Violin Concertos - Chaconne (Menuhin)

The teenaged Yehudi Menuhin’s Bach concerto recordings were first transferred to CD by EMI in the late 1980s and have also surfaced on numerous independent labels. EMI’s excellent new restorations reveal more of what was on the bygone 78s, but no amount of sonic surgery can cover up the original drab, musty engineering. Menuhin’s sure instinct for Bach and sweet, communicative sonority permeate throughout the A minor and E major concertos. The violinist’s mentor Georges Enescu guides the raggedy Paris Symphony forces with a heavy, prosaic hand. The textures considerably lighten when Pierre Monteux assumes the podium, and Enescu takes up his fiddle to join his young charge in the popular D minor “Double” Concerto. Student and teacher are so much on the same wavelength that it’s hard to ascertain who’s playing without a scorecard. Of the numerous Menuhin Bach Doubles on the market (legit or otherwise), none match this earliest version’s palpable sense of occasion. (...) (classicstoday.com)