Customer Reviews

Beethoven Violin Concerto & Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 & Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 / Yehudi Menuhin

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Menuhin plays like an angel. He invites you to communicate with him heart and soul the whole time he plays. Here, or in fact anytime at all, he played the Mozart Concerto somewhat like Hassid: not just every note talks like a human, they're cries and weeps and moans from the deepest of one's soul.

The way Menuhin played his Beethoven is probaby the most difficult one, especially the cadenza. It's more than 3 dimensional: so full of colours and emotions, even more condensed than Thibaud. Few violinists would even dare to try it this way. So it's a different orientation altogether. The standard of demonic, with respect, is the least applicable to Menuhin. To Menuhin, most Russian ways of playing simply lacked a whole dimension. Menuhun's Bruch is most wonderful too, in a way it is even more marvelous than his Mozart.

We have three concertos here and Menuhin was supported by different orchestras in each piece. In the first concerto, it was an orchestra from London, the second one from Paris and the third one from Germany. It's interesting to compare these orchestras from different part of Europe. Probably the standard in these countries are not much different now. The first one, the London Symphony was conducted by Sir Colin Davis, who was so young then and his gestures are enormous yet the collaboration was very good indeed. How come a clarinetist could make a good conductor? Amazaing. The second one was conducted by Menuhin himself and the third one by Fricsay. All of them are miles better than the conductor we see from Szeryng's 2003 DVD.

All were filmed in the 60's, all are in B/W. The photogragphy is, as usual of most BBC productions, very good. We can see exactly how he played almost throughout: his fingering, his vibrato, bowing everything. The sound is very good too. Those who are baffled by other DVDs which tell only his stories with little violin playing won't be disappointed this time. The running time is only 108 minutes though.

This set of Black and White recordings were made in the 1960's. Menuhin is around 50 years old and appears very stately, and composed. He plays wonderful Beethoven, it's almost as if he is immersed in it and communing with Beethoven himself. The expressiveness and the way he closes his eyes and feels the music shows his understanding and grasp of Beethoven. For the Mozart concerto, Menuhin conducts and plays the violin part, much like Mozart would probably have done. Bruch is very emotional and Menuhin is best at really getting into the pathos of the piece. Later in life, Menuhin would concentrate more and more on conducting, and as seen in the Mozart, he really feels the music, whether playing or conducting. This is one DVD to add to your collection of 20th century violin superstars.

The Mozart and Bruch are among the most romantic concertos in the entire repitoire and I like Menuhin for the mushy stuff and not so much for the virtuoso stuff. He has the elegance of Kreisler but not so much the demonic technique of Heifetz, Rabin, or Kogan. I do consider this video worthwhile.

DVD includes:

Beethoven Concerto with Colin Davis (1962)
Mozart 3 directed by Menuhin (1967)
Bruch 1 with Fricsay (1961)
Beethoven Romance in F with Adrian Boult (1966)

As far as I know these are the only videos you can get of the Mozart and Bruch, an invaluable study aide if you are a violinist...

Although I love all 3 concertos the quality of DVD is old, of course this could not be helped as it was copied from the early 1960s concerts. Menuhin performance is spectactular. If you don't object to dated black & white film then by all means add it to your collection!

i ordered 2 CD's - one to replace the other. Neither had sound on either my Bose accoustical wave, or my Bose radio/CD player.

Could both have been faulty? not trying a 3rd time. amazon was very good on crediting me, an excellent process and easy for the customer.