Yehudi Menuhin – Yehudi! The Art of Menuhin (2016) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Yehudi Menuhin – Yehudi! The Art of Menuhin (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:34:49 minutes | 3,62 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | Artwork: Digital Booklet © Warner Classics

“Now I know there is a God in heaven!”, exclaimed Albert Einstein when he heard the young Yehudi Menuhin play the violin. Not only was Menuhin an extraordinary musician, he lived through – and helped to shape – a momentous period in history. The Warner Classics catalogue contains 70 years’ worth of his recordings and this 3-CD collection, Yehudi!, provides a fascinating perspective on his achievements: Menuhin was a man of ideals who changed the world through music.

“Now I know there is a God in heaven!” exclaimed Albert Einstein when he heard Yehudi Menuhin, then just 13 years old, play a concert in Berlin in 1929. That famous anecdote encapsulates Menuhin’s genius as a violinist and the impact he made in the course of a career that spanned a momentous period of history. Born in New York in 1916, he died in Berlin in 1999 — 70 years after drawing such an amazed response from the pre-eminent scientist of the 20th century.
Seventy years was also the duration of his relationship with the record company EMI. Unrivalled in the history of recording, it produced some three hundred discs, now treasures of the Warner Classics catalogue. This collection, Yehudi: the Art of Menuhin, comprises 39 outstanding tracks, carefully chosen to display the many facets of Menuhin’s achievement as a violinist — in concertos, sonatas, chamber music and captivating encore pieces, in music inspired by his friendship with the sitar-player Ravi Shankar, and in partnership with the jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Menuhin was an enthusiast, a man of enormous musical and intellectual curiosity, a generous colleague and a sympathetic mentor, as well as a man of vision, ideals and determination who believed that music has the potential to change the world.
In his autobiography, Unfinished Journey, published in 1977, Menuhin wrote: “Speaking for myself, I am the most fortunate of human beings, having music for expression and communication … Of course it must not be … an escape. I am constantly thinking of ways and means to improve, alleviate, protect, guide and inspire in practical terms.” As a child prodigy, his education, both academic and musical, had been unconventional, but in 1963 he established the Menuhin School, not far from London. It exists “to provide the environment and tuition for musically gifted children from all over the world to pursue their love of music” and has produced such celebrated violinists of today as Nigel Kennedy, Tasmin Little, Alina Abrigimova and Nicola Benedetti. In 1977 he founded the International Menuhin Music Academy for young graduate string players in Gstaad, Switzerland, where in 1957 he had launched a music festival that continues to flourish in the 21st century.
His legacy to the world also includes a number of charities. Menuhin said, “Music, amongst all the great arts, is the language which penetrates most deeply into the human spirit, reaching people through every barrier, disability, language and circumstance. This is why it has been my dream to bring music back into the lives of those people whose lives are especially prone to stress and suffering … so that it might comfort, heal and bring delight.” His charity Live Music Now, which operates across the United Kingdom — the country in which Menuhin made his home — takes music to people facing difficulties in their lives, such as children with special educational needs, the sick and the elderly.
During World War II, Menuhin set a fine example in demonstrating the healing power of music. While the conflict raged, he gave 500 concerts for Allied troops and appeared in Antwerp, Brussels and Paris shortly after the cities were liberated. In June 1945 he performed in San Francisco for the inaugural assembly of the United Nations, and the following month, with the composer Benjamin Britten as his pianist, he played in Belsen for survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
“We hoped that the experience of the music we passionately strived to share with them would speak to them of emotions they had once felt and disentangle some of the knots in their suffering souls. For many years afterwards, I received countless letters from individuals who had attended these concerts; they confirmed my conviction, which had wavered at the time, that music was, after all, an essential element of life.”

Tracklist:
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH 1685-1750
1 Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor, BWV 1041 I. [Allegro] 4.12
2 Violin Concerto No.2 in E, BWV 1042 II. Adagio 7.08
ANTONIO VIVALDI 1678-1741
The Four Seasons: Concerto in G minor, RV 315 “Summer”/“L’estate”
3 III. Presto 2.45
GIOVANNI BATTISTA VIOTTI 1755-1824
4 Violin Concerto No.22 in A minor, G97 II. Adagio 7.16
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770-1827
5 Violin Concerto in D, Op.61 III. Rondo: Allegro 10.24
FELIX MENDELSSOHN 1809-1847
6 Violin Concerto No.2 in E minor, Op.64 I. Allegro molto appassionato 12.20
7 Violin Concerto No.1 in D minor III. Allegro 5.56
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY 1840-1893
8 Violin Concerto in D, Op.35 II. Canzonetta: Andante 6.39
JOHANNES BRAHMS 1833-1897
Violin Concerto in D, Op.77
9 III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace 8.15
NICCOLÒ PAGANINI 1792-1840
10 Violin Concerto No.2 in B minor, Op.7 III. Rondo “La campanella” 7.51
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Violin Sonata No.5 in F, Op.24 “Spring”
11 I. Allegro 9.59
12 II. Adagio molto espressivo 6.33
13 III. Scherzo: Allegro molto 1.08
14 IV. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo 6.37
15 Violin Sonata No.9 in A, Op. 47 “Kreutzer” III. Finale: Presto 6.43
JOHANNES BRAHMS
16 Violin Sonata No.3 in D minor, Op.108 III. Un poco presto e con sentimento 2.58
FRANZ SCHUBERT 1797-1828
17 Piano Trio No.1 in B flat, D898 II. Andante un poco mosso 9.10
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 1756-1791
18 Violin Sonata in A, K526 II. Andante 6.58
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
19 Sonata for solo violin No.3 in C, BWV 1005 IV. Allegro assai 3.49
20 Sonata No.3 in E, BWV 1016 III. Adagio ma non tanto 5.13
CÉSAR FRANCK 1822-1890
21 Violin Sonata in A II. Allegro 8.03
GABRIEL FAURÉ 1845-1924
22 Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor, Op.15 II. Scherzo: Allegro vivo 5.18
23 Berceuse in D, Op.16 3.42
JOHANNES BRAHMS
24 Hungarian Dance No.5 in G minor (arr. Joachim) 2.03
PIETRO LOCATELLI 1695-1764
25 Caprice No.23 in D “Harmonious Labyrinth” (arr. David) 3.03
ARCANGELO CORELLI 1653-1713
26 Sonata No.12 in D minor “La Folia” 13.11
FRANZ SCHUBERT
27 Ave Maria, D839 (arr. Menuhin) 4.47
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK 1841-1904
28 Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95 “From the New World”: 3.46
29 Slavonic Dance in E minor, Op.72 No.2 (arr. Kreisler) 3.59
LÉO DELIBES 1836-1891
30 Coppélia Ballade de l’épi 2.36
31 Sylvia Pas de deux 4.35
CLAUDE DEBUSSY 1862-1918
32 Préludes, Book I La fille aux cheveux de lin (arr. Hartmann) 2.36
FRITZ KREISLER 1875-1962
33 Liebesleid 3.34
34 Liebesfreud 3.11
35 Schön Rosmarin 1.53
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI 1792-1868
36 Andante con variazioni in F for violin and harp 4.09
RAVI SHANKAR 1920-2012
37 Prabhati (based on Raga Gunkali) 4.07
MAX HARRIS 1918-2004
38 Viva Vivaldi 2.23
39 Air on a Shoestring 3.40