Two live documents of a great moment in Berlin’s post-war musical life: on 5 March 1963 the 18-year-old cellist Jacqueline du Pré and the 22-year-old pianist Bruno Leonardo Gelber made their solo concerto débuts. The poetry, energy and musical coherence of du Pré’s interpretation of the Schumann Cello Concerto rank alongside her later recording of the piece. Gelber managed to elicit from Brahms’ First Piano Concerto the full drama, forging a bridge not only across the long first movement, but across the entire work.
