[In The Symphony] Ozawa’s musicians sounds as if they hugely enjoy playing this score, discovering it afresh…But it’s the First Piano Concerto…that offers the real reason to hear this recording. From the piano, Martha Argerich spurs all the playing onto a different level. She and Ozawa spark off each other, and energy bubbles in the orchestra. As so often with her performances, her phrasing and articulation constantly surprise and illuminate.

Seiji Ozawa is 82 and Martha Argerich is 76, yet they go at Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto like a pair of teenagers. All of Argerich’s playful, exploratory tics are there…and Ozawa’s (judging from the booklet picture) tiny hand-picked Mito Chamber Orchestra are with her all the way…Argerich remains indefatigable and, on this evidence, Ozawa may be entering a glorious Indian summer of creativity.