Then I played the First Piano Concerto. Fitelberg loves the work and conducted it with stunning engagement and passion. I likewise felt the Concerto tremendously alive in my fingers, and took the tempo half as fast again as I had ever done before. The orchestral playing was not immaculate but executed with enormous enjoyment, and in the rehearsal the musicians accorded me so clamorous an ovation I was quite taken by surprise. Altogether, therefore, this was a most auspicious performance, crowned with a striking success.