Yehudi Menuhin Violin Concertos

Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concertos BWV 1041 and 1042, Double Concerto BWV 1043 - Yehudi Menuhin, Christian Ferras (v) | Festival Chamber Orchestra / Robert Masters Chamber Orchestra | Yehudi Menuhin (cond)

When sound recordings of important works from the early years of stereophony still remain significant to this day, then one really ought to investigate the audible reasons for their durability. Hereby, it is unnecessary to comment on the importance of Bach’s masterworks for violin and orchestra. Rather more, the music lover is invited to listen to the passionately fervent performer Yehudi Menuhin. Just how the soloist and Festival Chamber Orchestra succeed in transforming the score into unreservedly impressive music is absolutely unique. Menuhin’s violin sings out bright and clear, without seeming cool, and remains powerful even in the piano passages. In the A minor Concerto the soloist and lively, circling continuo are well balanced and attuned to one another, and carry the musical proceedings along together. Christian Ferras proves himself to be on a par with Menuhin in the Double Concerto, in which the violins play along in a lively chiaroscuro. Instinctively the protagonists discover an ideal rapprochement between romantic emotion and baroque directness, which makes this recording so valuable and timeless. Two top EMI employees – producer Peter Andry and sound engineer Robert Gooch – must be expressly named here for setting down so authentically this event in London’s Kingsway Hall for posterity.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. Recording: October 1958, September and December 1959 by Neville Boyling
Production: Peter Andry