Yehudi Menuhin began his career as a phenomenal child prodigy on the violin. Later he moved beyond the virtuosity that dazzled his first audiences, and appeared in chamber music recitals with his sister, Hepzibah. Menuhin introduced around the world new and sometimes difficult works by composers such as Béla BARTÓK, Ernest Bloch, and Edward ELGAR. His musical interests extended even to India, where he studied the traditional form of raga and tala, helping to introduce this complex and rewarding music to the West.
Menuhin was born on April 22, 1916, in New York City. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants who had journeyed to the United States by way of Palestine. Menuhin asked for his first violin when he was four, and began lessons with Sigmund Anker, but was soon accepted as a student by Louis Persinger. Menuhin made his formal debut at age eight on February 29, 1924, playing with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
At age ten, while still giving concerts, Menuhin travelled to Europe, where he studied with composer and violinist George Enescu, to whom he credited his understanding of the “shape and meaning” of music. At age 11, Menuhin first performed at Carnegie Hall, playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto conducted by Fritz Busch. He was not yet strong enough to tune his own violin!
Another triumph came in Germany in 1929, when Bruno WALTER conducted Menuhin with the Berlin Philharmonic in three concertos, by Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. The audience was so enthusiastic that police were called to keep the peace.
At this time, Menuhin began to experience some difficulties playing, and Enescu sent him to Adolph Busch in Switzerland, who put his intuitive technique on a firm foundation. In 1932 the 16-year-old Menuhin experienced one of the highlights of his early career when he recorded Elgar’s Violin Concerto, conducted by the 75-year-old Elgar, for the Gramophone Company in London, U.K. The following year the two of them performed the concerto again in Paris. But in 1934, he turned down Wilhelm FURTWÄNGLER’S invitation to play in Berlin because of the overt anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime.
In 1936, Menuhin returned to U.S., and the following year premiered Schumann’s “lost” violin concerto. Hollywood attempted to recruit the young violinist, but his father rejected these offers. Menuhin did later appear in the film Hollywood Canteen, and provided the soundtrack for The Magic Bow, a movie about Paganini, the early 19th-century virtuoso violinist.
Menuhin travelled to India to study and perform with the sitarist Ravi SHANKAR, whom he brought to the United States to perform. Menuhin always promoted Eastern music in the West, as he felt that the Eastern polyrhythms and modal melodies had much to offer. On Menuhin’s 80th birthday in 1996, he and Shankar made music together as Menuhin conducted the Orchestra of St. Luke at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Menuhin promoted international artistic exchange, particularly with Russia. In 1963, Menuhin opened a music boarding school for children near London, modelled on the Russian conservatories. He was active throughout his life in the cause of human rights, and was awarded the Nehru Award for international understanding. In Britain he was knighted in 1965, and made a life peer in 1993, which gave him the right to sit in the House of Lords.
Jane Prendergast
SEE ALSO:
CHAMBER MUSIC; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Daniels, Robin. Conversations with Menuhin (London: Futura Publications, 1980)..
Menuhin, Yehudi. Unfinished Journey: Twenty Years Later (New York: Fromm International, 1977).
Bach: Concertos; Bartok: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2; Beethoven: Violin Sonatas; Elgar: Violin Sonatas; Mozart: Concertos Nos. 3 and 5; Yehudi Menuhin Pre-War Recordings Conducted by George Enescu.