Rostropovich never recorded the Elgar commercially, and the reason given was invariably that he considered the performances of it by his erstwhile student, Jacqueline du Pré, definitive. In fact she and Barbirolli made that famous LP a month after this concert performance. It’s something of a loss that he never took it into the studio, as he clearly brought an insightful view to it. A couple of his live performances have fortunately survived, and this reading is one of two with conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky to have been issued. It’s a technically adroit and in many ways convincing performance - not quicksilver, but a touch more measured and musing. Vibrated intensely in the first movement, the cellist is at his most quixotic, indeed skittish, at points in the finale. The orchestral fabric is more debatable, lacking a measure of grip. There is a degree of tape hiss, as indeed there is on most of these broadcasts, but it’s not worryingly intrusive. For the Schumann he collaborates with Britten and the LSO at the Aldeburgh Festival in a highly recommendable performance which convinces at almost every turn. Maybe he lacks something of the sheer elegance of Fournier in this work, but setting that aside, the work’s wayward rhetoric is securely judged by soloist and conductor. In Haydn’s C major Concerto Rostropovich directs the LSO, which sounds a bit flustered as a result. The cellist plays with gusto and panache, and employs Britten’s cadenzas. Ensemble just about survives at a couple of junctures. Saint-Saëns’ A minor Concerto is played with marvellous technique and rich legato phrasing, though it’s slightly let down by Rozhdestvensky’s inattentive accompaniment.