Menuhin: Bruch & Mendelssohn Violin Concertos
 | Label: EMI CLASSICS Catalog: 5099996592625 Format: CD Yehudi Menuhin / Philharmonia Orchestra, Efrem Kurtz, Walter SusskinMendelssohn: Violin Concerto Arguably the best-known classical musician of the 20th century, Yehudi Menuhin was born on 22 April 1916 in New York City. In 1918 his family moved to San Francisco where he had his first violin lessons, aged four, with Sigmund Anker. At seven he gave his first public performance accompanied by his then teacher, Louis Persinger. A year later, in 1925, he gave his first full-length recital, also with Persinger. 1926 saw him make his New York début and later that year he gave a performance of Lalo's Symphonie espagnole with the San Francisco Orchestra. In 1931 Menuhinz made his first concerto recording, Bruch Concerto No.1 in London for HMV and in 1932, at the age of 16, he made what was to become one of the most iconic classical recordings of all time when he went to EMI's new Abbey Road Studios to record the Elgar Concerto with the composer and the London Symphony Orchestra. This event put Menuhin firmly on the international map as one of the great violin virtuosi of the century and he continued to be a prolific recording artist for EMI, both as violinist and conductor, for the rest of his long career. Menuhin went to Kingsway Hall, London, on 12 September 1956 to record the Bruch G minor for the third time. The orchestra was the Philharmonia, then at the peak of its form, and the conductor was the experienced Walter Susskind, a German Czech who had a particular sympathy with Romantic music. 19 months later, Menuhin supplied his third recording of the Mendelssohn to 'fill the 'A' side', this time at Abbey Road Studios and the conductor was the Russian-born American Efrem Kurtz.
 Price: $13.98 |