Yehudi Menuhin

Musician

• Born: April 22, 1916
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: March 12, 1999
• Place of death: Berlin, Germany

American classical composer, violinist, and conductor

A major violinist, Menuhin is remembered for his delicate tone and his poignantly Romantic musical intuition as well as for his wide-ranging intellectual and spiritual pursuits and his commitment to humanitarian causes.

The Life

Yehudi Menuhin (yeh-HEW-dee MEHN-ew-ehn) was born to Moshe and Marutha Sher, East European Jews who emigrated to Palestine and eventually to the United States. Menuhin spent most of his childhood in San Francisco, where he accompanied his parents to San Francisco Symphony Orchestra concerts. He first expressed a desire to play the violin at age four. He first studied with Sigmund Anker, and in 1923 he began lessons with the concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Louis Persinger. The young violinist excelled, moving rapidly in his studies and giving his first public performance at age seven, his New York debut at age nine, his European premiere concerts at ten, and his first world tour at nineteen. His exceptional talent was quickly recognized by other well-known violin pedagogues, including George Enesco and Adolf Busch, both of whom instructed Menuhin in the art of the violin.

In March of 1938, Menuhin met Nola Nicholas backstage at a London concert. He quickly became enamored with the wealthy Australian beauty, and they were married in May of the same year. Although Menuhin’s U.S. military service was deferred, during World War II, he tirelessly performed for U.S. troops on the European and the Pacific fronts. His absences from Nola and their two children, Zamira and Krov, placed a heavy strain on their marriage. Matters were further complicated when Menuhin was introduced to British ballet dancer and actress Diana Gould. After an unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation with Nola in 1946, Menuhin divorced her in 1947, and he married Diana a few weeks later. They had two children, Gerard and Jeremy, and a third son died within an hour of his birth.

The emotionally stressful period of marital conflict with Nola coincided with Menuhin’s loss of youthful confidence on the stage and a lapse in technique that prompted him to begin a lengthy reexamination of all aspects of violin artistry. He regained some self-assurance through his inventive use of skills derived from yoga, from Hindu philosophy, and from traditional Indian music, which he discovered on his first tour of India in 1952. Convinced of the practical and spiritual value of Indian culture, Menuhin adopted a daily yoga routine to complement his violin practice, and he began a strict vegetarian diet. As he sought spiritual enlightenment, he became increasingly committed to humanitarian causes, touring India in support of famine relief in 1952, boycotting South Africa from 1956 until the end of apartheid, giving concerts in support of Palestinian refugees after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and frequently rallying against the antidemocratic abuses of the Soviet Union.

Menuhin’s appointment as artistic director of the Bath Music Festival in 1959 came as part of a gradual career reorientation characterized by an increased focus on conducting and teaching, an adjustment that would prove by the 1980’s a necessity because of the severe deterioration of his violinistic abilities. In 1963 he founded the Yehudi Menuhin International School based eventually at Stoke d’Abernon in Surrey, England, a progressive institution with a broad educational program designed to cultivate creative and perceptive musicians. In 1977 he oversaw the creation of a second educational establishment, the International Menuhin Academy at Gstaad, Switzerland. As a conductor, Menuhin developed close relationships with several orchestras, including the Sinfonia Varsovia of Poland and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he was named lifetime president in 1982.

Having taken up residence in England many years earlier, Menuhin assumed British citizenship in 1985, and he was accorded the title Sir Yehudi after receiving an honorary knighthood in 1965. In 1993, after being invited to join the House of Lords, he took another title, Lord Menuhin of Stoke d’Abernon. The decorated musician and humanist continued to promote humanitarian causes throughout the 1990’s, working with special dedication toward the creation of an Assembly of Cultures intended to encourage multicultural interaction and expression. Despite suffering hearing loss, Menuhin continued appearing as a conductor until a few days before his sudden death from a heart attack on March 12, 1999.

The Music

Menuhin was an exceptional child prodigy. The rapid acquisition of technical facility comprised only part of his youthful brilliance; it was his innate faculty for profound expression that made his playing sound more mature. Age and experience only refined his musicianship, even in the face of deteriorating technique. Menuhin’s virtuosity was never static, but in a lifelong struggle to maintain technical brilliance, his musicality grew into new dimensions.

Youth.In 1927 Menuhin performed Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major (1806) at Carnegie Hall, with Fritz Busch conducting. Busch had been hesitant to conduct an eleven-year-old in a concerto of such depth and with so many musical subtleties; he had suggested that a concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart might better serve the young violinist. Nevertheless, Menuhin quickly persuaded Busch of his interpretive capabilities, bestowing upon Beethoven’s music its well-known nobility, refinement, and expressive sophistication. In 1929 Bruno Walter conducted Menuhin in an even greater feat: a performance of concerti by Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Johannes Brahms. It was a program of extraordinary variety, difficulty, and intensity, with works that demanded a commanding technique and a discriminating musicality. Deeply moved by Menuhin’s musical offering, the Berlin audience attempted to rush the stage after the concert.

