Myra Hess and Isaac Stern first met in 1951, at the Casals festival in Perpignan. During the following years the two appeared together in chamber music in Prades (making recordings of Brahms’s Op 8 Trio and Schumann’s Piano Quintet), and between 1956 and 1960 performed duo recitals in London, New York and Edinburgh. The Hess/Stern duo made no commercial recordings, so this BBC recording of an Edinburgh Festival concert in 1960, their last appearance together, is especially precious.

These are magnificent performances. Stern’s warm, vibrant tone and his ability to spin a beautiful legato line are complemented by Hess’s focus on a cantabile touch; together they emphasise the lyrical qualities of the Brahms and Beethoven sonatas but never at the expense of spirit and vitality. The finale of the Schubert is wonderfully high-spirited – and so carefree that Stern manages at one point to lose his place. In the final stages of Beethoven’s variation finale, too, they throw caution to the wind – few have dared to express the exuberance of these pages so wholeheartedly. And where the music calls for elegance or delicacy – as in the vivace section of the middle movement of the Brahms, or the Schubert Andante (featuring an especially soulful minor episode from Stern) – they respond with equal persuasiveness.

Despite its modest dimensions, the Howard Ferguson Sonata sounds like a big work, with brilliant, resourceful writing for both instruments and climactic passages of considerable intensity. It’s well worth hearing, and difficult to imagine a better performance. The mono recording is very well balanced – I urge you to listen!