Both Sir Adrian Boult and Otto Klemperer took Beethoven’s Violin Concerto into the studio (with Josef Suk and Yehudi Menuhin respectively) but these live accounts convey greater conviction then either recording. Interesting that, as Mike Ashman says in his excellent note for the Klemperer CD, ‘Klemperer had an unlucky time with the Concerto’. An early post-war performance with Ida Haendel at Harringay Arena was ruined by shouts, then Tossy Spivakovsky was indifferently reviewed, Milstein fired off with a first-movement cadenza that Klemperer didn’t like (probably the one he plays here under Boult) and the 1966 recording with Menuhin was deemed disappointing. This 1959 Philharmonia account with Henryk Szeryng was curiously criticised at the time (by Clive Barnes) for Klemperer’s ‘monolithic, giant, craggy, tempestuous and […] unremittingly serious approach’, images that rather excited my imagination though the recorded evidence while undeniably ‘monolithic’ is anything but tempestuous. The serviceable mono sound focuses a warm and aristocratic solo line, the Larghetto beautifully drawn, Klemperer holding the tension much as years earlier Furtwängler might have done, the outer movement tutti strong (very powerful timps), the pace held on a breath’s edge.

Szerying plays Joachim’s cadenza whereas on the BBC Legends disc Nathan Milstein launches into some fireworks with his own devising. In 1968 Boult’s conducting was if anything more ‘giant’ and ‘craggy’ than Klemperer’s, the playing of the LPO very cleanly articulated (articulation on the Klemperer can be a bit muddy). And although Milstein’s intonation is somewhat less secure than Szerying’s, the spirit of his playing, its leanness, fervour and decisive drama, leaves an indelible impression. What I most admired here was the sense of freedom, even within the very solid framework that Boult provides. The sound is better than on the Klemperer CD, too, though less clear than you would have expected given the date.

So, as far as the Concerto is concerned, if restricting the discussion to the two releases under review I would choose Szeryng for temperance, warmth and finesse, Milstein for spontaneity and excitement. But couplings may well prove decisive. Szeryng unfolds Bach’s D minor ‘Chaconne’ with laudable security and a natural feel for the pacing of each successive episode, whereas Milstein trails the main item with various ‘encores’, the two Paganini Caprices being especially fine. Bach’s E major Partita was always a Milstein speciality and although the booklet cover promises the whole work, we’re only given the Prelude, brilliant all the same. The 13-minute interview conducted by John Amis is pure delight, Milstein modest but astute and with an endearing sense of humour.