloist weaves his decorations expansively, so that the heavenly third melody (5'31" into track 3) is rapt and dreamy. The finale is relaxed, at very much the tempo Menuhin always favoured.

The merits of this version of the G major Romance are similar to those of the Concerto, with an easy spontaneity illuminating the lyricism. The two versions of the Concerto with Furtwängler remain wonderfully dedicated experiences, particularly the first with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and the warmth of the Silvestri version goes with a more moulded style from the VPO; but on balance this long-unpublished account will be the one I prefer. The Tchaikovsky coupling, designed originally to go with an uncompleted recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto, makes a valuable filler.