Yehudi Menuhin

Although neither man lived in the country at the time, there could be little doubt that Otto Klemperer and Yehudi Menuhin were regarded in the mid 1960s as the UK’s leading ‘resident’ Beethoven performers, even though Menuhin had not taken part in the widely applauded Beethoven cycles that Klemperer and the Philharmonia had initiated in 1957. Indeed it seems that the two artists had not worked together since collaborating on the Schumann Violin Concerto in Los Angeles in November 1938.

The collaboration was much anticipated. The Guardian wrote of ‘the unexpected conjunction of magician and monolith’ and warned that ‘a monolith can be severe to the point of dullness and a magician can sometimes seem to be using the wrong spell-book’.

Its review found, however, that ‘the conjunction began to find its form... the slow movement brought the most ethereal music-making of all, and the finale became a relaxed country dance, something that might almost have fitted in the Pastoral Symphony’.

Klemperer’s association with the Symphonie fantastique may have begun (during one of his periodic depressions) in Berlin in 1928 when, newly chosen as the Kroll Opera’s first music director, he was searching for more radical concert repertoire. The Fantastique did not appeal to him at the time (he probably just read the score without rehearsing or performing it) but he changed his mind rapidly after giving the work in concert in Los Angeles in December 1933 – ‘a work of a hyper-genius’ he told his wife.The Guardian’s 1966 concert review summed up Klemperer’s approach to the Fantastique in relation to the contemporary critical attitude to the work – ‘he pays Berlioz the very just compliment of treating him as a real symphonist and not merely as an atmospheric colorist’. But this is not the pure ‘classical’ interpretation of the score that it’s often portrayed as; rather is it a document of the fascination of one conductor (and a composer and an experienced leader of opera to boot) with radical music.

Sir Michael Tippett (1905-1998) is regarded, along with Benjamin Britten, as one of the most important British composers of the 20th century. He was well-known for his atheist, humanitarian and pacifist beliefs which, during the Second World War, caused him to serve a term in prison as a conscientious objector. He was also one of the first openly gay composers and quite politically active: all qualities of his personality that are reflected in his work. The earliest work in this set is the Concerto for double string orchestra which was one of Tippett's first successes and one of his most popular works. The years 1945-59, from which most of the works in this set come, might be regarded as the composer's middle-period, a time of great success and critical denigration: the opera The Midsummer Marriage attracted particular criticism, more for its obscure libretto (written by Tippett himself) than the music itself, which is among some of his finest. John Odgon's performance of the 1955 Piano Concerto is, arguably, the definitive performance of this work and is a fine tribute to a great pianist.

‘Now I know there is a God in heaven!’ were the words of none other than Albert Einstein when, in 1929, the 13-year-old Yehudi Menuhin made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. A musician who transcended musical and cultural boundaries, Menuhin was contracted to EMI for an astounding 70 years, collaborating with such figures as conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler, Sir Adrian Boult and Rudolf Kempe, and jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli.

Frozen Music" is the newest CD featuring the music of Stephen Goss and features a typically entertaining and diverse programme. The title work "Frozen Music" for guitar and string trio was written for the inauguration of the Menuhin Hall and was commissioned by Mick Jagger. Also included on the disc are: "Uneasy Dreams" for saxophone quartet (8-10), "Dark Knights and Holy Fools" for guitar & percussion (11-15), "Under Milk Wood Songs" for voice & guitar (16-20) and "Sonata" for solo guitar (21-23).

Frank Martin (1890-1974) was born in Geneva and received encouragement from the great conductor Ernest Ansermet but was primarily self-taught as a composer. Like his compatriot, Honegger, Martin had to try and fit in against the two neighbouring musical traditions of France and Germany. This was very difficult as France was following the influence of Les Six whilst Germany tended towards Schönberg and his students, Berg and Webern. The first work in this collection to be composed was the Mass from 1922/6 which he considered to be “something concerning only God and myself”. This is music of archaic, spiritual purity, which he only allowed to have its premiere 40 years after its composition. The Four Pieces for Guitar from 1933 were the first work in which Martin experimented with Schönberg’s serial technique. During the second world war Martin produced some remarkable work – the Ballade for flute, string orchestra and piano in 1941, the Six Monologues from Jederman in 1943/4 and the Petite Symphonie Concertante for Harp, Harpsichord, Piano & Strings in 1944/5 which established his international reputation. The five Ariel choruses were studies made in 1950 for his full opera which followed over the next five years. In 1956 he settled in Naarden, a little town in the Netherlands to concentrate more on composition although from 1950 to 1957 he did teach in Cologne where one of his students was Stockhausen. The final works in this collection are the Ballade for Viola, Wind Orchestra and Percussion from 1972 and the Polyptyque of 1973 which is a group of six images of the Passion of Christ for violin solo and two string orchestras. It was recorded by its dedicatee, Yehudi Menuhin, in September 1974, two months before the composer’s death.