Handel’s Messiah is a ‘fitting celebration of the South=20 African experience’, says Lord Yehudi Menuhin, who will=20 be conducting this work in Johannesburg tonight. Coenraad=20 Visser reports
WHEN Lord Yehudi Menuhin is ushered into a crowded press=20 room hours after his arrival in South Africa this week,=20 his slight physical stature takes one by surprise. It is=20 almost as if his frail appearance contradicts his stature=20 as one of the truly great musicians, and a pre-eminent=20 humanitarian of this century. At 78, he holds 25 honorary=20 doctorates and is formally a Unesco ambassador of=20
As he describes this visit as something of a=20 “pilgrimage”, it is only natural that the conversation=20 should recall his first visit here, in 1950. Then he=20 earned the wrath of his local concert management for=20 insisting on performing to mixed audiences. When he was=20 denied that, he arranged a concert in Sophiatown with the=20 Johannesburg municipal orchestra. After hearing him play=20 violin concertos by Bach and Mendelssohn, the audience=20 responded with Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. “It was as if I=20 heard the Marseillaise sung in France under the German=20 occupation. It then held the promise of what is happening=20 in South Africa today.”
He returned here once more, in 1956. After that, he wrote=20 in his autobiography Unfinished Journey, “I could not in=20 conscience perform in a country where a powerful minority=20 treated a powerless majority so inequitably”.
His concern for the persecuted and downtrodden is=20 legendary. To him it came naturally: “If you are born a=20 Jew, you cannot forget persecution.” It is ironic, then,=20 that for long he has been ostracised by some members of=20 the Jewish musical establishment for being so outspoken=20 in his criticism of Israeli foreign policy, especially=20 after the 1967 Yom Kippur war.
So our conversation turns to current events in the Middle=20 East. Again he cannot contain his delight with recent=20 developments in South Africa. “South Africa holds the key=20 to the solution of racial problems worldwide,” he says.=20 “Israelis and Palestinians have shown that they are=20 willing to die for their causes. Why die? Why not live=20
To him the answer is obvious: like in South Africa, the=20 parties should start talking, should be prepared to give=20 up something and to share. As always, he remains hopeful=20 that peace will arrive and endure.
Menuhin is in South Africa with the Lithuanian Chamber=20 Orchestra for performances — tonight in Johannesburg and=20 tomorrow in Cape Town — of Handel’s Messiah. It will be=20 a “stylistically restored” performance, with special=20 attention to matters such as phrasing, and minimum=20 ornamentation. He pulls a face at the Dublin performance=20 broadcast to celebrate two centuries since the work’s=20 first performance. “Awful,” he chuckles.
Why the Messiah on this tour? It is a “festive work,=20 religious without being denominational, Christian but a=20 text from the Old Testament”. While it is a work full of=20 “freedom, hope and exuberance”, it does “go to the heart=20 of persecution”. As such he thinks it a fitting=20 celebration of the South African experience.
It also marks the current phase of his musical career –=20 that of the jet-set conductor. His schedule is full.=20 Recently he has recorded all the Beethoven symphonies=20 with the Sinfonia Varsovia, an orchestra of which he is=20 particularly fond. Later this year there will be opera=20 performances of Idomeneo in Dusseldorf, and a tour of=20 Russia with the Philharmonia Hungarica. His youngest son,=20 Jeremy, “a beautiful pianist”, will be the soloist on=20 that tour.
Menuhin rarely plays the violin these days. “I have done=20 my service,” he says modestly. Indeed, he has. A child=20 prodigy, he made his formal debut at seven in San=20 Francisco, at 11 in Paris, and at 12 in Berlin with Bruno=20 Walter (musically, according to Menuhin, “Walter the=20 wayside stroller”).=20
Barely 15, he made what many still regard as the=20 definitive recording of Elgar’s violin concerto,=20 conducted by the composer himself. Menuhin remembers=20 Elgar cutting short their only rehearsal before the=20 recording to dash off to the horse races.
His career continued to expand. No one would dare deny=20 that he was one of the great violinists of this century.=20 But his inquiring mind led him to transcend the borders=20 of classical music.
At the invitation of Pandit Nehru, he visited India in=20 1952. On this visit he first met Ravi Shankar, the great=20 Indian musician. Many concerts, under the banner “East=20 meets West”, followed. Their association continues. In=20 November this year he presents a major festival in=20 Brussels with Shankar.
We laugh at one of the spinoffs of his devout belief in=20 yoga. Six years ago, during the Berlin Philharmonic’s=20 centenary celebrations, he conducted with his feet,=20 standing on his head, the first movement of Beethoven’s=20 Fifth Symphony. Even though he may not repeat this feat=20 in his performances here, there is no doubt that his more=20 authentic reading will turn the staid musical life here=20 on its head.