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Our speed is inherent. You cannot train for speed. If you can't run like Usain Bolt or play like Trifunov or Argerich now you aren't going to do much to improve it. You can improve it a bit but not significantly. In almost fifty years of playing I'm no quicker now than I was at the beginning in my trills or my fastest playing speed in, for example, Chopin's Minute Waltz or Beethoven's Moonlight Presto.

Playing a fast piece means taking a small enough section that you can play it at tempo without the hindrance of reading the notes or having to prepare changes mentally. For all the excellent advice about slow practise it has to be remembered that performance won't be slow. We must practise at all speeds but concentrate on the slower ones.

The speed at which you can play the critical seven measures of Sabre Dance now, the repeating ones after the intro, is about as fast as you'll ever get. Get those up to tempo so you know the right mechanics for slow practise.

I've never been one for speeding up in slow metronome clicks. I have a speed in my head at which the piece should go and I practise slowly enough for accuracy (conscious and predetermined - I must know I'm going to get it right) and as quickly as I can manage up to the right tempo for the piece. Eventually the right speed, or my physical limit, is achievable. It takes from a few minutes to a few days if the segment is short enough though I may need to use hands separately for a short while for some sections. Speed after that isn't a practical reality.

What I find is that my slow tempo increases as I practise more but my recital speed doesn't.

If you only practise a fast piece slowly it's more likely that you're practising the wrong mechanics and you may hit a 'speed wall'. Good practise for me means slow enough for predetermined and conscious accuracy of notes with the occasional blast at tempo in short but gradually longer segments. Also a whole play through of a piece you're working on should always be slower than the tempo at which you practise small sections until you can play the whole thing accurately at tempo. The adrenaline from the audience or the red dot will do the rest.

I've never been one for speeding up in slow metronome clicks.

Are you saying you can only play a trill as fast now, after fifty years, as you could after one? Can you accurately judge that?

...although that's contingent on what you consider slow metronome clicks...