A classic account, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1980, of one of the most popular of all violin concertos, Beethoven's in D major, first heard in Vienna in 1806. Though not a success at his first performance, the work was championed, from the 1840s onwards, by the great violinist Joseph Joachim and rapidly gained both widespread acceptance and the affection in which it is held today. This recording, which won a Gramophone award in 1981, has been described as 'a very distinguished performance indeed', featuring as it does two great musicians of our time, the Israeli-born violinist Itzhak Perlman and the Italian conductor