In a very short article entitled ''Performing Greatness'' included at the end of the recently published The Keller Column (Lengnick; reviewed 3/91), Hans Keller pays his friend Yehudi Menuhin a not entirely unbarbed compliment: ''Menuhin's is a special case—capable, in auspicious circumstances, of great performances''. It could almost serve as a motto for this collection. There's plenty of evidence of keen and poetic musicianship here, and yet quite a few of these recordings left me with strong and lingering doubts.
Technical impurities aren't necessarily obstacles to greatness, as any admirer of Artur Schnabel, Alfred Cortot or Walter Giesking will testify; in fact it's surprising just how much imprecision one can tolerate if one is in tune with what a performer is trying to do. But for me Menuhin's not infrequent intonational lapses and rhythmic insecurity are real problems. A performance like that of the Berg Concerto can contain wonderful things—like Menuhin's rapt responses to the first appearance of the Bach chorale on the woodwind—alongside passages where the sense of effort actually becomes discomforting. And in this recording I don't feel that the Menuhin/Boulez partnership quite works: both seem to have different ideas about rubato in the final Adagio.
Even so there are things that are well worth hearing: all the Bartok items for instance (particularly the Rhapsodies and the splendidly soulful reading of the Viola Concerto), the Bloch—a powerfully expressive version of an underrated rarety, and the Nielsen, which if it doesn't quite match the consistent insight of Gramophone Award-winning Cho-Liang Lin on CBS ((CD) CD44548, 1/89), is still a spirited and affectionate reading, and the CD transfer presents it in a better light than did my old Music for Pleasure LP, despite the gain in treble hardness. On the other hand the chamber items are largely disappointing, especially the Ravel Trio and the Debussy Flute, Viola and Harp Sonata in which the roughness can be distinctly off-putting. An interesting collection certainly, but going back to Hans Keller's remark, with one or two exceptions, these recordings provide only intermittent proof of Menuhin's capabilities.'