Search - Pablo de Sarasate, Antonio Bazzini, Fritz Kreisler :: Menuhin Plays Bazzini, Bloch, Dinicu, Granados, Kreisler, Moszkowski and Others

Dazzling playing

Bob van der Ent | Holland | 07/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this cd gives a very well impression about the incredible facility of Menuhin's technique in his youth. Not yet hampered with his bow arm problems that he had in his career since the forty's, one is aware of a natural talent who could perform this pieces without any difficulty. Although coordination and intonation are not always of a Heifetz-like perfection, it is incredibly exciting. The oldest records on this cd were made when he was just 11 years old, and it is interesting to hear what happened in the years after. For example: his playing at the age of 18/19 is much much more powerful than the first records he made, his vibrato is always very much faster, (it was sometimes quite slow when he was 11,) altough he developed a slight tendency to force a litte bit with his tone production. But the overall picture is that of playing of a huge huge talent, which'll seldom be equalled"

A good if somewhat arbitrary sample of Menuhin's recordings

Discophage | France | 09/20/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Menuhin made his first recordings in 1928, not yet aged 12. That year he committed four short encores to 78rmp, by Achron, Fiocco, Monasterio and Ries, with his teacher Louis Persinger acting as accompanist. Eleven more followed in 1929, again short encores and trifles, with the exception of Bloch's Nigun (from Baal Shem) again with Persinger (Feb. 12), Bach's Sonata for unaccompanied Violin #3 and Beethoven's first Violin & Piano Sonata, both recorded on November 12 with the young German pianist Hubert Giesen. Not bad for a 13-year old child prodigy. All these early recordings have been collated by Biddulph on two fine CDs, The Young Yehudi Menuhin Vol. 1 & 2, LAB031 (The Young Menuhin: The Early Victor Recordings - Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26 / other short works by Bloch {Nigun}, Spohr, Handel, Mozart, Achron, Fiocco, Ries, etc.) and LAB032 (Yehudi Menuhin: The Young Yehudi Menuhin) - and I refer you to my reviews for more details.



This EMI collection starts where Biddulph's "The Young Yehudi Menuhin vol. 2" stops: only two pieces on this this EMI disc duplicate the contents of LAB032: Novacek's Perpetuum Mobile and Rimsky's Song of the Bride, both with Giesen, Menuhin's partner in 1929-30. There is an ambiguity as to when exactly they were recorded: December 1929 according to Biddulph (and that would be consistent with the fact that the other recordings with Giesen were made in November '29) or December 1930 according to EMI (and after all the cover of the Biddulph disc is titled "The HMV recordings with Hubert Giesen (1929-30)".



Likewise, three more items are shared with Biddulph's next release, , devoted mostly to 1932, LAB046 "The Young Yehudi Menuhin - the HMV recodings with Artur Balsam (1932)" (listed here as Symphonie Espagnole, as it is complemented with Menuhin's recording of Lalo's concerto with Enescu from 1933): Moszkowski's Guitarre, Kreisler's Sicilienne & Rigaudon in the style of Francoeur, and Rimsky Flight of the Bumblebee in Hartmann's arrangement, all made in May of that year with another young German pianist fresh out of the Berlin Musikhochschule, Artur Balsam, Menuhin's partner for two years.



In fact, the EMI collection isn't as systematic in its historical organization as Biddulph's three. It freely picks in Menuhin's 78rpms recordings made in the 1930s, the earliest being these two recordings from 1930 (or 1929) and the odd one out being Kreisler's Caprice Viennois, from April 6, 1943 (track 7) - an incoherent choice, since there IS a recording of the same piece, with the same partner, Marcel Gazelle, from 1936.



So the logic of the EMI pick seems to be more composer-oriented: in particular, it issues all the Sarasate (Moszkowski's Guitarre, track 18, is also a Sarasate arrangement) and all the Kreisler pieces recorded by Menuhin in the `30s (including his arrangement of Granados' Andaluza, track 14, but excluding the numerous other Kreisler arrangements recorded then by Menuhin of Tartini, Paganini, Falla, Dvorak, Schumann, and of course the missing 1936 Caprice Viennois). Don't be misled by the fact that the composers are grouped together (tracks 1 to 14): the recordings were not meant as cycles, but made at very different dates, between May 1932 - Kreisler's aforementioned Sicilienne & Rigaudon with Balsam - and 1939: Sarasate's Malaguena, with Hendrik Hendt, a partner of Menuhin in a series of recordings made in March of that year, which included Bloch's Abodah (track 17) and others not included here, but found on Biddulph LAB128 (Yehudi Menuhin Plays Favourite Encores) and 129 (Yehudi Menuhin: Bruch Violin Concerto No 1 and encores). The rest of the EMI pick is a mixture of the dazzlingly virtuosic (Novacek, Dinicu, Rimsky's Flight of the Bumblebee) and the sweet and sentimental. And, still on the issue of duplications with Biddulph, all the items from this EMI collection that are not on the above-mentioned Biddulph discs are on Biddulph LAB126, Menuhin Plays Virtuoso Violin Music, which also has Paganini's moto perpetuo, the 1936 version of Kreisler's Caprice Viennois (as well as the later one) and Locatelli's "Labyrinth" Caprice.



It is great to hear Menuhin when he was still an instinctive player, not knowing or analyzing what he was doing, touched by the hand of the Gods. He plays with charm and chic, pure tone, superb virtuosity and ease (although his "Hora Staccato" has less unleashed Gipsy swagger than young Isaac Stern's in 1947, Isaac Stern Presents Encores.



Sonic perspective is variable, but (if you are into transfers of historical 78rpms) sound quality is always more than acceptable, with minimal to inaudible surface noice (much less than on Jon Samuels' transfers on the third Biddulph instalment, LAB046) and clear instrumental definition (and the later recordings are not always the best sounding). The EMI pick offers a good overall portrait of young Menuhin, which can be complemented with Menuhin Plays Enescu, Szymanowski, Prokofiev, Ravel, another EMI references which has the more substantial Enescu 3rd Sonata from 1936, Szymanowski's Nocturne et Tarantelle from 1935 and Ravel's Tzigane from 1932 (with the addition of Prokofiev's 1st Sonata from 1948), and Menuhin Plays Beethoven, Schubert & Brahms (Beethoven's Kreutzer, Brahms' 3rd and Schubert's Rondo Brilliant with sister Hepzibah, recordings made between 1934 and 1938). But keep in mind that it is only a small and relatively arbitrary sample of the recordings Menuhin made in the 1930s. Even limiting myself to the small encores (e.g. excluding the Concertos and the circa 20 complete Sonatas or Trios), I've counted 60. Serious collectors should go to the Biddulph CDs - if they can find them at affordable prices.

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