These are illustrious performances and make a splendid coupling at mid-price. EMI planned for a long time to assemble this starry line-up of soloists, conductor and orchestra for Beethoven's Triple Concerto, and the artists do not disappoint, bringing sweetness as well as strength to a work which in lesser hands can sound clumsy and long-winded. The recording, made in a Berlin church in 1969, is warm, spacious and well balanced, placing the soloists in a gentle spotlight. Indeed, the sound need make no apology for its age, and since we also hear playing of effortless mastery this disc would be worth the money for this work alone.
As it is, we also have the same great violinist and cellist playing another masterpiece with another superb orchestra and conductor of the time (the recording is also from 1969), this time in Cleveland. A 1970s review of this account of Brahms's Double Concerto called it ''perhaps the most powerful recorded performance since the days of Heifetz and Feuermann or Thibaud and Casals''. I will gladly concur with that, and merely add that the recording has come up extremely well in this remastering: although one cannot deny that the sound is not as smooth as can be achieved nowadays, one soon forgets that and is caught up in the magnificent music-making. Collectors not already possessing these performances may be confidently urged to acquire this disc, which deserves to be a best-seller again.'