As a stereo supplement to the 16-year-old Menuhin's miraculous 1932 recording with the composer, this 1965-6 account of the Elgar is pleasing enough, and the LP was for many years a stalwart of EMI's full-price catalogue. But, given the present-day competition (with Kennedy and Kang perhaps pre-eminent), there are too many drawbacks for this admittedly much-loved version to give unalloyed pleasure. To be blunt, neither in terms of technical bravura nor mercurial imaginative flair does Menuhin come anywhere near matching his earlier achievement; similarly, Boult's level-heaved accompaniment is, in all honesty, just a touch 'square' and earthbound. Some of the familiar Kingsway glow, too, seems to have evaporated in this remastering for CD.
Ten years on, and Menuhin's tone has grown even more uncomfortably wiry, but this robust-sounding 1976 production enshrines a deeply felt presentation of Delius's evanescent concerto. Next to the heady potion distilled by Pougnet and Beecham (EMI) or Little and Mackerras (Argo), Menuhin and Davies serve up a less than ideally intoxicating brew, yet the heartfelt honesty of this music-making is not in doubt. Only the tricky Allegretto section from fig. 34 onwards really catches the soloist out; Menuhin's playing here is just too lumpy and literal, singularly lacking in the requisite spirit of the dance.'