Menuhin was born of a distinguished rabbinical dynasty. The name Yehudi (‘Jew’ in Hebrew) was decided when a prospective landlady told his parents that she didn’t take Jews: his mother vowed that her unborn baby would have a label proclaiming his race to the world.

Menuhin’s fame began with his first public performance aged eight and the commencement of his seventy-year recording career four years later. His playing was intuitively musical, eliciting praise from a New York Times critic in 1927: ‘It may seem ridiculous to say that he showed a mature conception of Beethoven’s Concerto, but that is the fact’, and Elgar’s comment to Delius: ‘The way that boy plays my concerto is amazing.’ Despite this adulation and all his training with Persinger, Enescu and Adolf Busch, all of whom promoted him eagerly, Menuhin felt himself to be underqualified as a violinist and suffered a crisis of confidence at nineteen that led to a withdrawal from engagements for over a year.

World War II brought more problems. Menuhin toured widely, playing over 500 concerts for Allied troops, and witnessed much devastation. At the end of the war he performed in displaced persons camps (sometimes with Benjamin Britten) and visited concentration camps soon after their liberation. When he returned to the US in 1948 critics noted that his playing had lost some of its beauty.

At this time Menuhin’s rôle in music began to take on a more political slant. He defended the German conductor Furtwängler against some Jewish criticism, spoke out against apartheid in South Africa and visited Israel despite threats against him. He toured India in aid of famine relief, meeting sitarist Ravi Shankar—with whom he made several recordings—and discovering yoga. After moving to the UK, Menuhin became involved in several festivals and embarked upon a conducting career. His interest in pedagogy prompted the founding of the Menuhin School and Competition and he became the President of UNESCO’s International Music Council for three successive terms until 1975. The 1970s saw successful collaborations with the jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli; Menuhin also wrote two violin tutors and two volumes of memoirs.

For four decades from 1932 his sister Hephzibah was his favourite recital partner: ‘Ours was a special kind of collaboration, we needed few words. We played almost automatically, as if we were one person.’ Menuhin stopped playing in the early 1990s but continued conducting until his death on tour in Berlin in 1999.

Whilst the effects of old age can be heard in the case of many recording artists, they can be observed perhaps more with Menuhin than with any other player of his generation. By the 1950s nervous problems (only partially alleviated with yoga) spoilt his ability to sustain the bewitching and peculiarly emotive tone that characterises his earlier recordings. His intonation also waned in later life, but his famous pairing with Stéphane Grappelli and the recordings they made at Abbey Road in 1979 are largely free from such complaints and provide a fascinating testimony to Menuhin’s interest in popular and ethnic musical styles. Their performance of When the Red, Red Robin is a good example, opening with a lengthy violin solo played with great idiomatic understanding by Menuhin, before Grappelli’s unmistakable, small, incisive sound joins him in duet form, the two artists intertwining convincingly and yet fully maintaining their individualism. Here, Menuhin’s classical training results in a more sustained cantilena delivery.

From the beginning of his career one might select his 1929 recording of Bach’s Sonata BWV 1005, which scarcely hints at his tender age of thirteen! There is no concession to period style here, nor even a remembrance of Joachim’s austere and architectural style of Bach playing; rather, a sensuous tone with remarkable similarity to that of Menuhin’s teacher Enescu. From 1936 comes a fine recording of Enescu’s Sonata No. 3 with Hephzibah Menuhin, which amply demonstrates their closely-matched artistry. The famous 1932 recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto under the composer’s baton cannot be omitted—a truly remarkable performance for one so young with Menuhin’s searching tone, garnished by his unmistakable use of portamento and quite a slow vibrato, showing great sympathy with this nostalgic work. As a matter of purely personal taste, I prefer Sammons’s more direct and purposeful rendering of the slow movement, which with Menuhin seems ruminative to excess. His first concerto recording—Bruch’s No. 1 with the LSO in 1931—has an unearthly quality and is more reflective than fiery, although the more popular 1951 recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (paired with Mendelssohn’s Concerto from 1952 in a famous LP issue) is even more so. Good as these 1950s recordings are they show a slight lack of direction and the almost palpable mental uncertainty that marred later recordings. Two of his stylistic hallmarks, the so-called ‘Menuhin slur’ (where a smoothly-slurred group of notes might have each one individually aspirated) and the curious descending portamento (in which he slides down from a note by a series of slightly ungainly chromatic jerks) are also apparent. Whilst it is perhaps stereotypical to celebrate his early work and denigrate much of his post-war output, Menuhin’s case proves that sometimes such clichés are deserved.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of String Players, Naxos 8.558081-84).

