Misplaced Pages

#281718

56-420: International Music Day was officially designated on October 1, 1975, with the goal of uniting people from all walks of life through their diverse artistic expressions, particularly music, which symbolizes equality as it resonates with everyone. May International Music Day be a prelude to world mutual aid-day. A day when each one will try to help, to understand and to sympathize with our adversary or our opponent,

112-775: A conductor with many American orchestras and, in 1936, was one of the candidates considered to replace Arturo Toscanini as permanent conductor of the New York Philharmonic. In 1932, Enescu was elected a titular member of the Romanian Academy . In 1935, he conducted the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris and Yehudi Menuhin (who had been his pupil for several years starting in 1927) in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major. He also conducted

168-461: A cultural centre be built there. In Moinești itself there is a street named after the composer, as well as a middle school. In addition the renamed George Enescu International Airport at Bacău is some twenty miles away. Then in 2014 the home of Enescu's maternal grandfather in Mihăileni, Botoșani , where the composer spent part of his childhood, was rescued from an advanced state of dilapidation by

224-562: A day when we shall endeavour to turn enemies into friends and when brotherly hate will give way to brotherly love. Yehudi Menuhin The specific date of celebration may vary from one country to another, but the underlying purpose remains consistent. While some European countries mark it on November 22, in France it's celebrated on June 21st , and in Uruguay, it falls on October 10. This concept

280-554: A dependent people, should be the very last means to be adopted by those who themselves know too well the awful significance, the unforgettable suffering of such an existence. It is unworthy of my great people, the Jews, who have striven to abide by a code of moral rectitude for some 5,000 years, who can create and achieve a society for themselves such as we see around us but can yet deny the sharing of its great qualities and benefits to those dwelling amongst them. Menuhin regularly returned to

336-637: A member of the awards jury at the 1955 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition , Menuhin secured a Rockefeller Foundation grant for the financially strapped Grand Prize winner at the event, Argentine violinist Alberto Lysy . Menuhin made Lysy his only personal student, and the two toured extensively throughout the concert halls of Europe. The young protégé later established the International Menuhin Music Academy (IMMA) in Gstaad , in his honor. Menuhin made several recordings with

392-574: A milestone collection of 80 CDs entitled The Menuhin Century , curated by his long-time friend and protégé Bruno Monsaingeon , who selected the recordings and sourced rare archival materials to tell Menuhin's story. From 1984 until his death in 1999 he was the first guest conductor of Sinfonia Varsovia with which he performed over 300 times (nearly half of which were between 1996 and 1998). He said that "working with no other orchestra gave me as much satisfaction as my work, as soloist and conductor, with

448-636: A musical instrument, with one on the human voice. Menuhin wrote some, while others were edited by different authors. In 1991, Menuhin was awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize by the Israeli Government. In the Israeli Knesset he gave an acceptance speech in which he criticised Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank: This wasteful governing by fear, by contempt for the basic dignities of life, this steady asphyxiation of

504-484: A piano trio, two string quartets and two piano quartets, a wind decet (French, "dixtuor"), an octet for strings , a piano quintet, and a chamber symphony for twelve solo instruments). A young Ravi Shankar recalled in the 1960s how Enescu, who had developed a deep interest in Oriental music, rehearsed with Shankar's brother Uday Shankar and his musicians. Around the same time, Enescu took the young Yehudi Menuhin to

560-699: A pupil's concert. On 29 February 1924, he formally debuted at the Oakland Auditorium followed by a solo performance with the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Alfred Hertz and a recital at the Scottish Rite Hall. His reputation preceded him to New York for his debut there on 17 March 1926, at the Manhattan Opera House. In 1923, when he was seven years old, Menuhin appeared as solo violinist with

616-427: Is alive; its very shape embodies its maker's intentions, and its wood stores the history, or the soul, of its successive owners. I never play without feeling that I have released or, alas, violated spirits." George Enescu George Enescu ( Romanian pronunciation: [ˈdʒe̯ordʒe eˈnesku] ; 19 August [ O.S. 7 August] 1881 – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco ,

SECTION 10

#1732801890282

672-485: Is inscribed "opus for piano and violin by George Enescu, Romanian composer, aged five years and a quarter". Shortly thereafter, his father presented him to the professor and composer Eduard Caudella . On 5 October 1888, at the age of seven, he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory , where he studied with Joseph Hellmesberger Jr. , Robert Fuchs , and Sigismund Bachrich . He

728-559: Is the longest in the history of the music industry. He made his first recording at age 13 in November 1929, and his last in 1999, when he was nearly 83 years old. He recorded over 300 works for EMI, both as a violinist and as a conductor. In 2009 EMI released a 51-CD retrospective of Menuhin's recording career, titled Yehudi Menuhin: The Great EMI Recordings . In 2016, the Menuhin centenary year, Warner Classics (formerly EMI Classics) issued

784-874: The Colonial Exhibition in Paris , where he introduced him to the Gamelan Orchestra from Indonesia . On 8 January 1923 he made his American debut as a conductor in a concert given by the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and subsequently visited the United States many times. It was in America, in the 1920s, that Enescu was first persuaded to make recordings as a violinist. He also appeared as

840-542: The Conservatoire de Paris . In a letter from André Gédalge to Lucien Rebatet , dated 16 October 1923, Gédalge said that Enescu was "the only one [among his students] who truly had ideas and spirit" (fr: le seul qui ait vraiment des idées et du souffle) . On 6 February 1898, at the age of 16, Enescu presented in Paris his first mature work, Poema Română , played by the Colonne Orchestra , then one of

896-942: The New York Philharmonic between 1937 and 1938. In 1939, he married Maria Tescanu Rosetti (known as Princess Maruca Cantacuzino through her first husband Mihail Cantacuzino), a good friend of Queen Marie of Romania. He was also renowned as a violin teacher. He began teaching at the Mannes School of Music in 1948. His students included Yehudi Menuhin , Christian Ferras , Ivry Gitlis , Arthur Grumiaux , Serge Blanc , Ida Haendel , Uto Ughi , and Joan Field . (See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#George Enescu .) He promoted contemporary Romanian music, playing works of Constantin Silvestri , Mihail Jora , Ionel Perlea and Marțian Negrea. Enescu considered Bach's  Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin as

952-724: The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Persinger then agreed to teach him and accompanied him on the piano for his first few solo recordings in 1928–29. Julia Boyd records: On 12 April 1929 it [the Semperoper ] cancelled its advertised programme to make way for a performance by the twelve-year-old Yehudi Menuhin. That night he played the Bach, Beethoven and Brahms violin concertos to an ecstatic audience ... The week before, Yehudi had played in Berlin with

1008-834: The Yehudi Menuhin Archive , which includes sheet music marked up for performance, correspondence, news articles and photographs relating to Menuhin, autograph musical manuscripts, and several portraits of Paganini . Menuhin played a number of famous violins, arguably the most renowned of which is the Lord Wilton Guarnerius 1742 . Others included the Giovanni Bussetto 1680 , Giovanni Grancino 1695 , Guarneri filius Andrea 1703 , Soil Stradivarius , Prince Khevenhüller 1733 Stradivari , and Guarneri del Gesù 1739 . In his autobiography Unfinished Journey , Menuhin wrote: "A great violin

1064-629: The Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists , today one of the world's leading forums for young talent. Many of its prizewinners have gone on to become prominent violinists, including Tasmin Little , Nikolaj Znaider , Ilya Gringolts , Julia Fischer , Daishin Kashimoto and Ray Chen . In the 1980s, Menuhin wrote and oversaw the creation of a "Music Guides" series of books; each covered

1120-627: The "Himalayas of violinists". An annotated version of this work brings together the indications of Enescu regarding sonority, phrasing, tempos, musicality, fingering and expression. Enescu died on 4 May 1955. On his death, he was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Pablo Casals described Enescu as "the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart" and "one of the greatest geniuses of modern music ". Queen Marie of Romania wrote in her memoirs that "in George Enescu

1176-676: The 1930s, Enescu lived in the Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei and married its then owner, Maruca Cantacuzino, in 1939. After the Communist takeover, the couple occupied a part of it briefly before moving to Paris in 1947. Following Enescu's death in 1955, Maruca donated the palace to the Romanian state in order to organize a museum [1] in memory of the musician. Likewise, the Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest and

SECTION 20

#1732801890282

1232-761: The 1970s on Jalousie , an album of 1930s classics led by duetting violins backed by the Alan Claire Trio. In 1975, in his role as president of the International Music Council , he declared October 1 as International Music Day. The first International Music Day, organised by the International Music Council, was held that same year, in accordance with the resolution taken at the 15th IMC General Assembly in Lausanne in 1973. In 1977, Menuhin and Ian Stoutzker founded

1288-682: The Bath Festival and the recording of their Grammy Award -winning album West Meets East (1967). During this time, he commissioned composer Alan Hovhaness to write a concerto for violin, sitar, and orchestra to be performed by himself and Shankar. The resulting work, entitled Shambala (c. 1970), with a fully composed violin part and space for improvisation from the sitarist, is the earliest known work for sitar with western symphony orchestra, predating Shankar's own sitar concertos, but Menuhin and Shankar never recorded it. Menuhin also worked with famous jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli in

1344-755: The British ballerina and actress Diana Gould , whose mother was the pianist Evelyn Suart and stepfather was Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt . The couple had two sons, Gerard , notable as a Holocaust denier and far right activist, and Jeremy , a pianist. A third child died shortly after birth. In the 1960s and 1970s they lived in Highgate at 2 The Grove , a house later owned by Sting . The name Yehudi means "Jew" in Hebrew . In an interview republished in October 2004, he recounted to New Internationalist magazine

1400-608: The George Enescu Festival—initiated by the musicologist Andrei Tudor [2] and supported by his friend, musical advocate, and sometime collaborator, the conductor George Georgescu—are named and held in his honor, and the composer's childhood home in Liveni was inaugurated as a memorial museum in 1958. Earlier still, in 1947, his wife Maruca donated to the state the mansion near Moinești where Enescu had lived and where he completed his opera Oedipe , provided that

1456-770: The German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler , who had been criticized for conducting in Germany during the Nazi era. Menuhin defended Furtwängler, noting that the conductor had helped a number of Jewish musicians to flee Nazi Germany. In 1957, he founded the Menuhin Festival Gstaad in Gstaad , Switzerland. In 1962, he established the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke d'Abernon , Surrey. He also established

1512-469: The Menuhins moved to Paris, Persinger suggested Menuhin go to Persinger's old teacher, Belgian virtuoso and pedagogue Eugène Ysaÿe . Menuhin did have one lesson with Ysaÿe, but he disliked Ysaÿe's teaching method and his advanced age. Instead, he went to Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu , under whose tutelage he made recordings with several piano accompanists, including his sister Hephzibah. He

1568-495: The Philharmonic under Bruno Walter to an equally rapturous response. A newspaper critic said of his Berlin performance: "There steps a fat little blond boy on the podium, and wins at once all hearts as in an irresistibly ludicrous way, like a penguin, he alternately places one foot down, then the other. But wait: you will stop laughing when he puts his bow to the violin to play Bach's violin concerto in E major no.2." When

1624-604: The San Francisco Bay Area, sometimes performing with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. One of the more memorable later performances was of Edward Elgar 's Violin Concerto, which Menuhin had recorded with the composer in 1932. On 22 April 1978, along with Stéphane Grappelli , Yehudi played Pick Yourself Up , taken from the Menuhin & Grappelli Play Berlin, Kern, Porter and Rodgers & Hart album as

1680-559: The Sinfonia Varsovia Orchestra." In his Unfinished Journey: Twenty Years Later he added "It was a true inspiration to spend as much time with them [Sinfonia Varsovia] as possible, to enjoy the deep satisfaction I derive from our music-making together.". In 1991, he became Principal Guest Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra , a position he also held until his death. In 1990 Menuhin

1736-715: The charity Live Music Now, the largest outreach music project in the UK. Live Music Now pays and trains professional musicians to work in the community, bringing the experience to those who rarely get an opportunity to hear or see live music performance. At the Edinburgh Festival Menuhin premiered Priaulx Rainier 's violin concerto Due Canti e Finale , which he had commissioned Rainier to write. He also commissioned her last work, Wildlife Celebration , which he performed in aid of Gerald Durrell 's Wildlife Conservation Trust . In 1983, Menuhin and Robert Masters founded

International Music Day - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-705: The composer's penultimate work. He performed for Allied soldiers during World War II and, accompanied on the piano by English composer Benjamin Britten , for the surviving inmates of a number of concentration camps in June and July 1945 after their liberation in April of the same year, most famously Bergen-Belsen . He returned to Germany in 1947 to play concerto concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler as an act of reconciliation,

1848-646: The director of the Vienna Conservatory, hosted Enescu at his home, where the child prodigy met his idol, Johannes Brahms . He graduated at the age of 12, earning the silver medal. In his Viennese concerts young Enescu played works by Brahms , Sarasate and Mendelssohn . In 1895, he went to Paris to continue his studies. He studied violin with Martin Pierre Marsick , harmony with André Gedalge , and composition with Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré . Enescu then studied from 1895 to 1899 at

1904-456: The family name from Mnuchin to Menuhin. Menuhin's sisters were concert pianist and human rights activist Hephzibah , and pianist, painter and poet Yaltah . Menuhin's first violin instruction was at age four by Sigmund Anker (1891–1958); his parents had wanted Louis Persinger to teach him, and Persinger agreed. Menuhin took lessons for a while from Persinger at his Hyde Street studio. He made his first public solo appearance in November 1921, at

1960-437: The festival was first directed by the impresario Ian Hunter in 1948. After the first year the city tried to run the festival itself, but in 1955 asked Hunter back. In 1959 Hunter invited Menuhin to become artistic director of the festival. Menuhin accepted, and retained the post until 1968. Menuhin also had a long association and deep friendship with Ravi Shankar , beginning in 1952, leading to their joint performance in 1966 at

2016-566: The finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari . Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York City to Moshe Menuhin , a Lithuanian Jew from Gomel in modern Belarus , and Marutha, a Crimean Karaite . Through his father Moshe, he was descended from a rabbinical dynasty. Moshe and Marutha (née Sher) met in Mandatory Palestine before marrying in New York in 1914. In late 1919, the pair became American citizens and changed

2072-721: The first Jewish musician to do so in the wake of the Holocaust , saying to Jewish critics that he wanted to rehabilitate Germany's music and spirit. Menuhin credited German philosopher Constantin Brunner with providing him with "a theoretical framework within which I could fit the events and experiences of life". He and Louis Kentner (brother-in-law of his wife, Diana ) gave the first performance of William Walton 's Violin Sonata, in Zürich on 30 September 1949. Following his role as

2128-507: The first integral recording of Johann Sebastian Bach 's sonatas and partitas for solo violin , although his Sonata No. 2, in A ;minor, was not released until all six were transferred to CD. His interest in the music of Béla Bartók prompted him to commission a work from him – the Sonata for Solo Violin , which, completed in 1943 and first performed by Menuhin in New York in 1944, was

2184-716: The first prominent yoga masters teaching in the West. Menuhin also took lessons from Indra Devi , who opened the first yoga studio in the U.S. in Los Angeles in 1948. Both Devi and Iyengar were students of Krishnamacharya , a famous yoga master in India. Menuhin died in Martin Luther Hospital in Berlin, Germany, from complications of bronchitis. Soon after his death, the Royal Academy of Music acquired

2240-677: The greatest pianists of all time, once said that Enescu, though primarily a violinist, had better piano technique than his own. Enescu's only opera, Œdipe ( Oedipe ), was staged for the first time at the Royal Opera House in London in 2016, 80 years after its Paris premiere, in a production directed and designed by La Fura dels Baus which received superlative reviews in The Guardian , The Independent , The Times and other publications. An analysis of Enescu's work and

2296-405: The interval act at the 23rd Eurovision Song Contest for TF1 . The performance came direct from the studios of TF1 and not that of the venue ( Palais des Congrès ), where the contest was being held. Menuhin hosted the PBS telecast of the gala opening concert of the San Francisco Symphony from Davies Symphony Hall in September 1980. His recording contract with EMI lasted almost 70 years and

International Music Day - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-456: The most prestigious in the world, and conducted by Édouard Colonne . Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901–02), the opera Œdipe (1936), and the suites for orchestra. He also wrote five mature symphonies (two of them unfinished), a symphonic poem Vox maris , and much chamber music (three sonatas for violin and piano, two for cello and piano,

2408-400: The music program at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California , sometime around then. In 1965 he received an honorary knighthood from the British monarchy. In the same year, Australian composer Malcolm Williamson wrote a violin concerto for Menuhin. He performed the concerto many times and recorded it at its premiere at the Bath Festival in 1965. Originally known as the Bath Assembly,

2464-451: The reasons why it is less known in the UK was published by musician Dominic Saunders in The Guardian . Enescu founded the Enescu Prize in composition, which was awarded from 1913 to 1946, and afterwards by the National University of Music Bucharest . Eugène Ysaÿe 's Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, subtitled "Ballade" (composed in 1923), was dedicated as an act of homage to fellow-violinist Enescu. While staying in Bucharest during

