The first performance comes from a BBC recording of Perlman’s October 1970 appearance with the Sadler’s Wells Orchestra led by Charles Mackerras at the London Coliseum Theatre. They perform Saint-Saëns’s Introduction et Rondo capriccioso, Op.28, a rousing virtuosic showpiece originally composed for Pablo de Sarasate as the final movement of a violin concerto. Next comes Perlman a decade later at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky. Together they present Elgar’s three-movement Violin Concerto in B Minor, which was composed for, premiered by, and dedicated to the legendary Fritz Kreisler, and gained immediate public success.

Photo: Itzhak Perlman