Yehude -word that means “Jewish” in the Hebrew language- is synonymous, for us in Peru, with a well-known congressman, former Prime Minister and former Regional President of Lambayeque. However, there is a character in the history of music, a world-class violin teacher, who was baptized with this ancestral name. His artistic career developed in a time of global upheaval, we are talking about the Second World War of course and, later, he was consolidated in the most important circles of classical and international music, becoming highly admired even by other types of audiences, due to his introduction into the universe of jazz at the hands of his violinist colleague, the Frenchman Stephane Grappelli. Yehude , the other Yehude , he passed away 31 years ago on March 12, 1983. We invite you to meet him in this note:
Yehude – Which means “Jewish” in Hebrew – Menuhin (April 22, 1916 – March 12, 1999) was a US-born violinist and conductor who spent most of his artistic career in the United Kingdom. He was born an American citizen but became a Swiss national in 1970 and later also obtained British nationality in 1985.
Yehude Menuhin was born in New York City to Russian parents with Jewish roots, from what is now Belarus. His sisters were the classical pianist and human rights activist Hephzibah Menuhin and the pianist, painter and poet Yaltah Menuhin. Through his father Moshe Menuhin, a student rabbi and anti-Zionist writer, Menuhin descended from a highly distinguished dynasty of rabbis. Menuhin began his violin studies at the age of 3 under the tutelage of master violinist Sigmund Anker.
He showed extraordinary talent at a very young age. His first performance as a soloist was at the age of 7 in 1923 with the San Francisco Symphony. Subsequently, Menuhin studied with the Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu, after which he made several recordings with his sister Hephzibah. As a child and as a teenager he had phenomenal fame. In 1929 he played in Berlin, under the baton of Bruno Walter, three concerts by Bach, Brahms and Beethoven. It is said that Albert Einstein once exclaimed at the end of a concert:“Now I know that God does exist!” .
Yehude Menuhin he played for Allied soldiers during World War II and traveled with composer Benjamin Britten to perform in front of his fellow soldiers from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, after his liberation in April 1945. He returned to Germany in 1947 to play with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler as an act of reconciliation, becoming the first Jewish musician to perform after the Holocaust. He stated in the face of criticism within the Jewish community that his intention was to rehabilitate the spirit of German music.
After carving out his success with performances of romantic richness and tonal opulence, he experienced considerable physical and artistic difficulties caused by overwork during those years, as well as a process unstructured training. A careful period of practice and study combined with meditation through yoga (which he learned from Hindu master B.K.S. Iyengar) helped him recover and overcome these problems. His profound musical interpretations have been almost universally acclaimed. When he finally started recording, he was already recognized for his musical phrasing in which he built and deconstructed several notes at once.
Menuhin continued to perform well into his old age, becoming best known for his austere quality of heartfelt performances, as well as his explorations of genres that lay outside the realm of cinema. classical music.
In 1962 he established the Yehude Menuhin School at Store d'Abernon, Surrey. He also shaped the music program at Escuela Nueva in Hillsborough, California, also around this time. In 1965 he received an honorary knighthood. The same year, the Australian composer Malcolm Williamson wrote a concerto for Menuhin. A tremendously spiritual and deeply emotional work, he performed the concerto several times and recorded it during its premiere at the 1965 Bath Festival.
In 1997 Yehude Together with Ian Stoutzker, they founded the Live Music Now charity project, one of the largest in the UK. This project pays for the training of professional musicians to work in the communities providing joy and comfort to all those people who would rarely have the opportunity to listen or see a live musical performance.
Menuhin regularly returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, performing with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. One of his last and most memorable performances was the Sir Edward Elgar Violin Concerto, which Menuhin had recorded under the same composer for the HMV label in London, back in 1932.
On April 22, 1978, Yehude played with the jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli the theme Pick yourself up, taken from the album Menuhin &Grappelli Play Berlin, Kern, Porter And Rodgers &Hart as an intermediate act during the 23rd. edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.
During the 70s, 80s and 90s he made recordings of jazz with Stéphane Grapelli, of classical music with L. Subramaniam and several albums of oriental music with the great musician Hindu Ravi Shankar. His recording contract with the multinational EMI lasted almost 70 years and is the longest in the history of the recording industry. His first recording was made in 1929 at the age of 13, and his last studio production was released posthumously in January 2001. In all, he released nearly 300 works for the label, as a violinist and bandleader. orchestra.
he died of heart problems in Berlin, at the age of 83.
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