2520-405: The story of his name: Obliged to find an apartment of their own, my parents searched the neighbourhood and chose one within walking distance of the park. Showing them out after they had viewed it, the landlady said: "And you'll be glad to know I don't take Jews." Her mistake made clear to her, the antisemitic landlady was renounced, and another apartment found. But her blunder left its mark. Back on

2576-505: The street my mother made a vow. Her unborn baby would have a label proclaiming his race to the world. He would be called "The Jew". Menuhin became an honorary citizen of Switzerland, and then also of the United Kingdom, in 1970 and 1985, respectively. Along with Albert Einstein , Menuhin was one of the sponsors of the Peoples' World Convention (PWC), also known as Peoples' World Constituent Assembly (PWCA), which took place in 1950-51 at Palais Electoral, Geneva , Switzerland. Menuhin

2632-405: The world have celebrated International Music Day each year. Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 1916 – 12 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. He played the Soil Stradivarius , considered one of

2688-448: Was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, and teacher and is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history. Enescu was born in Romania, in the village of Liveni (later renamed "George Enescu" in his honor), then in Dorohoi County , today Botoșani County . His father was Costache Enescu, a landholder, and his mother was Maria Enescu (née Cosmovici), the daughter of an Orthodox priest. Their eighth child, he

2744-409: Was a pescetarian . In 1953, Life published photos of him in various esoteric yoga positions. In 1952, Menuhin was in India, where Nehru , the new nation's first Prime Minister, introduced him to an influential yogi B. K. S. Iyengar , who was largely unknown outside the country. Menuhin arranged for Iyengar to teach abroad in London, Switzerland, Paris, and elsewhere. He became one of

2800-404: Was also a student of Adolf Busch in Basel . He stayed in the Swiss city for a bit more than a year, where he started to take lessons in German and Italian as well. According to Henry A. Murray , Menuhin wrote: Actually, I was gazing in my usual state of being half absent in my own world and half in the present. I have usually been able to "retire" in this way. I was also thinking that my life

2856-433: Was born after all the previous siblings had died in infancy. His father later separated from Maria Enescu and had another son with Maria Ferdinand-Suschi: the painter Dumitru Bâșcu . A child prodigy , Enescu began experimenting with composing at an early age. Several, mostly very short, pieces survive, all for violin and piano. The earliest work of significant length bears the title Pămînt românesc ("Romanian Land"), and

SECTION 50

#1732801890282

2912-465: Was initiated by Lord Yehudi Menuhin to promote music across all segments of society and uphold UNESCO's ideals of peace and friendship among nations. Its objectives include fostering the exchange of experiences and mutual appreciation of aesthetic values, as well as advancing the activities of the International Music Council , its international member organizations, national committees, and its overall program policy. Since 1975, millions of people around

2968-530: Was real gold". Yehudi Menuhin, Enescu's most famous pupil, once said about his teacher: "He will remain for me the absoluteness through which I judge others", and "Enescu gave me the light that has guided my entire existence." He also considered Enescu "the most extraordinary human being, the greatest musician and the most formative influence" he had ever experienced. Vincent d'Indy claimed that if Beethoven 's works were destroyed, they could be all reconstructed from memory by George Enescu. Alfred Cortot , one of

3024-495: Was the first conductor for the Asian Youth Orchestra which toured around Asia, including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong with Julian Lloyd Webber and a group of young talented musicians from all over Asia. Menuhin was married twice, first to Nola Nicholas, daughter of an Australian industrialist and sister of Hephzibah Menuhin 's first husband Lindsay Nicholas. They had two children, Krov and Zamira (who married pianist Fou Ts'ong ). Following their 1947 divorce he married

3080-457: Was the second person ever to be admitted to the Vienna Conservatory by a dispensation of age, and was the first non-Austrian (in 1882, Fritz Kreisler had also been admitted at the age of seven; according to the rules, nobody younger than 14 years could study there). In 1891, the ten-year-old Enescu gave a private concert at the Court of Vienna , in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph . Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. , one of his teachers and

3136-486: Was tied up with the instrument and would I do it justice? His first concerto recording was made in 1931, Bruch's G minor, under Sir Landon Ronald in London, the labels calling him "Master Yehudi Menuhin". In 1932 he recorded Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto in B   minor for HMV in London, with the composer himself conducting; in 1934, uncut, Paganini's D major Concerto with Emile Sauret 's cadenza in Paris under Pierre Monteux . Between 1934 and 1936, he made

#281718