Growth of a Genius

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 916, 1 March 1957, Page 12

Growth of a Genius

YEHUDI MENUHIN, by Robert Magidoff; Robert Hale Ltd., English price 21/-.

(Reviewed by

J.M.

T.

A GREAT deal has been written about Yehudi Menuhin since his first con‘cert appearance over thirty years ago, but as Robert. Magidoff points out there has been very little on his inner life and growth. A start in this direction was made in October, 1955, when the New Yorker published two articles by its music critic Winthrop Sargeant. Yet so much can be said about this musician that readers need not fear they will be covering the same ground. Magidoff has had the full co-operation of Menuhin, who gave him frequent interviews and the names and ad¢resses of many people who had known him and his family. "Speak to them all and report what you believe to be true," he was told, and the result is a sincere and absorbing book. It opens with a description of Menuhin’s Jewish background, and goes on to show the rapid development of his great gifts. He was introduced to music at an early age; being only an infant when his parents took him to concerts because they could not find a suitable baby-sitter. From the beginning the violin section fascinated him, especially the leader, Louis Persinger. At the age of four he wanted to learn the instrument, but his parents hesitated and he was given a toy violin, which he promptly smashed because it would not sing. Next year his requests were taken seriously, and he started regular -lessons, finding that the initial struggles were fiendish. He made slow progress, then broke through and won some small local contests. After this he was accepted as a pupil by Louis Persinger,

the first of a series of fine teachers who were later to include Georges Enesco and Adolf Busch. From now on his progress was phenomenal. He gave his first public concert at the age of eight, and created an uproar when he played the Beethoven Violin Concerto in New York at the age of eleven. Menuhin’s father was now certain that his son was to follow the career of a musician. "If he has a touch of genius-and I am compelled to believe that he has," said Moshe, "our task is to surround him with such a sane, helpful atmosphere that his

capacities will unfold as plants unfold in a healthy environment." The family now became more tightly knit than ever, and there are detailed descriptions of the effect of this extraordinary strictness on Yehudi. In 1937 he gave up concerts for a year in order to study, and here we become aware of the profundity of much of his writing on music. Part of the year he spent in the technical analysis of great works. "The heartening and downright miraculous thing about it all," he writes, "was that each time I restudied a musical work I made a complete circle, returning to my original intuitive conception but on a different level." Throughout his travels Menuhin has always kept an affection for America, and has tried to bridge the gap between American and European culture which Americans tend to feel as an inferiority. "It is only the atmosphere of your own soul, your own home, your own life’s philosophy, outlook and ideals that counts," he wrote, and said that America had a healthier atmosphere than Europe in which to develop its artistic talent. During the Second World War he toured strenuously and afterwards found himself faced with his greatest crisis. His playing had deteriorated, he felt that his intuitive reserves had come to an end, and that his task was now "to assimilate consciously that which before. he had done _ subconsciously with such amazing results." To add to his difficulties his marriage broke

apart and he had to grapple with his problems "in a wretched kind of isolation." The description of how he overcame these problems and returned to the concert platform with greater power and maturity is one of the .best parts of the book. Arising out of his work on technique during this period has come his desire to help younger violinists, and his acceptance of a few teaching positions. Some day he may publish his findings as well as his notes on such topics as musical memory and Mozart interpretation which illuminate this book. Menuhin is a great subject, and for his share in the enterprise Magidoff has proved himself a worthy biographer.