J.S.Bach - Violin Concerto in A minor

This recording of J.S.Bach's violin concertos was probably the first of Bach's music I listened to with any attention. There was a reason for that. I was studying for my GCE "O" Level exam in music and the slow movement of the Double Concerto was a set piece we had to study. My parents bought the original mono issue of this record (to be played on the family's Ferguson Radiogram!), and looking at it while preparing this video I found the inner paper sleeve was like a time capsule of the hit albums of the day - or those albums EMI wanted you to buy, at least. There was Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, The Settlers, Frankie Vaughan, Cliff Richard, The Beatles (Sgt Pepper and Let It Be) and that most un-PC group of all The George Mitchell Minstrels. No classical album made the grade!

The label of the 1960 issue

Yehudi Menuhin was born in New York in 1916 into a family of Lithuanian Jews, who had changed their name from Mnuchin. Learning the violin from the age of four, his subsequent teachers included Eugène Ysaÿe and George Enescu. Menuhin's first concerto recording was made when he was 15 (Bruch's G minor concerto) and the following year - 1932 - he recorded Elgar's concerto with the composer conducting. His recording contract with EMI lasted for 70 years (1929-1999, the year he died) and is reportedly the longest ever in the music industry.

This recording of the Bach concertos dates from 1960 and rather than record the worn mono sound for this video of the A minor Concerto, I've used the 1984 Concert Classics stereo reissue. After a period of EMI using their "postage stamp" design for their labels (HMV, Columbia, Parlophone etc) their marketing department must have realised that Nipper and the Gramophone was a great brand that needed to go back to its historical roots. Thus the semi-circle painting was restored - though larger than on the original issue. The Concert Classics logo even incorporates a silhouetted "dog and trumpet".

Stylistically, the performance doesn't have (or suffer from - depending on your point of view) the period-instrument lean orchestration approach. Menuhin might be directing a chamber orchestra but this is a full-bloodied, big boned performance. And none the worse for that!

Click on the sleeve note scan below to read about Bach and this concerto. (Taken from the 1960 issue - the same notes are used as on the reissue but it's easier to read black on a white background than vice-versa I find).

Cartridge: Nagaoka MP-300

Phono amp: Graham Slee Accession

Turntable: Yamaha PX-3 direct drive turntable

Click to enlarge