The Menuhin Century: Live Performances and Festival Recordings

As a musician, as a man of ideals, and as a true world citizen, Yehudi Menuhin made an extraordinary mark on his era. The Menuhin Century commemorates the 100th anniversary of his birth on 22 April 1916. Live Performances and Festival Recordings captures Menuhin in action in the concert hall and in collaboration with two orchestras he founded, the Menuhin Festival Orchestra and the Bath Festival Orchestra.


CD1-2
Carnegie Hall, 2 December 1940. The first concert ever recorded by Yehudi Menuhin: Bach E major Concerto BWV1042, Brahms Concerto and Paganini Concerto No. 1. Complemented by a rare document: Londonderry Air and Sarasate’s Andaluza, recorded live in the US in the 1940’s.

CD3-4
Les riches heures du festival de Prades, established by Pablo Casals. The complete Brahms trios with Istomin and Casals (this CD is new to the Menuhin discography); Mozart’s Violin Sonata, K.376 with Horszowski; the Schumann trio with Horszowski and Casals (1955-1956).

CD5
Rare live documents: Ödön Pártos’s concerto recorded in Israel, and Malcolm Arnold conducting his own Concerto for Two Violins, with Robert Masters on the second violin part. CD6-7
Menuhin at his own festivals, including the Bath Festival. Rare recordings of Purcell, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Bartók