Which violin did Menuhin love best?
mainThe late Lord Menuhin, who would have been 100 years old on April 22, vacillated all his life between a Stradivarius and a Guarnerius del Gesu, acquiring or borrowing several exemplars of each maker.
The history of his violins is nicely traced in a centennial article here by Tully Potter.
Had he been alive, those who knew Yehudi would have greeted him today with Happy Passover.
Little known fact: Yehudi took care not to appear in concert on the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur and Seder night, asking a family of observant Jews to advise him on diary clashes.
==Little known fact: Yehudi took care not to appear in concert on the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur and Seder night, asking a family of observant Jews to advise him on diary clashes
No, this is *not* a little known fact.
In the late 40s, Yehudi was famously about to be sued for breach of contract for refusing to play on Yom Kippur.
Sued by whom, Rodney? In the late 40s he played once on Kol Nidrei and regretted it ever after, donating his fee to some good cause.
This link below tells half of YM’s Yom Kippur story. Yes, I too remember hearing about the breach of contract bit, but it’s not in this version..
Mr Friend ( a great violinist….) was quite right. It was in the late 40s
http://www.jta.org/1949/09/09/jewish-holidays/yom-kippur/yehudi-menuhins-concert-put-back-to-afternoon-prior-to-commencement-of-yom-kippur
You would expect this sort of nonsense to surface now and then.
A good example of a comment that describes itself.
Does it really matter? He had the most whiny unimpressive tone regardless……
You are joking? Aren’t you?!!
two funny remarks ” “the most whiny unimpressive tone”
Tagore wrote that Menuhin’s sound was the sound of Soul…
and “diary clashes” :d a i r y ??
It was in Manchester and was picked up widely by the press worldwide
Here from Chicago :
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1949/09/01/page/15/article/yehudi-to-fiddle-on-yom-kippur-to-escape-suit
He was a phenomenon ..crashed as Ysaye predicted..never recovered no matter
what violin he played….he was always in search of his “lost ” genius but did manage
to build on whatever ability was left him .
As to the rest , who cares ?
Mostly those who agree with you that “genius” and “phenomenon” are words that are appropriate when talking about YM.