Yehudiana - Reliving the Menuhin Odyssey, Book One:

 

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Foreword                                                        

Introduction                                                  

Overture                                                         

 

Chapter 1   Out of the Ghetto                 

1893 - Birth of Moshe Mnuchin (Gomel, Russia)

1896 - Birth of Marutha Sher (Crimea)

1897 - Death of Moshe's father

1908 - Death of  Moshe's grandfather

1909 - Moshe attempts to emigrate to America

 

Chapter 2   Marrying for Love             

1910 - Moshe meets Marutha in Jerusalem

1913 - Moshe arrives in New York

1914 - Moshe marries Marutha (New York, 7 August)

1916 - Birth of Yehudi (New York, 22 April)

1918 - Menuhin family moves to San Francisco

1919 - Moshe takes US citizenship and changes surname

1920 - Hephzibah born (20 May)

1921 - Yaltah born (7 October)

 

Chapter 3   The Infant Phenomenon           

1921 - Yehudi begins violin lessons (31 May)

- Yehudi's first public performance (26 November)

1922 - Yehudi's first performance for radio

1923 - Yehudi begins lessons with Persinger

1925 - Yehudi's professional début (30 March)

1926 - New York recital début (17 January)

- Début with orchestra (12 March)

- Farewell concert, San Francisco (16 November)

 

Chapter 4   Parallel Paths via Paris              

1912 - Birth of Diana Gould (12 November)

1926 - Menuhin family in Europe

1927 - Yehudi's Paris début (7 February)

- Lessons begin with Enesco

 

Chapter 5   Jackie Coogan Plays Hamlet            

1927 - Yehudi's New York orchestral début (24 Nov)

- Carnegie Hall recital début (12 December)

1928 - First recordings, San Francisco (15 March)

- Hephzibah's recital début, aged 8 years 5 months

 

Chapter 6   Ballooning over America           

1928 - Yehudi begins first US tour (16 December)

1929 - Yehudi receives gift of Stradivari violin

- Menuhin family returns to Europe

 

Chapter 7   Surrender in Berlin and London                

1929 - Yehudi's Berlin orchestral début (12 April)

- Yehudi's Bar Mitzvah (22 April)

- Berlin recital début (23 April)

- Lessons begin with Adolf Busch (Basel)

- Yehudi's first European concert tour

- Death of Diaghilev and impact on Diana (August)

- London concert début (4 November)

- London recital début (10 November)

 

Chapter 8   A French Idyll in the Gathering Storm             

1930 - Second US tour begins (January)

- Family returns to Paris and Basel (May)

- Second European tour (September)

1931 - US winter tour

- Return to Paris and to lessons with Enesco

- Third European tour

- Yehudi makes first concerto recording (November)

1932 - US winter tour (14 cities) with Artur Balsam

 

Chapter 9   Dancing to the Wrong Tune          

1932 - Yehudi begins collaboration with Toscanini

- Enesco and Yehudi win Candide Prize

- Elgar's Violin Concerto recorded (14 July)

- Diana's involvement in development of British ballet at the Ballet Club with Marie Rambert

- Diana joins production of The Miracle

 

Chapter 10   Waiting for a German Miracle                

1932 - Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in triumphant Paris début season

- Diana returns to Paris for lessons with Egorova

- Yehudi attends Salzburg Mozart Festival

- Yehudi makes last pre-war appearance in Berlin and plays three-concerto programme in London with Beecham and Elgar conducting.

- Music critic refers to Yehudi's lack of bow control

- Yehudi makes début in Milan

- Fascist thugs assault Toscanini

- Toscanini invites Yehudi to perform with him

1933 - Moshe hospitalized for surgery

- Menuhin family responds to political situation in Germany

- Nazi persecution of Yehudi's concert agent

- Menuhins refuse Furtwängler's offer of concerts

 

Chapter 11   Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow                 

1933 - Yehudi's début in Opera House, San Francisco

- Menuhin family returns to Paris

- Hephzibah and Yehudi make first joint recording

- Yehudi's final pre-war tour of Europe

- Diana joins Les Ballets 1933 Company

 

Chapter 12   Growing Pains                       

1934 - Judson creates monopoly of US concert agencies

- Yehudi plays Beethoven VC with Toscanini (Jan)

- Family returns to Paris (May)

- Yehudi and Hephzibah make recital début (Oct)

1935 - Diana joins De Basil's Company and (later) the Markova - Dolin Company

 

Chapter 13   Debuts Down Under              

1934 - World tour begins (October)

1935 - Yehudi speaks out against Hitler and Stalin

- Plans prepared for new Menuhin home

- Family arrives in Australia (April)

- Nola Nicholas becomes Menuhin fan

- Critics complain about tour programming

- New Zealand visit (June)

 

Chapter 14   Paradise, Lost and Found     

1935 - World Tour ends in Europe (November)

- Yehudi in Paris recording marathon

1936 - Menuhin family leaves Europe for California

- Villa Cherkess site for new home abandoned

- Yehudi faces technical difficulties on the violin

- Ferguson Webster appointed accompanist

1937 - Yehudi turns twenty-one unheralded (22 April)

- Yehudi joins race to give world première of Schumann's embargoed Violin Concerto

- Winter US tour begins (October)

 

Chapter 15   Three Weddings and a Phoney War               

1938 - Concert tour of UK (February)

- Nola and Lindsay Nicholas meet Menuhin family at

Royal Albert Hall, London (21 March)

- Yehudi and Nola married (London, 26 May)

- Yaltah makes a one-off recording with Yehudi

 

Chapter 16   Nola in the Garden of Eden                                

1938 - Menuhin family sails from UK to New York (June)

- Yaltah marries William Stix in New York (7 June)

- Yehudi and Nola begin married life domiciled with

Yehudi's parents at Rancho Yaltah, Los Gatos

- Hephzibah marries Lindsay Nicholas (16 July)

- Jewish press critical of Menuhin siblings marrying non-Jews and for holding Hephzibah's wedding on  a Saturday

- Yehudi takes Nola on belated honeymoon

- Hephzibah and Lindsay sail for Australia (September)

- Nola accompanies Yehudi and Moshe on five-month concert tour of America and Europe

 

Chapter 17   Battle Fronts                   

1938 - Yehudi resists pressure to join a union

- Moshe admits to Yehudi's birth-date deception

- Yaltah's first marriage ends

- Nola announces first pregnancy

1939 - Diana begins ballet classes with Lydia Sokolova

- De Basil's company faces uncertain future

- Diana makes last pre-war visit to Europe

- World War 11 declared (3 September)

- Zamira Menuhin born (29 September)

- Yehudi begins shortened winter US tour

1940 - Yehudi starts unscheduled sabbatical

- Nola, Yehudi, and entourage sail for Australia

- Krov Menuhin born (Melbourne, 17 August)

1941 - Yehudi begins first tour of South America (May)

- Yaltah elopes with Benjamin Rolfe

 

Chapter 18   The Brotherhood of War           

1940 - Diana witness to evacuation of troops from Dunkirk (May)

- London Blitz begins (September)

1941 - Queen's Hall destroyed in air raid (May)

- Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour (December)

- Yehudi begins exploration of music of Béla Bart?k

- Yehudi and Adolf Baller give first troop recital

1942 - Yehudi begins marathon tours playing for the public, for war charities, and for troops

- Fall of Singapore (February)

- Nola and Yehudi move to "Alma" residence

- Nola suffers miscarriage

- Yehudi fails in first effort to reach wartime London

 

Chapter 19   The Wages of Immortality           

1941 - Diana joins opera/ballet company

1942 - Diana assumes directorship of New Russian Ballet

- Diana in production of What Every Woman Knows

1943 - Yehudi arrives by bomber for six-week UK tour

- Yehudi decorated with Croix de Lorraine

- Diana joins ENSA for tour of Egypt and Italy

 

Chapter 20   Trouping the Pacific Theatre                 

1943 - Yehudi begins second tour of South America

- Yehudi‘s first public performance of work by Bartk (November)

- Yehudi and Baller play Bartk's First Sonata for the composer in private run-through

- Yehudi commissions solo work from Bartk

1944 - Nola works as nursing aide and suffers second miscarriage

- Yehudi and Baller give 64 recitals in the Aleutians

- Fatigue affects Yehudi's performances (February)

- Bartk delivers Solo Sonata manuscript

- Yehudi and Baller give troop recitals in Hawaii

 

Chapter 21    Coup de pouffe 

1944 - Paris liberated  (August)

- Liberation of Brussels and Antwerp (September)

- Yehudi returns to Britain for tour of naval establishments, military hospitals, and factories

- Yehudi meets Diana (September)

- Allied advance in Europe stalled at Arnhem

- Yehudi plays recitals in Brussels and Antwerp

- "Return" concert in Paris (October)

- Moshe senses discord in Yehudi's marriage

- Yehudi gives première of Bart?k's Solo Sonata

 

Chapter 22   The Validity of Impulse          

1944 - Diana rejoins cast of The Merry Widow for end of London season and for tour to Europe (Dec)

1945 - Yehudi and Nola face marriage crisis (January)

- Yehudi plays in concert commemorating the founding of the United Nations (April)

- VE Day celebrated in London (8 May)

- Yehudi returns to London (June): records film soundtrack and plans visit to German death camps

 

Chapter 23   Bergen-Belsen, Hell on Earth                 

1945 - Yehudi asks British Army of  Occupation for permission to play for Jewish and German  survivors of Nazi tyrrany

- Benjamin Britten replaces Gerald Moore as Yehudi's accompanist for the tour of Germany

- Yehudi and Britten give recital (27 July) in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

- Yehudi performs Mendelssohn VC in NDR broadcast from Hamburg

- Mixed response of Displaced Persons to Yehudi's gestures of sympathy

 

Chapter 24   To Russia With Love            

1945 - Nola and Yehudi face issue of divorce

- Diana's sister treated for TB

- Yehudi returns to London for concerts (October)

- Epstein's bust of Yehudi unveiled

- Yehudi plays charity concerts in Prague (November)

- Yehudi invites himself to Russia (November)

- Rapturous reception for Yehudi in Moscow

- Yehudi inspired by visit to Moscow's Central School of Music

- David Oistrakh joins Yehudi in performance

- Yehudi's affair with Diana deepens

 

Chapter 25   A Dual Life                        

1945 - Yehudi defends Furtwängler against accusations of collaboration with the Nazi regime

- Diana's stepfather knighted (December)

1946 - Critics assess the state of Yehudi's post-war  performance

- Recognition from Music War Council of Yehudi's contribution to the Pacific War effort

- Nola brings her children to join Yehudi in London before engagements and holiday in Europe (April)

- Yehudi and Nola in reunion with Enesco in Romania

- Family summer holiday in Switzerland

- Louis Kentner and Griselda married in Zurich (May)

- Yehudi meets Richard Hauser (later to marry Hephzibah)

- Antal Doráti and Yehudi give début recital at Salzburg Festival

- Yehudi enjoys airborne adventures across Europe

- Diana attempts revival of career in New York

 

Chapter 26   Outflanking Nola                   

1946 - Diana arrives in California (December)

- Hephzibah meets Paul Morawetz en route from Australia to California

- Diana meets reunited Menuhin family at Christmas and joins entourage for West Coast concert tour

1947 - Yehudi includes Diana in family holiday in Florida

- Hephzibah and Yehudi in "return" NY recital (March)

- Nola agrees to final separation from Yehudi

- Menuhins arrive in London for recitals

- Willa Cather dies (April)

- Diana joins Yehudi for European concert tour

- Menuhins participate in Prague Spring Festival

- Hephzibah visits Theresienstadt camp

- Nola starts pre-divorce residency in Reno

- Zamira and Krov begin European summer holiday with Diana and Yehudi

- Yehudi breaks holiday to visit Casals in Prades

- Yehudi plays under Furtwängler at Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals

- Yehudi commissions sonata from William Walton

- Divorce and property settlement filed in Reno

 

Chapter 27      Carrying the Healing Message                     

1947 - Yehudi and Diana visit Berlin for concerts with Furtwängler (September)

- Displaced Persons express dismay over concert scheduling; Yehudi and Diana appease camp inmates

- Marcel Gazelle and Yehudi reunited for recitals in Scandinavia

- Yehudi proposes to Diana in Copenhagen; couple returns to London to prepare for wedding

- Nola marries Anthony Williams (October)

 

 

The index to Book One is also available as an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file ready for downloading to your PC, please click the PDF icon below to open or download.   If you wish to print a copy of the table of contents, this is the recommended version to print.

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Yehudiana - Reliving the Menuhin Odyssey, Book Two:



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Foreword

Introduction

 

Part 1  Post-war Utopian Visions

Prelude

 

Vision One: Family

Chapter 28  Chained to a Firefly

1947 – Marriage of Yehudi and Diana

1948 – Birth of Gerard Menuhin

Chapter 29 Flaming Passions

1938– Hephzibah and married life in Australia

1940 – Birth of Kron Nicholas

1940 – Yehudi’s concert tour of Australia

1947 – Nicholas family tour of USA and Europe

1951 – Yehudi makes return tour of Australia

Chapter 30 Breaking Ties

1951 – Birth of Jeremy Menuhin

1952 – Nola’s marital and family tensions

1953 – Yehudi and Diana begin move to Europe

Chapter 31 Tenure in Tuscany

1954 – Menuhin family in Switzerland

– Hephzibah ends marriage to Lindsay Nicholas

1958 – Menuhins reside in Italy, purchase a London home, and plan building a Swiss chalet

1959 – London home occupied

Chapter 32 There’s no Place Like Home

1960 – Gstaad chalet completed

1962 – Greek holiday house purchased

Vision Two:Music

Chapter 33 The Patron Saint of Music

1947 – Yehudi stars in Concert Magic film and begins series of visits to Berlin

1948 – Yehudi makes début on television, plays at Edinburgh Festival, and introduces music of Bartk to Paris audience

1949 – Menuhins tour South America

– Yehudi and Louis Kentner première Walton Sonata

– Recordings with Furtwängler

Chapter 34 Grappling with Gremlins

1946 – Antal Doráti encourages Yehudi in conducting

1950 – Yehudi conducts in Europe

– Bowing problems resurface

1951 – Hephzibah and Yehudi give first recital in London’s new Royal Festival Hall

1953 – Yehudi begins re-recording repertoire

1955 – Death of George Enesco

Chapter 35 Festival Fever

1957 – First Gstaad season and expansion of the Festival

1958 – Robert Masters forms his Chamber Orchestra and begins collaboration with Yehudi

1959 – Yehudi as Artistic Director of the Bath Festival

1965 – 1966: Diana, Ravi Shankar, and opera at Bath Festival; Yehudi gives première of Bart?k’s First Violin Concerto

1968 – Yehudi resigns from Bath Festival

1969 – Windsor Festival collaboration begins

1976 – Yehudi inaugurates Bermuda Festival

 

Chapter 36 Jazz, Jousts, and Juries

1971 – Yehudi appears on television with Grappelli

1973 – First Grappelli/Menuhin recording released

1979 – 1980 Yehudi as founder of Portsmouth International String Quartet Competition and catalyst for the Concours Sarasate

 

Vision Three: Politics

Chapter 37 Stirring Hornets’ Nests 

1945 – Post-war visits to Germany and Romania

– Yehudi defends Furtwängler

1950 – 1951; Attacking the policy of apartheid Yehudi makes first visit to Israel and Japan

Chapter 38 Currying Favour

1952 – Menuhins on first visit to India

1954 – Return Indian visit

Chapter 39 Tilting at Soviet Windmills 

1946– Yehudi’s concern for Iron Curtain countries

1962 – Diana, Hephzibah, and Yehudi tour Russia.

1971 – Yehudi chairs IMC Moscow Congress

Chapter 40 Poles Apart

1957 – Menuhins visit Poland

1974 – Yehudi and the Greek plebiscite

1975 – Yehudi mediates over resolutions critical of Israel

 

Vision Four:Education

Chapter 41 A School of his own

1945 – Yehudi visits Moscow’s Central School of Music

1963 – MenuhinSchool opens

 

Vision Five:Food and Fitness

Chapter 42 Yoghurt and Yoga

1953 – Yehudi as subject of yoga profile

1956 – Yehudi recovers from back operation

 

Vision Six:The Environment

Chapter 43 A Car Too Far

1972 – Yehudi on environmental degradation

1976 – Yehudi and electric cars

***************

Part  2 Fiddler on the Hoof

 

Chapter 44 The life in a year of...

1975 – Eleanor Hope appointed to head Menuhin office

1977 – Yehudi establishes International Menuhin Music

– Academy and Live Music Now!

– Publication of autobiography (Unfinished Journey)

– Filming of The Music of Man series

– Hephzibah diagnosed with cancer

Chapter 45 Farewell Nola

1978– Annual US concert and recital tour

– Yehudi purchases Guarnerius del Gesú violin

– Death of Nola Menuhin

Chapter 46 The Mad Hornet

1978 – US tour continued

– Hephzibah responds to treatment

Chapter 47 Flight from the Gilded Cage

1978 – Menuhin office relocated

– Hephzibah suffers relapse

– Yehudi conducts Kennedy and Yo Yo Ma

– Sale of Menuhin violins

– Crises at LMN!

 

Chapter 48 Cincinnati Blues

1979 – US concert tour

Chapter 49 Flare-up at LMN! 

1979 – Crises at LMN! continued

– Yehudi begins collaboration with Polish Chamber Orchestra

– Establishment of Portsmouth International String Quartet Competition

– Swiss tensions over financing of IMMA

– Yehudi and Hephzibah begin Australian recital tour

Chapter 50 Willing Yehudi On

1979 – Menuhins visit China

1980 – US tour with Hephzibah

– Hephzibah’s condition becomes critical

– Music of Man series launched

– Menuhins suffer first home burglary

Chapter 51 Farewell Hephzibah

1981 – Death of Hephzibah

– Memorial Concert

– US winter tour

– Menuhins explore moving house

– Yehudi promotes career of young Chinese student

Chapter 52 Gstaad’s Silver Lining

1981 –Menuhin Festival Gstaad celebrates 25th season

Chapter 53 From Two The Grove

1981 – Yehudi’s first season conducting opera

– Diana faces reality of house move

1982 – Death of Moshe Menuhin

– Diana chooses new London residence

– Yehudi clashes with UK Foreign Office

Chapter 54 A Sting in the Tale

1982 – Gstaad Festival season

– Menuhins on return visit to China

1983 – Yehudi faces financial problems and sells two Stradivari violins

– Yehudi faces citizenship dilemma

– Papal concert with Polish Chamber Orchestra

Chapter 55 The Answer to Prayer

1984 – Yehudi becomes victim of conspiracy to defraud

– Diana publishes Fiddler’s Moll

– Yehudi conducts season of Mozart opera in Bonn

1985 – US concert tour with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

– Yehudi granted British citizenship

1986 – Legal wrangle over Belgravia house restoration

1987 – Yehudi awarded Order of Merit

– Menuhins visit Russia

Chapter 56 Film Exposure

1990 – Diana, Yehudi, and Griselda Kentner react to

broadcast on UK television of Tony Palmer’s film,

Menuhin, A Family Portrait,.

Chapter 57 Praise The Lord!

1991 – Yehudi celebrates 75th birthday, becomes his own concert agent, promotes various projects through a new Foundation based in Brussels, awarded joint Wolf Prize in Israel, and elevated to peerage as Baron Menuhin of Stoke d’Abernon

Chapter 58 The Don In Full Flow

1994 – Yehudi faces domestic crisis

– Gstaad Festival stages Don Giovanni

– Gidon Kremer accepts offer to succeed Yehudi as Artistic Director of Gstaad Festival

 

Chapter 59 A Parliament Of His Own

1994 – Yehudi as UNESCO Ambassador of Goodwill and proposes establishment of a Parliament of Cultures

– Menuhins suffer third major burglary

1995 – Commemoration of 50th anniversary of Allied bombing of Dresden

– Death of Griselda Kentner

Chapter 60 The Only Thing Left

1995 – Menuhins visit South Africa, Spain, and Russia;

– Yehudi conducts Dusseldorf season of Idomeneo, and celebrates 50th anniversary of signing of League of Nations Charter.

Chapter 61 More Projects and Politics

1995 – Yehudi advances cause of Parliament of Cultures, expands concept of MUS-E schools project, gives final public performance on violin, and visits Romania.

Chapter 62 Fanfare to a Man of Spirit

1995 – Menuhins make final visits to Japan and India

1996 – Marutha Menuhin celebrates 100th birthday

– Yehudi’s 80th birthday season begins

– Menuhins feted in Oman

Chapter 63 Last Hurrah in New York

1996 – Yehudi in birthday juggernaut.

– Edna Michel organises New York concert of new music conducted by Yehudi and dedicated to better understanding between cultures

Chapter 64 The Whirlwind on Ozone

1996 – The Merry Widow performed at Gstaad Festival

– Peace Concert held in Sarajevo

– Death of Marutha Menuhin

Chapter 65 Plus ça change

1997 – Yehudi records complete cycle of Schubert symphonies

– Menuhins mark 50th wedding anniversary

– First meeting of Assembly of Cultures

1998 – Yehudi unprepared for opening performances of Vienna production of Otello

– Gidon Kremer ends tenure at Gstaad Festival

Chapter 66 Farewell Down Under

1998 – Yehudi’s final tour of Australia

Chapter 67 One Last Windmill

1998 – Trial of Anwar Ibrahim and Yehudi’s visit to Malaysia

– Yehudi in last appearance at Royal Albert Hall

Chapter 68 Guru to the World

1999 – Yehudi embarks on final tour of Germany (March)

– Overtaken by illness and hospitalised in Berlin.

– Funeral, Memorial Service, and Commemoration Concert

 

Epilogue

Whatever Happened To....?