GG: Menuhin by Monsaingeon!

[Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu>]

The program I mentioned in a post earlier this evening was marvelous.  It was
directed by long-time GG friend and associate Bruno Monsaingeon whom we have
to thank for the _Glenn Gould Plays Bach_ series (which includes the
Goldberg video).  It's two hours long and available on video cassette
and was produced in honor of Yehudi Menuhin's 80th birthday, today.
There is a 3 CD set of his fave. performance pieces that was released
to go with the video. [label-- EMI]

August 11 at Lincoln Center, Menuhin will be starring in a concert to
debut several pieces by contemporary composers on the theme of love.
If I heard right, Lucas Foss composed a piece, "Orpheus and Eurydice"
for the event. Foss was interviewed by the WLIW crew as was Menuhin
via phone.  The video itself includes very rare footage Monsaingeon
dug up in an archive of Menuhin playing Schubert's Ave Maria for
the allied troops.  

For me the highlights were Menuhin's Paganninni 24th caprice, film of
the rehearsal and performance of "Raga Piloo" with Ravi Shankar, and a
very moving segment by Menuhin of his sister, Hephzibah.  He describes
her emotional depth, her empathy for those who suffer and her
"monk-like" (his words) relationship to the world-- that she hid her
beauty and shunned a solo career to isolate herself from the European
intellectual world they'd grown up in by marrying an Australian and
moving there.  He felt he'd done her a great injustice because he
could not understand or share her emotional depths and her empathy for
others.  He admitted that although he cared a great deal about the
poor he'd met in his travels, they were to him like dramatic players.
He could not understand their individual feelings the way she could.
The sentiments were not unlike his interview in 32 Short Films, really.  

Monsaingeon shows Menuhin a clip of him playing the Beethoven Sonata
Op. 96 with GG.  Menuhin says that the most beautiful 12 bars he'd ever
heard were his teacher, Enesco, playing the piece-- he said GG probably
matched it.  He remarked that GG had transcended spiritually during the
performance. He said he found in GG something rare and that was
inspiration. Menuhin: "There was in Glenn a mystical quality much more
than divine presence."  I'll leave that up to you all to decipher! 

The interview takes place in Menuhin's home in Greece-- beautiful
location.  Funny moments include his spoof of the "beautiful poseur" Karajan
and a yoga "lesson" where he stands on his head.  There is some
discussion of his technique and a lovely Gouldian moment where he talks
about the first time he heard a recording of himself playing in '28.

IMHO, 5 stars.

-Mary Jo, 
mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu

P.S. Thanks to the help of a couple of kind list members, I think I have the
info I need to change the default on the "reply" function this week sometime.