Yehudi Menuhin. April the 22nd will be the 100th Anniversary of his birth.

[pastoralguy]

Does anyone have any memories or special associations with a man who was equally as great as a human being as a musician?

[Tony Halstead]

Does anyone have any memories or special associations with a man who was equally as great as a human being as a musician?

In 'or about' 1975-1976 I was booked to play, at the Brighton Festival, the Horn Trio of Lennox Berkeley, with Yehudi Menuhin and with pianist David Atherton ( now famous as a conductor).
Obviously we needed to rehearse this piece.... David and I turned up ( as booked... not as a surprise visit) at the Menuhin house in Highgate, and were welcomed by (Sir) Yehudi at the front door, with the words " I don't know this piece...you boys ( sic) will have to teach it to me".
Well, well, I was absolutely 'gobsmacked' ( as they say) because - while evidently sight-reading - Yehudi was already playing the violin part better than I or David were playing the horn and piano parts... BUT then we came to the last movement, a 'Theme & Variations' in which the violin in one of the first few variations has to play a few quite slow bars of 'bowed staccato' in 6/8 time, merely accompanying the horn and piano.
Oh dear oh dear his bow was all over the place and the 'notes' seemed not to come out at all...
Yehudi just said 'sorry guys, I'll practise that'.
Then on the day of the concert in the Brighton Festival - about 2 minutes before we went on stage - he said to David and me " I phoned Lennox today and he said that it's OK to play those bars PIZZICATO!
That is exactly what he did, and it was all lovely and successful!

[pastoralguy]

Fantastic!

Many thanks indeed for sharing!

I only heard him once as a 14 year old when the played the Beethoven concerto with the SNO under Sir Alex Gibson, circa 1977. Alas, I was too young to really make any great analysis of his performance but I've always been very proud that at least heard him on that one occasion.

I know he had his problems but, at his best, he was IMHO the greatest musician ever to put horses tail to sheep gut.

[Barbirollians]

Fantastic!

Many thanks indeed for sharing!

I only heard him once as a 14 year old when the played the Beethoven concerto with the SNO under Sir Alex Gibson, circa 1977. Alas, I was too young to really make any great analysis of his performance but I've always been very proud that at least heard him on that one occasion.










I know he had his problems but, at his best, he was IMHO the greatest musician ever to put horses tail to sheep gut.

Scary - I went to his 70th birthday concert in 1986 - Rostropovich was the special guest star - he played Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations , Menuhin played the Beethoven Violin Concerto and then they played the Brahms Double in the second half - I cannot remember who conducted that . Menuhin was on good form as I recall .

I also saw him play the Beethoven once with Norman del Mar conducting the RPO in the 1980s at the Barbican . He was on good form that night too - by all accounts he could have really on as well as off days well into his late career .

His recordings introduced me to the violin repertoire really apart from the Perlman/Giulini Beethoven concerto - Menuhin's versions were the first I heard and I remain very fond of his Brahms with Kempe , the classic Mendelssohn/Bruch with Kurtz and Susskind , the Spring and Kreutzer with Hepzibah , the Bloch with Kletzki , his towering first recording of the Bartok 2 with Dorati , both his Elgar studio recordings, that sensational Paganini 1 with Monteux ….

Ny favourite of all perhaps that 1947 Lucerne Beethoven with Furtwangler and the 1943 BBCMM Brahms with Boult .

[Barbirollians]

There are several big boxes coming from Warner in April including unpublished recordings and rarities that have not been transferred to CD and some live recordings .

A disappointment for me is that his not perfect by any means but still extraordinarily moving 1981 recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Masur in Leipzig which probably reminds me of him playing it live a few years later has once again not been included .

[pastoralguy]

Planning my Menuhin listening for tomorrow...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There's an interesting article on YM in this month's Gramophone - very honest, but always respectful.

[pastoralguy]

There's an interesting article on YM in this month's Gramophone - very honest, but always respectful.

Indeed. It's very honest with regards to his 'faults'.

I'm now listening to a cd I found lurking at the back of my violin shelves called Yehudi Menuhin, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' where examples of his work are played and then Lord Menuhin provides recollections of the recordings.

Very interesting disc indeed from the sadly defunct Biddulph label. (At least, asfaik, it's defunct).

[pastoralguy]

Starting my Menuhin celebrations with, where else, Elgar's Violin Concerto with the composer conducting?

[mercia]

don't know if last night's documentary was a repeat, but I enjoyed it nonetheless

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b078lrhz/yehudi-menuhin-who-was-yehudi#long-description

[pastoralguy]

don't know if last night's documentary was a repeat, but I enjoyed it nonetheless

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ng-description

I think it was first time out for this programme. I really enjoyed it and was thrilled to see so much archive footage of the very young Menuhin children. If only it had been 2 hours long. (Or 3 or 4...)

Mrs. PG has had to endure some broad hints about buying Mr. PG the Menuhin Century box set for Christmas which is, after all, only 244 days in the future...

80 CDs and 11 DVDs

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I enjoyed the programme too. Clemency Burton-Hill is rather a good TV presenter. She should do more like this (and less on Breakfast).

[Serial_Apologist]

don't know if last night's documentary was a repeat, but I enjoyed it nonetheless

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ng-description

While it included metion of his collaboration with Indian musicians I thought it was a little short on the influence of Indian philosophy and religion on him beyond the musical sphere.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I enjoyed the programme too. Clemency Burton-Hill is rather a good TV presenter. She should do more like this (and less on Breakfast).

- I think she would've made a better job on the "Fiddlers at the BBC" programme than Nicola Benedetti did.

[ChrisBennell]

I enjoyed this TV programme very much. It also reminded me of the one occasion I saw Menuhin in concert at the Festival Hall in 1959 - an all Bach programme with the "Festival Chamber Orchestra" - leader Robert Masters. They did Brandenburgs 2, 6 and 4 plus the Violin Concerto in E. I was lucky enough to be given a free ticket in the choir stalls next to the organ, so was up-front and close to the performers. The obvious delight expressed by Menuhin at the music was something that remains with me to this day. (And I still have the programme - price one shilling)