Wilhelm Backhaus was a twentieth century virtuoso who had the distinction of making the first ever recording of a piano concerto (an abridged version of the Grieg in 1909), but it was for his interpretations of the works of Beethoven and Brahms that he became best known. Backhaus made the first of his three recordings of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, Op. 83, in Dresden in June 1939, months before the outbreak of the Second World War. If post-war Backhaus performances could sometimes be ponderous, this recording shows him still in youthful spirits, even though he was fifty-five years old at the time of the recording. The Andante has some particularly beautiful ensemble playing.