In July of 1932, Menuhin recorded Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B Minor (1910), with the composer at the conductor’s podium. Epic in size and lavishly romantic, Elgar’s concerto is overflowing with nocturnal passion and brooding pathos. Menuhin was up to the task; critics immediately acknowledged that Menuhin’s performance exhibited a heartfelt tenderness and expressive certitude. Though only a boy of sixteen at the time of the recording, he exhibited the musical perceptivity of a mature violinist.

Maturity. The 1940’s were a turbulent period for Menuhin, and his technique suffered. Even in youth, his tone was imbued with a certain delicacy, a perceptible fragility, making his sound unique and easily distinguished. However, by the time Menuhin was thirty, the fragilely beautiful sound of his playing had dissipated into tonal insecurities; his lack of instrumental mastery was compounded by a sudden lapse of confidence on the stage. A natural talent from the start, Menuhin had previously been little concerned with the fundamentals of violin technique. Now he began an extensive study of the intricate motions of the arms, hands, and fingers, and he sought a holistic understanding of the mechanics of the body, finding answers in yoga, as he said, his “yardstick of inner peace.” Menuhin’s self-confidence was rejuvenated through an encounter with the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, whose music he revered because of its flawless construction and profound emotional depths. Bartók equally admired Menuhin, and, in 1944, he composed his Sonata for Solo Violin expressly for the violinst, who performed it with resplendence and fantasy. Having found new inspiration in Bartók, Menuhin continued his rehabilitation through the exploration of traditional Indian music and jazz, performing with sitar player Ravi Shankar at the Bath Music Festival and with French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli in the 1970’s.

By the time Menuhin reached his sixties, his bow had become noticeably unstable, especially in the lower half, and his intonation tended to be sharp. Though the struggling violinist remained capable of attaining moments of musical brilliance, he was increasingly prone to embarrassing performances. Hampered by problems in violin mechanics, Menuhin traded his bow for a baton with greater frequency in later life. Indeed, as a conductor, he was more successful than most of his violinist contemporaries. Menuhin enjoyed a long and illustrious career at the podium, during which time he made a number of celebrated recordings. Among the most memorable is a 1960 recording of the Bach orchestral suites with the Bath Festival Orchestra, noted for its expansiveness and nobility.

Musical Legacy

Although critics may emphasize the detrimental effect of Menuhin’s physical problems on his violin career, until his last public appearance as a violinist in 1996, enthusiastic audiences continued to attend his concerts, captivated by a man whose capacity for musical communication seemed inexhaustible. Menuhin’s art arose from the passionate outpouring of a thoughtful intellect; his music touched the hearts of millions of listeners. For Menuhin, the violin was the perfect tool to communicate with others in a way that is deeply human.

Menuhin’s legacy as communicator of the human condition stretched beyond the realm of musical performance. His unique approach to music pedagogy was multifaceted, employing vocal study, jazz, improvisation, yoga, breathing exercises, and even specific dietary measures toward the cultivation of both the violinist and the human being. Moreover, for Menuhin, music symbolized universal values, and therefore it must be utilized to establish cultural dialogues as a means of promoting peace and cooperation. In each of his varied pursuits, Menuhin was dedicated to peace, humanitarianism, and environmentalism.

Principal Recordings

albums (as violinist): Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61, 1947; Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D, 1948; Bach: Orchestral Suites Nos. 1-3, 1960 (as conductor); Fascinating Rhythm: Music of the Thirties, 1988; For All Seasons, 1988; Jealousy: Hits of the Thirties, 1990 (with Stéphane Grappelli); Strictly for the Birds, 1993; Yehudi Menuhin: The Album, 1998.

writings of interest:Violin: Six Lessons with Yehudi Menuhin, 1971; Theme and Variations, 1972; Violin and Viola, 1976; Unfinished Journey, 1977 (autobiography); The Music of Man, 1979 (with Curtis W. Davis); The Compleat Violinist: Thoughts, Exercises, Reflections of an Itinerant Violinist, 1986 (renamed Life Class); Unfinished Journey: Twenty Years Later, 1997.

Bibliography

Burton, Humphrey. Yehudi Menuhin: A Life. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000. A comprehensive and insightful biography complete with photographs, recommended recordings, and a chronology.

Dubal, David. Conversations with Menuhin. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, 1992. In a series of interviews conducted by a Juilliard professor, Menuhin provides valuable insights into his character and his convictions, as a violinist and as a humanitarian.

Menuhin, Diana. Fiddler’s Moll: Life with Yehudi. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1984. Nearly forty years in the life of Menuhin is revealed in this book from the perspective of his second wife, Diana Gould.

Menuhin, Yehudi. Unfinished Journey: Twenty Years Later. New York: Fromm, 1996. Updated edition of Menuhin’s eloquently written and profoundly reflective autobiography of 1976. Includes photographs.

Palmer, Tony. Menuhin: A Family Portrait. London: Faber & Faber, 1991. Controversial work that focuses on the interactions of the seemingly troubled relations among the members of the Menuhin family.