Born in Bonn in 1770, the eldest son of a singer in the Kapelle of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and grandson of the Archbishop’s Kapellmeister, Beethoven moved in 1792 to Vienna. There he had some lessons from Haydn and others, quickly establishing himself as a remarkable keyboard player and original composer. By 1815 increasing deafness had made public performance impossible and accentuated existing eccentricities of character, patiently tolerated by a series of rich patrons and his royal pupil the Archduke Rudolph. Beethoven did much to enlarge the possibilities of music and widen the horizons of later generations of composers. To his contemporaries he was sometimes a controversial figure, making heavy demands on listeners by both the length and the complexity of his writing, as he explored new fields of music.

Stage Works

Although he contemplated others, Beethoven wrote only one opera. This was eventually called Fidelio after the name assumed by the heroine Leonora, who disguises herself as a boy and takes employment at the prison in which her husband has been unjustly incarcerated. This escape opera, for which there was precedent in contemporary France, ends with the defeat of the evil prison governor and the rescue of Florestan, testimony to the love and constancy of his wife Leonora. The work was first staged in 1805 and mounted again in a revised performance in 1814, under more favourable circumstances. The ballet The Creatures of Prometheus was staged in Vienna in 1801, and Beethoven wrote incidental music for various other dramatic productions, including Goethe’s Egmont, von Kotzebue’s curious The Ruins of Athens, and the same writer’s King Stephen.

Choral and Vocal Music

Beethoven’s most impressive choral work is the Missa solemnis, written for the enthronement of his pupil Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop of Olmütz (Olomouc) although finished too late for that occasion. An earlier work, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, is less well known. In common with other composers, Beethoven wrote a number of songs. Of these the best known are probably the settings of Goethe, which did little to impress the venerable poet and writer (he ignored their existence), and the cycle of six songs known as An die ferne Geliebte (‘To the Distant Beloved’). The song ‘Adelaide’is challenging but not infrequently heard.

Orchestral Music

Symphonies

Beethoven completed nine symphonies, works that influenced the whole future of music by the expansion of the traditional Classical form. The best known are Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’, originally intended to celebrate the initially republican achievements of Napoleon; No. 5; No. 6, ‘Pastoral’; and No. 9, ‘Choral’. The less satisfactory ‘Battle Symphony’ celebrates the earlier military victories of the Duke of Wellington.

Overtures

For the theatre and various other occasions Beethoven wrote a number of overtures, including four for his only opera, Fidelio (one under that name and the others under the name of the heroine, Leonora). Other overtures include Egmont, Coriolan, Prometheus, The Consecration of the House and The Ruins of Athens.

Concertos

Beethoven completed one violin concerto and five piano concertos, as well as a triple concerto for violin, cello and piano, and the curious Choral Fantasy for solo piano, chorus and orchestra. The piano concertos were for the composer’s own use in concert performance. No. 5, the so-called ‘Emperor’ Concerto, is possibly the most impressive. The single Violin Concerto, also arranged for piano, is part of the standard violin repertoire along with two romances (possible slow movements for an unwritten violin concerto).

Chamber Music

Beethoven wrote 10 sonatas for violin and piano, of which the ‘Spring’ and the ‘Kreutzer’ are particular favourites with audiences. He extended very considerably the possibilities of the string quartet. This is shown even in his first set of quartets, Op. 18, but it is possibly the group of three dedicated to Prince Razumovsky (the ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets, Op. 59) that are best known. The later string quartets offer great challenges to both players and audience, and include the remarkable Grosse Fuge—a gigantic work, discarded as the final movement of the String Quartet, Op. 130, and published separately. Other chamber music includes a number of trios for violin, cello and piano, with the ‘Archduke’ Trio pre-eminent and the ‘Ghost’ Trio a close runner-up, for very different reasons. The cello sonatas and sets of variations for cello and piano (including one set based on Handel’s ‘See, the conqu’ring hero comes’ from Judas Maccabaeus and others on operatic themes from Mozart) are a valuable part of any cellist’s repertoire. Chamber music with wind instruments and piano include the Quintet, Op. 16, for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Among other music for wind instruments is the very popular Septet, scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass, as well as a trio for two oboes and cor anglais, and a set of variations on a theme from Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the same instruments.

