MENUHIN LEGEND
Felix MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64: 1st movement (9,
16)
Johann Sebastian BACH
Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041: 1st movement (8,
23)
Max BRUCH
Violin Concerto in minor, op.26: 2nd movement (12,
25)
Camille SAINT-SAENS
Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, op.28 (12,
17)
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
Romance no.2 in F, op.50 (12, 24)
Niccolò PAGANINI
Violin Concerto no.1 in D, op.6: 3rd movement (13,
15)
Piotr Ilych TCHAIKOVSKY
Swan Lake, op.20: Pas d'action (12,
21)
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Violin Concerto no.3 in G, K.216: 2nd movement (8,
23)
Johannes BRAHMS
Violin Concerto in D, op.77: 3rd movement (9,
20)
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN
Violin Concerto in D, op.61: 3rd movement (12,
16)
Niccolò PAGANINI
Violin Concerto no.2 in B minor, op.7: 3rd movement (13,
15)
Edward ELGAR
Violin Concerto in B minor, op.61: 2nd movement (11,
14)
Antonio VIVALDI
The Four Seasons: Winter (10, 22)
Johann Sebastian BACH
Concerto for 2 violins in D minor, BWV 1043: 2nd movement (1,
8, 23)
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Violin Concerto no.5 in A, K.219: 3rd movement
(8,23)
Henryk WIENIAWSKI
Légende, op.17 (12, 24)
Lèo DELIBES
Sylvia: Pas de deux (12, 19)
George GERSHWIN (arr. M. Harris)
Embraceable You; Oh, Lady be Good (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
18)
Yehudi Menuhin (violin),
Christian Ferras (violin)(1), Stéphane Grappelli (violin) (2), Alan
Clare (pianoforte)(3), Ken Baldock (bass)(4), Lennie Bush (bass)(5), Tony
Crombie (drums)(6), Ronnie Verrell (drums)(7), Bath Festival Orchestra(8),
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra(9), Camerata Lysy Gstaad(10), London Philharmonic
Orchestra(11), Philharmonia Orchestra(12), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra(13)/Sir
Adrian Boult(14), Alberto Erede(15), Wilhelm Furtwängler(16), Sir Eugene
Goossens(17), Max Harris(18), Robert Irving(19), Rudolf Kempe(20), Efrem
Kurtz(21), Alberto Lysy(22), Yehudi Menuhin(23), Sir John Pritchard(24),
Walter
Susskind(25)
EMI CMS 5 67326 2 [2
CDs 76' 43"; 73'
50"]
Crotchet
This starts with a bang. Furtwängler recorded precious little Mendelssohn,
but enough to show that he saw him as a full-size composer. With Menuhin
in fiery form (and a rather fiery recording, unfortunately) the movement
has remarkable passion and yet finds the time to express the tender moments
without loss of momentum.
Now if there is anyone who, after such an enthralling first movement, is
likely to feel, "all right, that's enough of that, now let's have some Bach",
and after a sturdy Bach first movement, "O.K, how about something romantic,
what about the Bruch, but please to God not the first movement, and take
it off before that finale bursts in, because after that I shall want to hear
some Saint-Saëns", well, if there really is anyone like that, this is
the set for him because he won't find most of it better done.
But, having got that off my chest, does the album justify its titles and
subtitles "Menuhin Legend", "Best of Menuhin on 2 CDs", "Yehudi Menuhin:
The Legendary EMI Recordings"?
That Menuhin was a legend there can be no doubt. When I first began following
musical matters in the mid-sixties his name evoked an awed reverence which
certainly no violinist could match. Oistrakh, Heifetz and so on were widely
respected but Menuhin's was the name that had reached the man in the street.
Yet little provisos had to be whispered. His nerves were increasingly getting
the better of him, his bowing arm and his intonation could be fallible. Yet
get him on a good day …! I believed I heard him on a good day in the
Beethoven in Edinburgh in the early '70s. I felt I had been through a spiritual
experience, but found myself at loggerheads with fellow students, especially
string-players, for whom his shaky bow was too much of a stumbling-block
to enjoyment. And so it went on. The legend of an extreme spirituality lived
on, somehow surviving many disappointing appearances while the great man
turned increasingly to conducting, which he did well but never quite as well
as one hoped.
So does this set give any inkling of the legend? In at least two items, yes.
As the Beethoven Romance starts one is captured by a tone which, in its simple
nobility, somehow seems to speak of great spiritual depths. One feels that
the composers of classical adagios must have known all along that one day
a Menuhin would be born to play them. The other exceptional performance is
the Brahms Finale. There are times when I seem to have heard this concerto
far too often, but not this time. In essence, Menuhin seems just to be playing
the music very straight, as written, yet, aided by Kempe's strongly pulsating
rhythms, he brings out an unsuspected depth. Which brings me back to my first
point. Could anyone really be satisfied with having just this movement?
Perhaps I'd add the very affecting piece from Sylvia to this short-list.
A lot of the performances are just very good, even excellent, without offering
any apparent reason to choose them above those of many other violinists.
The latest, the Vivaldi, reminds us occasionally of his fallibilities; the
Gershwin arrangements are nice. The truth is that the "legendary EMI recordings"
are not these, but far older ones, and the point is inadvertently made by
the booklet itself when it prints the famous photo of the boy Menuhin with
Elgar (now there's a legendary recording if ever there was one!) but includes
here the remake with Boult where both men seem unsettled, only fitfully touching
their best Elgarian vein.
EMI are the guardians of a great historical legacy. This involves a heavy
responsibility (such as Decca are showing with their Legends series) if they
are not to be accused of sheer commercial exploitation. This and the Callas
set I've recently reviewed suggest that the enterprise is in unmusical hands.
Heifetz and Grumiaux have had complete editions from their various companies.
So let's have a complete Menuhin edition and see just what his legend was.
The recordings are mostly good (though the Furtwängler-conducted items
surely fell less harshly on the ear in earlier transfers?) and there's a
miserable little note (not even a page). But there, since EMI have thought
up the unholy formula of dull white print on a black background, if it had
been any longer I doubt if I should have been able to read it anyway.
Christopher Howell
Performances:
Recordings (mostly):
Cynical commercialism:
