Discography

The temptation of a pianist to transcribe some great work for his instrument is almost unavoidable. Hearing the sextets played in our living room in Gstaad by my father Yehudi, Alberto Lysy, Cecil Aronowitz, Ernst Wallfisch, Maurice Gendron and Marius May made an indelible memory. Soon I discovered that a mere transcription seemed unjustified, as, unlike in Beethoven’s time, we have no need to use the piano to introduce audiences to works The recording has long since taken over that role.

I decided to improvise the repeat of each variation in my manner, nonetheless adhering strictly to Brahms’ structure. Obviously, the range of the piano allows many high and low notes to be sounded that cannot be heard on string instruments.

In the D minor movement of the First Sextet, I followed Mookie’s advice and used the theme from the variation in the major key to write a fugue.

The Suite in the Baroque Manner was my first venture into writing without reference to any other composer.The opening subject of the prelude announced itself one morning, and from then on I proceeded, rather obsessionally, to adhere to the rules of counterpoint. This in no way curbed my freedom, but, quite to the contrary, enabled me to find a secure foothold. C major was the tonality that surfaced in the Prelude and Fugue, despite, somewhat unconventionally, all four subsequent movements being in C minor. The Picardy third insisted on making an appearance at the end of the work, thus justifying the original key.

The titles of the movements coincided with the subjects, although, apart from the fugue, I did not set out to write a sicilienne or an invention.

A violinist friend, Henning Kraggerud, liked it enough to want to perform it as an encore after a performance of the First Sextet, so I rewrote it for six strings and added another variation.

At first a somewhat gloomy introduction emerged, before the appearance of any main subject. All of a sudden a theme in F-sharp minor, sounding rather Russian, hove into view, followed by a second and a third theme, then a fugue based on the main melody with inversions of subject and countersubject, followed by variations of all three themes. The harmonisation of the second theme was problematic, and required much reworking.

This piece contains a few, largely coincidental, references to the last movement of Brahms Fourth Symphony. It just happened that the first four notes of the theme were reminiscent of, but not identical to, the opening bars.Similarly, the theme lent itself to another citation, that of the Sarabande in Bach’s Cello Suite in C minor.

The repeated interludia provide relief from a melancholy atmosphere. They turned out to be baroque in style, despite the overriding 19th century harmonies of the main work. Towards the end of the last interludium I combine the two elements, the original theme and the baroque leitmotif.

Sonata in C minor D 958 (1828)
6 Moments Musicaux D 780 (1823-7)
Dinemec DCCD 002
Recorded April 1993
Salle Frank Martin, Geneva, Switzerland

Sonata in A major D 959 (1828)
Four Impromptus D 935 (1827)
Dinemec DCCD 003
Recorded February 1995
Salle Frank Martin, Geneva, Switzerland

Sonata in Bb major D 960 (1828)
Sonata in A major D 664 (1819)
Dinemec DCCD 004
Recorded March 1996
Salle Frank Martin, Geneva, Switzerland

Sonata in G major D 894 (1826)
Sonata in A minor D 845 (1825)
Dinemec DCCD 015
Recorded November 1997
Salle Frank Martin, Geneva, Switzerland

Yehudi Menuhin, Violin
Jeremy Menuhin, Piano
Ernst Wallfisch, Viola
Maurice Gendreon, Cello

Hephzibar Menuhin, Piano
Yaltah Menuhin, Piano
Jeremy Menuhin, Piano
Yedudi Menuhin, Conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Jeremy Menuhin, Piano
Yehudi Menuhin, Direction
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra