25 April 2009

Yehudi Menuhin: the great EMI recordings

Serious fans of Yehudi Menuhin will be attracted to the remarkable set of 50 CDs of Yehudi Menuhin’s recordings for EMI which has been released to mark the 10th anniversary of his death on 12 March 1999. Spanning the period of 70 years he recorded for the company, this great collection of course includes his iconic recording at the age of 16 of the great Elgar Violin Concerto, with the composer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.


Amongst the many other recordings are the Bach sonatas and partitas for solo violin, a 1932 recording with George Enescu of the Bach Concerto for Two Violins, the Beethoven and Brahms concerti with Wilhelm Furtwängler, Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata and Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 accompanied by sister Hepzibah, Menuhin’s only recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto, with Sir Adrian Boult, lesser known works such as violin concerti by Vaughan Williams, Walton and Williamson, and pieces by Gershwin and Grappelli with the great Stephane Grappelli.


This is not a collection for the faint-hearted: you get four recordings of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, four of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, two of the Bruch Concerto No. 1. This was a long career.


If you are undeterred by this, Presto Classical will fix you up for £95.65 plus £2.00 postage and handling – go direct to the relevant page here.


And if you are as keen on Menuhin as that you should also visit Yehudiana: Reliving the Menuhin Oddysey to find out about Philip Bailey’s new biography of him.

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