My Tribute to Yehudi Menuhin—Daniel Hope, violin; Basel Chamber Orchestra; Daniel Lozakovitj, Simos Papanas, violins; Jacques Ammon, piano; Avi Avital, mandolin; Chen Reiss, soprano; Christiane Starke, cello (DeutGram 4795305)
After fleeing from the apartheid regime in South Africa and ending up in England, Daniel Hope's mother was offered a job as a secretary to one of the most famous musicians in the world, Yehudi Menuhin. Later she became his manager. "Yehudi Menuhin is the reason I became a violinist, says Daniel Hope. “I was privileged to know Menuhin all my life; as he used to say, I fell into his lap, as a baby of two years age. Menuhin often called himself my musical grandfather. Now, in celebration of what would have been his centenary, my friends and I can finally pay our respects to this great man, in a way I am sure he would have loved." The program contains works both commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin like Steve Reich's Duet for 2 Violins & Strings, and associated with him like Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor ( not the famous E minor) and Vivaldi’s Double Concerto RV 522 which Hope and Menuhin played together many times. Daniel Hope himself commissioned Bechara El-Khoury's Unfinished Journey, a piece that shares the title of Menuhin’s autobiography. Plus the album features brand new arrangements of famous pieces, such as Elgar's Salut d'amour and Jo Knümann's delightful Romanian.
Featured Wed 4/6, Fri 4/15, Tue 4/26