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Yehudi Menuhin in Concert
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11091 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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3 / 1986 |
1,255 Words |
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Tom Pniewski
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Reviewing Yehudi Menuhin is like reviewing the Grand Canyon: Both are major landmarks in their respective environments, both have been here about as long as anyone can remember, and an encounter with either can be a profound artistic experience.
It must also be admitted that both Menuhin and the Grand Canyon show signs of weathering. The years have taken their toll, and if you look too closely you will find imperfections in both.
Menuhin has been a phenomenon for nearly three generations. In 1927, the 11-year-old prodigy played the Beethoven concerto under Fritz Busch in New York, and became a worldwide celebrity overnight. The next year he began making recordings, and it was this almost as much as his talent that brought him fame and fortune. The introduction of electronic microphones and recordings in 1929 brought about a vast improvement over the direct-cut discs that required powerful soloists--usually singers--to blast into a huge horn. Quieter instruments, like violins, could now be recorded with greater fidelity. The new technique sparked a tremendous increase in the number of discs made, and Menuhin--a prodigy who attracted enormous attention--became one of the first "media stars." If he was not quite the Michael Jackson of the 1930s, at least, in the words of the old Grove's Dictionary, "certainly no other violinist has succeeded in amassing so large a fortune before reaching manhood."
That is not to discount Menuhin's enormous artistry. From the very beginning, the maturity of his understanding and the freshness of his playing won the respect of everyone, from the general public to the professional critic. No less a figure than Edward Elgar--then 75 years old and at the height of his renown--took a personal interest in the career of the young artist; the recording Menuhin and Elgar made together in 1932 of the latter's Violin Concerto is altogether remarkable.
Since then, Menuhin has, from time to time, withdrawn from concert life to "rethink," as they say, his approach to playing violin. It is almost as though his early success was so immediate and intuitive that he raced ahead of his own understanding and abilities, and had to retrace some of his steps later on. It was apparently one of these periods that led to his interest in yoga, and eventually to a deep involvement in non-Western music and non-Western culture in general. Menuhin's concerts and recordings with Ravi Shankar, to mention only one example of this involvement, were most popular and influential in helping a Western classical audience to approach Indian music.
Menuhin's concert at Avery Fisher Hall on January 19 was a fine opportunity to see the great man both at a distance and up close. In a savvy bit of programming, Menuhin chose a chamber music program that included both solo and ensemble works, where some pieces spotlighted him as a soloist, others showed off his abilities as a coach and an ensemble leader. It was as a leader that Menuhin could most easily invoke the old magic; it was as a soloist that his problems were most apparent.
The concert opened with Beethoven's sonata in G, Op. 96, in which Menuhin was partnered by his son Jeremy at the piano. This was not the most successful undertaking of the afternoon; the piano was the more aggressive of the two, and Menuhin senior's playing suffered from intonation problems
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