Bartok: Violin Concertos, Viola Concerto, 6 Duo for 2 Violins, Violin Rhapsodies; Yehudi Menuhin [Original recording remastered]

Yehudi Menuhin (Orchestra), Bela Bartok (Artist), Pierre Boulez (Artist), Antal Dorati (Artist), New Philharmonia Orchestra (Artist), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Yehudi Menuhin
• Audio CD (June 1, 2004)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B0000CE7FG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,038 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #5 in Music > Classical > Chamber Music > Duets
  • #18 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Strings > Viola
  • #84 in Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Dances

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful music.....Bartok is my favorite......., September 11, 2007

By 

Tanis "Tanis Yvonne Somerville" (Seahurst, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bartok: Violin Concertos, Viola Concerto, 6 Duo for 2 Violins, Violin Rhapsodies; Yehudi Menuhin (Audio CD)

Menuhin with his strongly creative imagination plays these concertos with characteristic nobility of feeling during much of the Hungarian dance-rhythms. There is a comparably earthy, peasant manner in Menuhin's playing of the two Rhapsodies, and it is match by Boulez's approach, warm and passionate rather than clinical. The soloist is rather close. However, the balance responds to the controls, and this remains on the Menuhin's most worthwhile reissues.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rewarding interpretations, yet I long for more fervor, June 7, 2010

By 

G.D. (Norway) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bartok: Violin Concertos, Viola Concerto, 6 Duo for 2 Violins, Violin Rhapsodies; Yehudi Menuhin (Audio CD)

There's no denying the historical importance of the relationship between Bartok and Menuhin, so it is a little surprising that EMI doesn't attempt to market this set with equal prominence to the artist and composer - maybe it tells us something about the audience for this series of reissues. Bartok wrote his substantial and technically extremely demanding sonata for solo violin for Menuhin, and Menuhin was a well-known promoter of Bartok's works. The recording in this set, however, dates from the 1970s, and maybe I am prejudiced, but Menuhin's playing isn't ideally crisp and fresh, even if the interpretation is still a very strong one and rather beautiful; it is played with a tonal warmth and almost mellow phrasing that sounds attractive enough if a little short on ferocity and attack.

The other recordings date from the 1960s. The recording quality is generally good, however (as it is in the solo violin sonata), but the playing isn't always as technically good as one could imagine - note-perfect, more or less, and I don't have any qualms about the intonation (a problem for the later Menuhin), but there is a certain lack of crispness and freshness and swagger. I would easily have lived with rougher edges if the reward had been more spirit. Still, his ideas are generally good ones and Menuhin's ability to convey the overall structure of the work is impressive. In the concertos he is joined by Antal Dorati and the New Philharmonia, and if nothing else the support is near idesl, powerful and passionate (as is Menuhin's playing in the first concerto) but never overdoing it. In the Rhapsodies, exhibiting many of the same qualities, he is joined by the BBCSO under Pierre Boulez, who leads some sharply etched, rhythmically incisive but never clinical performances, and even though the orchestral support is more lustrous than the soloists, Menuhin acquits himself well, with warmth and much beautiful playing.

For the selection of duos Menuhin is joined by Nell Gotkovsky for fine results, and in the unfinished viola sonata we get a chance of hearing Menuhin on an instrument he allegedly had wanted to take up on more occasions; the result is pretty convincing, and he produces a burnished, golden tone in a work which might not rate among Bartok's most successful works (even if he had finished it - as it is, the work is almost more the work of Tibor Serly than Bartok). So the performances are not perfect (or at least not, I maintain, "perfect in the right way") but they are still very rewarding, and if Menuhin at the time of the recordings had lost some of his spontaneity and effortlessness (although he seems to have preferred beauty over fervor throughout his career), these are still relative spirited and passionate renderings of some glorious music. Besides, this is a most useful collection of Bartok's most important violin music (apart from the two sonatas) and a worthy addition to any collection - even though you can find even better recordings of all the works featured here elsewhere.

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets, February 6, 2007

By 

Bear (Santa Barbara) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bartok: Violin Concertos, Viola Concerto, 6 Duo for 2 Violins, Violin Rhapsodies; Yehudi Menuhin (Audio CD)

First you have to like Bartok. Not everyone enjoys the 20th century extention of classical music. If you do like Bartok and want to hear his violin compositions - then buy this CD and hear a true master at work.