Joshua Bell's first recordings of these warhorses stand apart from the hundreds of versions crowding the catalogs in at least one respect, namely his own cadenzas. Beethoven didn't supply his own for the long first movement of his Violin Concerto, and Bell's thoughtful, stylish emendation easily stands with the frequently played Kreisler and Joachim cadenzas as a viable option.

Recorded during a 1978 concert in Amsterdam and released worldwide a year later, Bernstein's last recording of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is emblematic of the conductor's final period when he re-recorded core repertoire incluidng Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler with European forces in the final decade or so of his life.