Favourite Menuhin recordings

[Barbirollians]

As 12 years have passed since Menuhin died time for a retrospective perhaps .

I know that he had technical frailties after a sort of crisis in the 1950s and he could be inconsistent but I remember even as late as 1987 a terrific Beethoven Concerto with the LSO and del Mar.

Favourite records - the obvious ones I suppose Elgar with Elgar , the 1947 Furtwangler Lucerne Beethoven , his Spring and Kreutzer with Hepzibah and that Bartok from Dallas - most of all for me though his Brahms Concerto with BPO/Kempe in 1959 - that is a truly wonderful record .

[aeolium]

The Beethoven and Mendelssohn violin concertos with Furtwangler and the Philharmonia/BPO respectively (on EMI's Great Recordings of the Century). Bach violin concertos and concerto for 2 violins with Christian Ferras. Beethoven violin sonatas with Wilhelm Kempff - especially the op 30 sonatas.

I did like some of his recordings as conductor with the Menuhin Festival Orchestra, e.g. the Schubert early symphonies, though I doubt they would win any BaL prizes as the competition is so strong (and the performances might seem a bit old-fashioned nowadays).

I remember seeing him perform Bartok's solo violin sonata in the Sheldonian Theatre. He was a wonderful musician.

[Roslynmuse]

I never heard him play live, but I did see him conduct the Halle in Elgar 2 at the Free Trade Hall in 1994 - a very fine performance. The opener (Egmont Overture) was, I seem to recall, rather ropey. I can't remember what the concerto was - possibly Elgar Cello? - I'll have to dig out the programme.

It's many years since I listened to any of his recordings.

[rauschwerk]

His first recording of the Mendelssohn concerto (1938) with Enescu conducting. It's so satisfying that I don't feel a need to have any other version in my collection.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

In addition to the Elgar and Fürtwängler recordings already mentioned, his 1930s Bach recordings (the solo Partitas and Sonatas, and the Concerti with Enescu) and the 1970s Beethoven Sonatas (with Kempf) are favourites of mine.

His commissioning (if not in the same "league" as Rostropovich) should be honoured, too: we owe the Bartok Solo Sonata to him and the Panufnik Violin Concerto (amongst others: anyone - beside alistair, of course - know the Ronald Stevenson?)

[Chris Newman]

His sparking recording of Mozart's Abduction from the Harem in English, a spin off from his days running the Bath Festival, is a winner. Originally EMI and now on the Chandos label, it includes Nicolai Gedda and Noel Mangin amongst a lively cast.

[Ferretfancy]

I was riveted by his performance of the Elgar at Boult's 80th birthday concert at the RAH. The programme included RVW's London Symphony, and as an encore we were given the Dam Busters March!
I've always loved his Brahms with Kempe, and his Bath Festival recordings. His was a complicated life, wasn't it?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I was riveted by his performance of the Elgar at Boult's 80th birthday concert at the RAH.

I thought his playing had become rather scratchy by then, but I rate his studio recording of the Elgar with Boult very highly indeed.

[Ariosto]

A complicated life

For poor old Yehudi, yes, it was complicated because of women.

(1) His mother, typically Jewish, and pretty awful.

(2) His first marriage was probably OK but wrecked by - Mother.

(3) His second marriage - well, he married another version of his mother.

Poor sod, no chance at all.

Menuhin, a great instinctive musician, a fine mind, and a great fiddle technique, until he thought about it from about age 40 onwards.

Then it all went pear shaped.

His sister Hepzibah - a great musician (pianist) - his equal and Menuhin acknowledged she was in fact his superior - but being a woman in a dreadful society - she was considered second class.

He was a dreadful conductor - a bit of a con artist only he never realised this.

As a musician and violinist until aged about 40 - he was the nearest thing to God. (There speaks an athiest).

[Barbirollians]

Heavens ! Imagine what recordings of the Mozart symphonies he could have made had he not been a dreadful conductor .

He was a good conductor - nowhere as good as he was a violinist i would agree .

Rather disappointing that so few forumites have favourite Menuhin recordings - i should go so far as to say i would be much sadder to have none of his recordings as a violinist than to lose all of Haitinks as a conductor.

[aeolium]

I have a great admiration for Menuhin as one of those universal artists - perhaps like Casals in an earlier generation and Barenboim in a later - who wished to go beyond simply using his art for concerts and recordings and use it as a force for peace and harmony between peoples (and indeed musical genres, as his work with Ravi Shankar and Stephane Grappelli later demonstrated). Typical of this was his decision to go and play with Furtwängler and the BPO in 1947 at a time when a cloud still hung over the conductor's reputation because of his wartime activities. Menuhin was not only a great musician, but a great ambassador for music.

[verismissimo]

What's essential amongst his various Bartok recordings? Guidance please.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- I should go so far as to say i would be much sadder to have none of his recordings as a violinist than to lose all of Haitink's as a conductor.

I know what you mean, Barbi, and I'm not sure I strongly disagree with you (if that see what I mean!): there are more recordings of Haitink's performances that I treasure in my collection than there are of Menuhin. But these fewer Menuhin discs, on the whole, are more important to me than the Haitink's. As a general rule. Haitink's Debussy or Menuhin's Elgar? Menuhin's Beethoven or Haitink's Shostakovich? Tough call! (Glad I don't have to make it!)

Verismissimo: have a look at Chris' Bartok's 2nd Violin Concerto: a stunning revelation to me thread. Put briefly, Menuhin played for Bartok who was astonished that his Music could be so well understood and played. Menuhin's earlier Bartok recordings have a very special identification with the Music (not "the last word": Menuhin himself regretted not including the microtonal passages in his Edition and recording of the Solo Violin Sonata.)

[Barbirollians]

The 1946 Dallas SO recording of the Violin Concerto No 2 with Dorati which I found second hand a few weeks back is just breathtaking.

[LeMartinPecheur]

One off-beam Menuhin recording that I used to love is his Music for the Royal Fireworks with the Menuhin Festival Orch c1969 on ASD 2485.

I picked it out of a deletions box at Blackwells, Oxford c1972 for IIRC £1.25 and took it back to college where I found - - that the Stereo Record Guide gave it only one and a half stars, mainly for slow tempi. But I still loved it - wonderfully grand, sonorous readings with a strong sense of what I'd call Handelian physical pomp and majesty. Must give it a spin and see if its charms have survived HIPP. I generally love HIPP, but have yet to find a Fireworks Music of that school that doesn't sound impossibly thin, tinny, over-fast and thoroughly unrooted.

This LP also has one of the Concerti a Due Cori where again I'm still looking for a strong HIPP recommendation. But these gorgeous works still seem ridiculously neglected