Isolde Menges (1883–1976) was born in Sussex and studied in St Petersburg with the great teacher Leopold Auer. From her early twenties she pursued a successful career at home and abroad, formed a string quartet, and taught quite extensively. She also undertook the first recording of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in 1922, and made a number of other records for HMV until the late 1920s.
Her performance of the Kreutzer Sonata dates from October 1925. This was a very early electric recording, although the sound is nevertheless pretty good. Her partner here is the Belgian pianist Arthur de Greef, a Liszt pupil who was also a friend of Grieg. They give a robust, strongly committed account, quite forward-looking in its classical approach but generously phrased, and very expressive. Menges's warmth and generosity of spirit are also evident in the two Brahms sonatas, where the pianist is the London-born Harold Samuel, who was particularly renowned as an interpreter of Bach. Again, the style is direct, clear-cut, classical in feeling yet heartfelt, the playing strong in rhythm and pulse.
Each performance shows Menges to have a very attractive musical personality. Her phrasing is always warm and eloquent, and there is a likeable practical, level-headed quality about her music-making. Technically she is by no means a virtuoso, however, and sometimes her intonation is a little suspect. Her tone-quality is not particularly beautiful as recorded, and also tends to become somewhat sour under pressure.
The transfers are good, but the violin sound is sometimes afflicted by a curiously fuzzy effect in the Brahms Third Sonata.'