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Yehudi Menuhin—Boy Virtuoso
Menuhin, Who Is Classed With Mozart, Is Depicted as Both Artist and Boy
Special to The Southern Israelite
a TLANTA, the mecca of Southern music
f\ lovers, has been favored with the cream of
^ the artists this season, and the response of
the fervent music-loving Jewish folk has been
never greater to the series of all types of per
formances from the sanguine dances of La Argen
tina to the rollicking songs of Tibbett and the
unsurpassed McCormack, the golden-voiced Galli-
Curci, the pianist Horowitz, and now—Yehudi
Menuhin, boy virtuoso.
Yehudi, whose name was given through the fol
lowing incident cited by a nationally known maga
zine that devoted its front cover to a picture of
the youthful genius and several columns to the
story of his life:
“Sixteen years ago a young bride and groom,
students at New York University, were hunting
for a place to live in upper Manhattan. The land
lady at one rooming house tried to interest them
by saying that she never took in Jews. She said
the wrong thing. The alert, bright-eyed little
groom was of pure Hebrew stock, born in Russia,
educated in Palestine. His bride, also Jewish, said
as they walked away: ‘If we ever have a son let
us call him Yehudi (which in Hebrew means “A
Jew”) and let him stand or fall on his name.’
The pleasure of following the career of Yehudi
through his wise parents is denied us here. To
sum up the few incidents known of their early
struggle before the world-wide recognition of their
young son as a prodigy, is to shorten an epic tale,
but tribute must be paid the parents, outside of
the musical treatise that could be dealt with the
masterful playing of the youth of fifteen years.
We see the young couple struggling to maintain
themselves, the young student-wife refused a five-
cent loaf of bread on credit, and unable to buy
one so that her husband might use the coin for
subway fare to go to work. And, to have some
thing to eat, the flash of an idea solved the prob
lem when two pounds of hamburger were ordered
from the neighborhood butcher shop. It had to
be sent up the dumb-waiter, whereupon the young
wife takes it when it reaches her floor and shouts
down the shaft: “The lady of the house isn’t in
—come hack tomorrow,” knowing that she could
pay for it then.
With all of the verve and spirit of »
meeting the strife that poverty presents,
with the keen vision and foresight of
overcoming difficulties and mounting
up, upward with their child genius, a
comet in their wake, to the parents of
the young artist do we make the first
applause.
Born in New York, Yehudi was
taken to San Francisco where his early
childhood was spent, including the
formatory period of becoming a wizard
violinist. The first bit of music that
Yehudi heard was when his parents,
not being able to employ a nursemaid
for the one-year-old boy, took him with
them to a matinee concert given bv the
San Francisco Orchestra. So well did
he behave that they took him with them
regularly.
By the time he had reached the age
of two, his preference for the violin
was strongly manifest. At three he
was given a toy instrument, which he
soon smashed, because, he said, “It
don’t sound right.” At four, a real
Menuh irTjy
Yehudi Menuhin, hoy virtuoso, appeared in
Atlanta at the Auditorium on the evening of
March 2Sth. His performance was one of a
series of All Star Concerts, in which the Junior
Hadassah of Atlanta cooperated with the sale
of tickets, in which way they are meeting then-
assessed quota which will be devoted for chari
table purposes. A large and appreciative crowd
responded to the appearance of the young artist
who proved to be the most stellar attraction
of the concert series.
violin was secured for him, and he began lessons
on it with Louis Persinger, who founded him in
his art.
At seven, Yehudi Menuhin appeared in his first
important concert with the San Francisco Sym
phony Orchestra in that city, where he created a
profound impression. A year later he gave a
recital at the Manhattan Opera House, New
York, following which he was taken abroad hr
his parents for further study in Paris with th’
celebrated-Rumanian violinist, Enesco. He n
a sensational debut the following spring V e
Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris. the
Next came Yehudi’s flaming New York success
in a debut with the New York Symphony Or
chestra, playing the Beethoven violin concerto with
an astounding perfection that set the metropolis
agog. Since then Yehudi Menuhin has won
crowning triumphs in the principal cities of Amer
ica, and in great musical strongholds of Europe,
arousing audiences to the wildest pitch of en
thusiasm.
Yehudi has had two superb violins presented
him. The first, a Grancino, was the gift of Mr.
and Mrs. Sidney Ehrman, of San Francisco, whose
interest and help forwarded the little fellow in
his earliest days; the second was a $60,000 Strad-
ivarius, the munificent gift of Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Goldman of New Y'ork.
The word “prodigy” is despised by Yehudi ve
hemently. The story of YYhudi’s indignation
when he saw a poster once on which he was classed
as the “world-famous prodigy,” is a proof of his
mature wisdom culled from rapt study of art.
“Is there art in music or is there not?” he wrath-
fully demanded of his manager in asking him not
to use the word “prodigy” in his advertising. “Do
people merely come to see me or to hear me play?
There is only one standard to judge by: music is
either good or bad. It’s not a question of how
young l am or how old grown-up people are.’
This is an insight of the artist of fifteen years
who despises the Lord Fauntleroy role. For all of
his brilliant interpretation of compositions of the
masters, he is a normal, ruggedly healthy boy, de
lighting in sports and games, swimming, driving
his own car. Languages are his hobby, and aside
from his native English, he knows Hebrew,
French, German, and Italian. The boy himself
declares concert playing fun; in his practice, he
masters and memorizes a different composition in
a few hours. It is exactly the same with him in
general studies. Eight months each year are
passed by him with his parents in complete retire
ment. Part of that time was recently spent abroad,
collaborating in the study of the violin
with Adolf Busch, noted German
violinist.
He is the highest paid violinist in t e
world—with an income greater
than
that of the President of the United
States—and he attracts capacity crow >
wherever he appears. He has ^
given the unique distinction of e e^non
in Paris to the Society of Friends o
Music. This is an honor shaied > 1,1 ■
the most famous of musicians, an
a lad in his early teens has ^
this recognition is proof of
and tribute paid him by his on
musicians. . i n0
His engagements are limited, a 1
other citv in the South, oute
lanta, is to hear Yehudi Mwahm*
season, or perhaps for man 1 1 .
Not since the boy ^ 0/a ;‘ ap -
all hearts has such a phe
. . YEHUDI MENUHIN
boy violinist, with his two sisters, as he was sailing for
in Europe.
rorld-
-to
a vacation
peared to captivate the \y i e
the hearts and minds o
soaring to Elysian heights.
* THE SOUTHERN IS: \ELlT £