Customer Reviews

Yehudi Menuhin and Hephzibah Menuhin Play Franck, Schubert & Bartok (EMI Classic Archive 25)

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This DVD is amazing. The music played by a brother and sister, the closness and the emotion you feel when you hear this is so wonderful.
The Franck Sonata is the best performance I've ever heard, and I've heard many performances of the Franck Sonata. I've never seen anyone before now play this work by memory. No one has to play these works by memory, but I guess they have played it so much, it was memorized. Hephzibah has such power, but yet soft on the keys. Never harsh.Her technique is outstanding. It is hard to believe that her parents wanted her to be a house wife and mother, and didn't want her to go into music. The woman is a genius like her brother.
Back in the 1970's I heard Hephzibah Menuhin live in a recital with flutist Elaine Shaffer. The highlight of my life. I was 13, sitting in the front row. I was a flute student, and now I'm a pro flutists. I also had the pleasure to meet these two strong women back stage.It wasn't long after that, Elaine Shaffer died of cancer. But back to this video. The cellist, Maurice Gendron is also a musicians musician. I never even have heard of him untill now, and that surprises me because I have a great passion for the cello.
I hope you will buy this amazing DVD. It's one of a kind.

Menuhin's playing reminds us of Enescu so much (and the influence of Carl Flesch is small)! With Kreisler, you're listening to a cozy friend and with Menuhin, you're communicating heart to heart with a close relative.

The Schubert trio is an absolute jem from whichever way you look at it. The pianist is so delightful never quite as oppressive as Richter. Maurice Gendron is a most marvelous cellist who is even more impressive than his compatriots, Tortelier and Fournier. Their collaboration is most perfect.

Menuhin's Franck is as expressive as ever and perhaps only Thibaud could compare with him in this regard. His sister played this sonata without the score in front of her! And his Bartok is in colour with excellent sound. And some say his Bartok is even better than Szegetti.

This DVD doesn't give you a full dimension of Menuhin's art though, nor is there any climax.

I really like Yehudi Menuhin, and this disc is a good collection of chamber performance, mainly with his sister Hephzibah at the piano. I enjoyed these performances, but especially the recordings from 1960, which make up the heart of the disc, suffer a bit from age and the technology of the time, with tape hiss from the video and poor microphoning. Still, these are some great performances and well worth watching!

The collection starts off with César Franck's Violin Sonata in A major, recorded at the BBC studios in 1960. I really love this work, but I have to admit this version didn't appeal to me as much as some others. The Menuhins take the first movement very slowly, and I felt it resulted in some timing and tempo problems, like they had trouble in the first few minutes getting in synch. Any difficulties were clearly ironed out quickly, however, and the rest of the performance is excellent, suffering only from some minor sound quality issues -- mainly tape hiss (although this perception may be exaggerated by the fact that I was watching with headphones).

The Schubert Piano Trio No. 1 is performed by Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin with Maurice Gendron on cello, again in the BBC Studios in 1960. This is a wonderful performance that suffers from the recording quality, as the musicians are not closely microphoned and the sound is a bit muddy and indistinct. However, the performance is still very enjoyable.

Béla Bartók's Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano is performed by Menuhin with Jeremy Menuhin on piano and Thea King on clarinet, recording for ORTF in Paris in 1972. I really like this piece and this is a great performance, especially enjoyable because I had never seen it performed before, just heard it. Like much of Bartók's work, it is highly modern for its day, but is based on Hungarian and Romanian folk music themes. I would also recommend this set, which contains a fantastic historic recording of this piece, I believe the first recording ever, performed by Bartók himself on piano, with the great Jozsef Szigeti on violin and Benny Goodman on clarinet. The story goes that fellow Hungarian Szigeti asked Bartók to write the work, but that Goodman actually commissioned it from Bartók.

The remaining works on the disc are excerpts. First comes the 3rd movement of Bartók's Violin Sonata No. 1, then the 1st movement of George Enescu's Violin Sonata No. 3, both recorded for ORTF in Paris in 1972. Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin are the performers again. These are really great performances, and are also especially enjoyable for the hippie clothing the Menuhins are wearing, with Yehudi clad in a big red faux eastern European peasant shirt. Love the playing, love the grooviness of the visuals.

And talk about "Contrasts" -- the tuxedo-clad performances from Britain in 1960 of 19th century pieces could not contrast more with the flower-power feel of the 1972 recordings of 20th century works. We travel with the Menuhins through time, and it's an enjoyable ride. Highly recommended.

From the (EMI Classic Archive 25) several presentations that do not really merge well yet the artists are so well know and work well together so you do not really notice the variety of music eras.

Even though these are popular pieces until I actually watched this presentation I had not linked some not the music to the titles. The variety is a little much.

You can really get lulled into another world listing to Cesar Frank violin sonata in A minor.
Yehudi Menuhin, violin Hephzibah Menuhin, piano.
BBC studios, London, 5 January 1960.

A mellow version of Franz Schubert Piano Trio No.1 in B Flat Major, D898
Yehudi Menuhin, violin, Marcie Gendron, cello Hephzibah Menuhin, piano.
Bath festival, Guildhall, 7 June 1964.


A bit jarring is Bela Bartok Contrast for violin, clarinet and Piano, Sz111
Bartok Violin Sonata No1 3rd movement
Georges Enescu violin Sonata No.3 1st movement
Yehudi Menuhin, violin, Thea King, clarinet, Jeremy Menuhin, piano.
ORTF, Paris 3 December 1972.

Bonus
Hephzibah Menuhin plays Mendelssohn: variations serieuses, Op.54
Paris 1968

Yehudi Menuhin Plays Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto

Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin recitals on DVD.
These are recordings of variety of music from different eras presented by two artists of the highest order. Yehudi, who was a child prodigy and Hephzibah, his four years younger sister, who was satisfied to play a second fiddle in her brother's musical career. She is now recognised as no less talented. In all six pieces presented the two instruments play equal parts and all are most demanding in their own way. The Violin Sonata by Cesare Franck is a complicated piece, requiring high skill from the violinist and the pianist. The Schubert Piano Trio No1 in B flat maj. is a devine music typical of its composer also very demanding on the players. Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet and Piano by Bartok requires an outstanding musicianship of all players and Thea King, the clarinetist compliments the other two with high standard performance. Jeremy Menuhin, Yehudi's son is the pianist. The Sonata for Violin and Piano No3 is by George Enescu, Menuhin's close friend and is given a loving performance. I recommend this DVD to all serious music lovers.
Joe Neustatl

I preferred the Schubert and the Franck. I could stand the Bartok, but not the Enescu. I don't like modern music (20th century, except Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and a smidge (a very small one) of Prokofiev, and The Rite of Spring). The Mendelssohn "bonus" was thrilling. The woman is as brilliant as her brother. I was floored. The Schubert was involving, permeating and beautiful. The rapport among and between the players was warm and affecting. I don't remember the Franck except that I loved it. I think the film of the Schubert and Franck was damaged (through age? 1960, 64???) because there were spots in it and the whites (particularly faces) appeared jaundiced. A small quibble. The sound was fine. I don't know why I was given a choice of languages when there were no subtitles and the only word spoken was "goodnight" by Menuhin after the Franck. Three pieces were in color, 3 were not. Not enough is said about the page turners. NOTHING is said about the page turners. Unintrusive and self-effacing, they're as musically knowledgeable as the performers and indispensable. I was looking forward to this disc with great anticipation, and I was not disappointed.