In 1951 Yehudi Menhuin and his trusty accompanist Adolf Baller toured Japan and made the recordings reissued here, rarities all. Like his post-war performances with Furtwängler, the Japan concerts represented a kind of reconcilatory gesture. As far as the politics of intonation go, Menhuin waffles between left and right, but never hits dead center. The “Devil’s Trill” Sonata is particularly painful in this respect. Menuhin’s raspy tone, moreover, isn’t helped by Japanese Victor’s boxy sonics, which would not have passed for state-of-the-art in 1926, let alone 1951. If you want to hear this uneven fiddler’s most persuasive attempts at Beethoven’s “Spring” and Kreutzer Sonatas, or the Bach D Minor Sonata and E Major Partita, his pre-war EMI recordings are not too hard to locate. In fairness, Menuhin lets his hair down and finds his best form in a group of bon bons ranging from Sarasate and Wieniawski showstoppers to an idiomatically nuanced set of Bartók “Rumanian Folk Dances”. Biddulph’s transfer work has been accomplished with tremendous skill and care. While Menhuin accolytes might gladly fill a long-standing gap in their collections, will they play these discs often?
