The solo playing of Jeremy Menuhin and his artistic partnership with his father is not overgenerously represented on record, so this is a most welcome release. Welcome, too, purely on its own terms: in sheer interpretative interest and expressive scale, the obvious rival is Perlman and Ashkenazy (Decca), not that either need feel threatened by the other's presence in the catalogue.
The unusually live quality of the Menuhin recording (every breath, every tug of bow against string) sets off the vigour of response in the playing, something which is equal to that of Perlman and Ashkenazy, and in such marked contrast to the comparatively bland, sometimes mannered playing of Zukerman/Barenboim (also HMV). The choice between Perlman and Menuhin must be one of taste alone. The Menuhins's Kreutzer has more rugged physical immediacy, mainly because of the sense of effort in Sir Yehudi's playing in the environment of its close acoustic; and also because of the palpable sense of rough-and-tumble stimulus between violin and piano. Perlman's performance belongs, if you like, to the studio; Menuhin's to the recital room.
Where the finer poise and polish of Perlman's silver-tipped bow comes into its own is in the Spring Sonata. In its slow movement he creates a rapt, ethereal song, in flawlessly controlled mezzavoce, while Sir Yehudi's smoky, covered tone whispers almost falteringly at times, as if in awe of the music itself. I found myself marginally prefering Perlman until the Rondo, in which all the most positive characteristics of the Menuhin partnership are celebrated: spontaneity of rapport, a hint of the unpredictable in the keyboard, and a sense of fresh, imaginative renewal at each return.
Jeremy Menuhin's opening of the Kreutzer's slow movement, too, is unsurpassed: only he seems to understand entirely the nature of the repeated note's little push forward—not a weight to be marked, but a source of inner motion which enables the theme and its variations to burgeon effortlessly. The fact that the Mehunhins's sonatas fit uninterruptedly on one side each is a small but not insignificant bonus to enjoyment. I await the CD with interest.'