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Yehudi Menuhin

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York in 1916 to Jewish parents and grew into one of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century. He began violin lessons at the age of four. At eight he played as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, and at twelve he scored a great success in Dresden and Berlin with the concertos of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. He studied with Louis Persinger, George Enescu and Adolf Busch. In 1932 he recorded Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto with the composer himself conducting.

Music and breakthrough

After the war he played with Benjamin Britten for survivors of the concentration camps, including at Bergen-Belsen. In 1947 he became the first Jewish musician to return to Germany, for concerts with Wilhelm Furtwängler. He had Bartók write a sonata for solo violin, and with the sitar player Ravi Shankar he recorded West Meets East. He also played jazz with Stéphane Grappelli. His recording contract with EMI lasted almost seventy years, from 1929 to 1999. Later he also became a conductor and founded, among other things, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey and an international violin competition for young talents.

Influence

Menuhin played with a warm, singing tone, and he showed that a classical musician can let other worlds inspire him. His collaboration with Shankar introduced Indian music to a large Western audience, and the duo with Grappelli proved that classical music and jazz enrich each other. In this way he belongs among the musicians who opened up the boundaries between musical cultures, long before the term world music existed.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to West Meets East and notice how Menuhin's violin and Shankar's sitar answer each other. Try to hear where the sitar stretches the melody and where the violin, by contrast, stays calmer.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists