Yehudi Menuhin (violin)
London Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, George Stratton )
Conducted by Rafael Kubelik
8.20 app. Violin Concerto in D.Brahms
From the Royal Albert Hall, London
It is some time since Yehudi Menuhin was heard playing a concerto over the air in this country. He was due to do so last January, at the Royal Albert Hall concert in aid of the Elgar Memorial Trust, but coming from America he was delayed by fog, and although he arrived in time to play two concertos, his performance could not be broadcast. A few days later he was heard giving, with Louis Kentner , the first performance of the Violin Sonata written for him by William Walton.
Since tonight's concert is given by the Henry Wood Concert Society, it is worth recalling that in 1938 Sir Henry conducted the orchestra at an Albert Hall concert when Menuhin, who was then twenty-one years old, played three concertos, among them the one by Brahms that he is playing tonight. Recalling the occasion in his autobiography, Sir Henry Wood said: ' Menuhin's is a masterly control, and his tone faultlessly beautiful. No effort or playing to the gallery; no cheap effects or " Paganini-swishes " of the bow; everything sedate and stately, as befitting the great artist he is. I found him charming -and so knowledgeable: he knew every note of the scores just as did Ysaye.'
Harold Rutland