These recordings, dating from 1956/57, show Fleisher already at the height of his powers...his readings, whilst bolder and more arresting [than Myra Hess or Radu Lupu], give us endless musical insights within a scintillating framework. Criticism falls silent when confronted by such overwhelming mastery and there are no less memorable partnerships from Hans Rosbaud in the Second Concerto and Otto Klemperer in the Fourth. Klemperer's calm and dignity in Gluck's 'Iphegenie in Aulis' overture provides a crowning touch... Bryce Morrison, Gramophone

In the more-often-played of Beethoven's first-movement cadenzas [Fleisher] restrains his virtuoso instincts, but this does not stop him producing a kaleidoscopic range of tone colours, rhythmic inflection and emphases, and a real sense of command and power. The slow movement's string chords and powerfully emphatic and Fleisher is beautifully placatory... the marginal relaxation of speed in the second subject is very affecting and there is a sense of imaginative re-invention in every bar; the coda is fast with a startingly ardent last chord - a powerful account. Rob Pennock, Classical source

Fascinating music-making. Bill Newman, Music and Vision

...lithe energy, the plastic rhythms and sudden burst of light cascading to poetically ardent figures that bespeak Fleisher as a natural Beethoven exponent of immaculate pedigree... Gary Lemco, Audiophile Audion

Leon Fleisher gives electrfying performances of Beethoven's Second and Fourth piano concertos. Otto Klemperer conducts the WDR and Bavarian Symphony Orchestras in this very desirable historic recording. Gavin Engelbrecht, The Northern Echo

...Fleisher and Klemperer make an impressive partnership, and again the finale is beautifully done. International Record Review

[This] disc is welcome for obvious historical and musical reasons... [and] the contributions of Otto Klemperer and Hans Rosbaud are significant... We know from the opening chords that this is not the playing of a brash young competition winner, and later in the first movement we hear wonderfully ethereal scales and passagework, everything sounding natural and unforced... the Gluck Overture rounds out the present disc nicely, and the remastering by Wolfgang Ellers sounds first-rate. Charles Timbrell, Fanfare