Yehudi Menuhin
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Yehudi Menuhin album cover |
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin,
OM,
KBE (
April 22,
1916 â€"
March 12,
1999) was a
American violinist and
conductor who spent most of his performing career in the
United Kingdom and eventually became a British citizen. He was a student of
Louis Persinger,
George Enescu, and
Adolf Busch. The name
Yehudi means '
Jew' in
Hebrew.
Born in
New York City, Menuhin began learning
violin at age three under the violinist Sigmund Anker. He gave his first performance as a solo violinist at the age of seven, alongside the
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He later studied under the
Romanian composer and violinist
George Enescu, after which he made several recordings with his sister
Hephzibah, who was a
pianist.
Yehudi Menuhin performed for allied soldiers during
World War II, and went with the composer
Benjamin Britten to perform for the inmates of
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, after its liberation in April
1945. He went back to
Germany in
1947 to perform music under the conductor
Wilhelm Furtwängler as an act of reconciliation, becoming the first
Jewish musician to go back to Germany after
the Holocaust. After building early success on richly romantic and tonally opulent performances, he experienced considerable physical and artistic difficulties caused by overwork during
World War II and unfocused early training. Careful practice and study combined with
meditation and
yoga helped him overcome many of these problems, and he continued to perform to an advanced age, becoming known for profound interpretations of an austere quality. When he finally started recording, he became famous for practicing pieces of music by deconstructing phrases one note at a time.
In
1952, Menuhin met and befriended the influential
yogi B.K.S. Iyengar. Menuhin arranged for Iyengar to teach abroad in
London,
Switzerland,
Paris and elsewhere. This was the first time that many Westerners had been exposed to yoga.
In
1962 he established the
Yehudi Menuhin School in
Stoke d'Abernon,
Surrey. He also established the music program at
the Nueva School in
Hillsborough, California sometime around then. In 1965 he received an honorary
knighthood.
During the
1980s he made
jazz recordings with
Stéphane Grappelli and of Eastern music with the great
sitarist
Ravi Shankar. In
1985 he was awarded
British citizenship and was now entitled to the accolade "Sir Yehudi" as his knighthood was no longer honorary. In
1990 he was the first conductor for the
Asian Youth Orchestra which toured around
Asia, including
Japan,
Taiwan,
Singapore and
Hong Kong with
Julian Lloyd Webber and a group of young talented musicians from all over Asia.
In
1993 he was created a
life peer as
Baron Menuhin, of Stoke D'Abernon in the County of Surrey. Lord Menuhin died in
Berlin following a brief illness, from complications of
bronchitis.
Yehudi Menuhin was survived by four children — Krov and Zamira from his first wife Nola Nicholas (daughter of an Australian industrialist) whom he divorced and two sons by his second wife Diana Gould (British ballerina and actress), Gerard and Jeremy, a
pianist.
His pupils include
Nigel Kennedy,
Hungarian violist
Csaba Erdelyi and violist
Paul Coletti.
Menuhin credited the German-Jewish philosopher
Constantin Brunner with providing him with "a theoretical framework within which I could fit the events and experiences of life" (Conversations with Menuhin: 32-34).
Arguably the most famous of Menuhin's violins is the "Lord Wilton"
Guarneri del GesĂą violin made in 1742.
In
1990 he was awarded the prestigious
Glenn Gould Prize in recognition of his lifetime of contributions.
He received a Doctorate
Honoris causa from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Soon after his death, the Royal Academy of Music acquired the Yehudi Menuhin Archive, one of the most valuable and comprehensive collections ever assembled by an individual musician.
In October 2004, the New Internationalist magazine told the story of how Menuhin got his name.
Obliged to find an apartment of their own my parents searched the neighbourhood and chose one within walking distance of the park. Showing them out after they had viewed it, the landlady said: "And you'll be glad to know I don't take Jews." Her mistake made clear to her, the antisemitic landlady was renounced, and another apartment found. But her blunder left its mark. Back on the street my mother made a vow. Her unborn baby would have a label proclaiming his race to the world. He would be called "The Jew."In November, 2005, his son Gerard was
dismissed from his post as chairman of the Yehudi-Menuhin-Stiftung for alleged neo-Nazi opinions.
A picture of Menuhin as a child is sometimes used as part of a
Thematic Apperception Test. [
1]
*1999 -
L. Subramaniam: Violin From the Heart. Directed by Jean Henri Meunier. (Includes a scene featuring Menuhin performing with
L. Subramaniam.)
*
Yehudi Menuhin Center Saanen/Gstaad Schweiz*
International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation*
The International Music School Founded by Yehudi Menuhin*
PBS Series
American Masters Yehudi Menuhin
