Conversations With Menuhin (Hardcover)

by David Dubal (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Celebrated violinist and teacher Yehudi Menuhin has long been famous for more than his music: philosopher, social critic, he has been the essence of the engaged artist. Here, in a series of conversations with Dubal, an author and teacher at Juilliard who has been for many years an intimate, he demonstrates the range of his concerns and his sympathies. Menuhin's views are invariably humane and thoughtful, covering a multitude of problems from the various forms of environmental, noise and food pollution to homelessness, racial disharmony, nationalism and terrorism. He also talks of music, of favorite composers and of star performers and conductors he has known, though there are few surprises here, and most of the comments are such as any educated music lover could make. Part of the drawback may lie in Dubal as an interviewer; though he has certainly woven together fairly seamlessly what must have been many conversations spread over a period of years, his own comments, designed to stimulate Menuhin's responses, are often banal, conventional, even fogeyish, of the "I don't know what the world is coming to!" type. Still, Menuhin's good sense, warmth and thoughtfulness consistently shine through.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Dubal, author ( Evenings with Horowitz , LJ 11/1/91), teacher, and former radio station director of New York City's WNCN, interviews the great 20th-century violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin on music and musicians, music and life, and the human condition. Unfortunately, this well-meaning venture does not serve the reputations of either participant very well. It consists of genteel chitchat, rife with generalizations, platitudes, and stereotypes that would be comical if they weren't so obviously genuine. Menuhin: "The Japanese people are digitally gifted because they work with chopsticks" and "the strength of Italy used to be that it had cheap pasta and cheap oranges." Dubal's questioning merely encourages this rambling dilettantism: "What are your feelings on the French Revolution, with all that equality and fraternity?" Surely, universal humanism is made of stronger stuff than this. Fans might find the volume to their liking, but others are cautioned to proceed at their own risk.
- Daniel Fermon, Museum of Modern Art Lib., New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P; 1st edition (March 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151225869
• ISBN-13: 978-0151225866
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,797,052 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the rich and LOST art of conversation illuminated..., December 26, 2005

By	zanadu "z (formerly known as s)" - See all my reviews

Conversations with Menuhin is a bountiful book, fully engaged, intelligent, and important. It contains a lengthy conversation between two men - Yehudi Menuhin, by every standard one of the 20th century's greatest artists and thinkers, and David Dubal, a provocative writer and musician. I repeat: this book presents a CONVERSATION. It is not a smacking little knock off of injudicious tidbits, and not a glitzy, pre-packaged, hit-the-gossip points tv interview. Granted there are few enough Americans who any longer have even a vague notion of what conversation consists, but one finds in these pages what one may have lost. The vitriol often concocted against Dubal is simply fantastical, and displays an unfettered prejudice never explaining itself. Dubal is completely engaged as a full partner in a conversation with Menuhin, nothing less. The conversation takes place during the course of a number of sittings, and fully states so. Yes, one of course reads the book to absorb the thought of Menuhin, yet Dubal-- to his credit--respects Yehudi Menuhin sufficiently to engage himself fully as a worthy partner, enabling a wonderful conversation between two thinking people to ensue. And it's a beautiful conversation we're lucky to have. Both men are by turns humorous, unafraid, and knowing. Certainly the insights with which the book abounds lay waste to the regrettable idea that musicians should talk about Beethoven and play their instruments and leave engaged thoughtfulness to others. For those with such views, A Current Affair and Entertainment Tonight should remain your intellectual source, and more power to you. Don't be misled. I will turn to this book again and again to this thoughtful book over the years, finding in its richness and concision a poignant and vital antidote to a culture saturated to the point of delirium with the gross flimsiness of the worship of so-called entertainment values. Buy it, read it, be encouraged and renewed.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too Much of a Mixed Bag, May 17, 2005

By	BLee "bpslee" (HK) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Editorial reviews are not always fair. Very often they are ambivalent and when they are not, it is because they are biased. Not so on this occasion. It hits the nail right on the head.

One should also take note that Menuhin is not the author, not at all! For the first part on musicians, there is some sort of balance between the interviewee and interviewer. Coming to the second and third part, the author alone is taking the lead, asking questions which Menuhin had obviuosly not given much thought to, and wouldn't care much about. Many of them are framed in a way that appears bizarre to any intellectual.

The most disappointing thing would rather be, there is not much on music and musicians. Who cares about what the author says anyway, if he was not talking to Menuhin? But if the author intended to eclipse Menuhin, what is the point of talking to him? That must be the reason why the book is titled Conversations With Menuhin: for this isn't even an interview as such!

In any event, the most detailed coverage Menuhin made was on his own mentor Enescu. That was apparently not to the interest of the authour. So the coverage was brief and is restricted to a few words of compliment on what a great violinist and musician he was. In response to the author's extremely leading questions, Menuhin also touched upon Kempff the pianist. Again, that was restricted to how his approach-- and approach only-- in interpreting Beethoven is different from the other less established pianists. He also mentioned about his admiration for Furtwangler, particularly the latter's relationship with Karajan and vice versa. Again, very brief. There is almost nothing beyond common knowledge.

Instead, the author at variuos points, instead of drawing from Menuhin's strength as a topmost music maker-- probabaly because of the author's inadequacy in making any genuine music -- verged onto exposing Menuhin's weakeness as a musicologist by showing himself off! The author at one point suggested that music after the Classical Period, be it Chopin or whosoever, is sensuous and devious... despite the fact that the author is so blind worshipping the sexually oozing Horowitz; and yet he is so quick in rediculing the childishness of the great modern composer and pianist B. Britten!! Fortunately, Menuhin avoided many such naive questions. How could anyone expect Menuhin, as a top performing artist, to comment on this, however true the assertion might have been? What kind of conversaton is this, when his guest has to resort to avoid the questions?

In the third part, what the author even roamed into politics and life and philosophy etc. He was in fact making a ridicule of both the interviewer and interviewee (and also the readers).

There isn't much substance in the whole book, not just the third part. And yet, with regret, that is about the breadth and depth of this book! This books should fairly and squarely be renamed "One-sided Conversations With Menuhin" a books that is engineered to boost the author's own fame in a rather reckless way. All stars given should go to Menuhin alone and for those taken away all, it was all because of the ulterior-motive and deficiency of the author and him alone.