Word: menuhins
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...Menuhin has been privileged to follow an extraordinarily diverse career, from concert soloist to conductor, competition judge, enthusiastic festival leader and dedicated teacher of children. Nowhere in "Unfinished Journey" does he give an exhaustive discussion of technique. Instead, there are brief illuminations offered without a trace of condescension: an intriguing commentary on the opening bars of the Beethoven concerto, one of the fruits of Menuhin's own groping "from intuition through intellectual analysis to restored spontaneity," hints on teaching correct fluidity of motion and allusions to his practise of Yoga as an aid to technique. Finally, Menuhin offers a felicitous...
Elsewhere, he insists that "it was not playing for myself that had spurred my three-year-old ambition, but playing what others might want to hear and thus forging contacts between human beings." The emphasis, if not the timing, is wholly believable, for Menuhin's autobiography is above all a book about people, a series of descerning and generous portraits of the individuals encountered throughout a lifetime. The great and lowly alike are brought to life with a few deft words: de Gaulle, Nehru, Ben-Gurion, Willa Cather ("Aunt Willa...a rock of strength and sweetness"), Bela Bartok ("a composer...
Tongue-in-cheek, Menuhin describes the typical violinist as "more sensual than intellectual, somewhat narrow in outlook, and probably vain." But for those who might in actuality be considered his rivals he has nothing but praise, defending Jascha Heifetz against charges of coldness and mourning the late David Oistrakh as "a friend beyond price...
...Menuhin's own rich humanity is made clear by such comments, his disarming idealism and fluent intelligence are equally manifest elsewhere. Whether he is describing (with unabashed pride) his efforts on behalf of Soviet dissidents or his defiance of apartheid, discoursing on acoustics, lauding Yoga and the wisdom of India with the divotion of discipleship, of opining on the different qualities of audiences around the world, one has the sense of sharing in the spontaneous conversation of an urbane and gracious friend...
...perhaps the final judgement on "Unfinished Journey," for all its articulate (and selective) revelation, is indicated by Menuhin himself. "Rightly or wrongly," he writes, "I imagine that I know a human being from his or her musical performance. Performing, an artist lays himself bare, he exposes the secret temperament, the hidden motive, he risks the psychological revelation." Particularly for a master of the most exquisitely expressive of instruments, the deepest unfolding of self is the music. Of that continuing intimacy, "Unfinished Journey" is a gentle elucidation...