Piano Music

Beethoven’s 32 numbered piano sonatas make full use of the developing form of the piano, with its wider range and possibilities of dynamic contrast. Other sonatas not included in the 32 published by Beethoven are earlier works, dating from his years in Bonn. There are also interesting sets of variations, including a set based on ‘God Save the King’and another on ‘Rule, Britannia’, variations on a theme from the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, and a major work based on a relatively trivial theme by the publisher Diabelli. The best known of the sonatas are those that have earned themselves affectionate nicknames: the ‘Pathétique’, ‘Moonlight’, ‘Waldstein’, ‘Appassionata’, ‘Les Adieux’ and ‘Hammerklavier’. Less substantial piano pieces include three sets of bagatelles, the all too well-known Für Elise, and the Rondo a capriccio, known in English as ‘Rage Over a Lost Penny’.

Dance Music

Famous composers like Haydn and Mozart were also employed in the practical business of providing dance music for court and social occasions. Beethoven wrote a number of sets of minuets, German dances and contredanses, ending with the so-called Mödlinger Dances, written for performers at a neighbouring inn during a summer holiday outside Vienna.

Born in Liège in 1822, César Franck was originally intended by his father for a career as a virtuoso pianist. In Paris his nationality excluded him at first from the Conservatoire, where he eventually failed to achieve the necessary distinction as a performer, turning his attention rather to composition. In 1846 he left home and went to earn his living in Paris as a teacher and organist, winning particular fame in the second capacity at the newly built church of Ste Clotilde, with its Cavaillé-Coll organ. He drew to himself a loyal and devoted circle of pupils and in 1871 won some official recognition as the nominated successor of Benoist as organ professor at the Conservatoire. A man of gentle character, known to his pupils as ‘Pater seraphicus’, he exercised considerable influence through his classes and performances although he remained, as a composer, something of an outsider in a Paris interested largely in opera.

Orchestral Music

Franck’s best-known orchestral works are the Symphonic Variations for solo piano and orchestra and the Symphony in D minor, completed in 1888 and first performed at a Conservatoire concert the following year. A brief series of symphonic poems includes the early Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne (‘What is heard on the mountain’), based on Victor Hugo’s Le Chasseur maudit (‘The Accursed Huntsman’); Les Djinns, again after Hugo; and Psyché, a symphonic poem with chorus.

Sacred Music

Franck wrote a number of large-scale choral works on biblical subjects, as well as smaller-scale works for occasional or liturgical use. This last category includes the well-known Panis angelicus of 1872, originally for tenor, organ, harp, cello and double bass. Panis angelicus was later interpolated into the three-voice Mass of 1861.

Chamber Music

Franck wrote one violin sonata, which, like his symphony, is united by a cyclic use of thematic material that connects the movements. There is also a fine piano quintet, completed in 1879, and a final string quartet, written in 1890.

Organ Music

As a very distinguished organist, Franck wrote remarkably little for the instrument on which his improvisations had won him fame and pupils. Organ compositions published include Trois Chorals of 1890 and Trois Pièces, written a dozen years earlier. The six organ pieces published in 1868 are entitled Fantaisie; Grande Pièce Symphonique; Prélude, fugue et variation; Pastorale; Prière; and Final.

Piano Music

Franck’s earlier piano music was designed for his own virtuoso performance. Two later works remain in general repertoire: the Prélude, choral et fugue of 1884 and the Prélude, aria et final, completed in 1887.

Belgian in origin, Guillaume Lekeu studied in Paris with his compatriot César Franck and with Vincent d’Indy. He died of typhoid fever at the age of 24.

Chamber Music
Lekeu is best remembered for his G major Violin Sonata, an intensely lyrical work, and his Sonata for piano. His Sonata for cello and piano and his Piano Quartet were completed after the composer’s death by d’Indy. He also left a completed Piano Trio.

Vocal Music
Vocal music by Lekeu includes settings of words of his own, notably the Trois Poèmes.