Yehudi Menuhin: Who Was Yehudi?

A pretty piece of fluff, hosted by a pretty piece of blond fluff. There's no doubt that Yehudi Menuhin was a phenomenon and a ubiquitous symbol of goodwill. In a just world, he would have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, instead of warmongers like Obama or Roosevelt. However, a string of film clips, demonstrating his richly varied achievements, coupled with a mainly pedestrian narration, doesn't add up to a worthy summary of his life. Moreover, the film offers an unbalanced judgment of its subject. Anyone who has read about Menuhin will know that his first marriage failed due to incompatibility after only 9 years, whereas his second marriage, to Diana Gould, his steadfast companion, lasted for 52 years, or the remainder of his life. Yet this film is an appropriation of Menuhin by the offspring of his first marriage alone, who were of minimal importance in his life. Indeed, the respectively affected and pompous opinions of his daughter and first son demonstrate, by their ignorance, their marginal status. Both of them having been absent from Menuhin's life during almost the entirety of their formative years, they are now incapable of delivering anything but an uninformed verdict on their father. The film's title 'Who was Yehudi?' is thus only a confirmation of their own inadequacy in attempting to explain someone they hardly knew and could not understand. Sad. Those who want to see an informed documentary about Menuhin should watch Bruno Monsaingeon's film.

Yehudi Menuhin had everything going for him. A child prodigy as a violinist who appeared for the first time onstage before he was ten years old, he embarked on a recording career in the late Twenties and early Thirties as well as touring around the world.

Like many geniuses, Menuhin's personal life was not quite so successful. He found it difficult to relate to other people around him, and could not communicate his feelings adequately. His personal relationships were often attenuated, even though he managed to find a suitable mate in Diana Gould. Perhaps other people were frightened of him; it is difficult on occasions to know what to say to someone so possessed of natural talent.

Menuhin's career only lost its intensity in the Fifties and Sixties, when he became more and more involved in political causes, while his repertoire expanded from the classics into jazz with several successful recording partnerships with Stéphane Grappelli. He became less obsessed with performance, and more with trying to pass his talent on to others, through the organization of competitions under his name. He became a regular guest on the chat-show circuit, not only talking about his career but explaining his political beliefs as well.

He passed away in 1999, soon after giving another concert in Berlin. His legacy lives on in the form of innumerable recordings as well as in the ways he encouraged talented young musicians worldwide.