There is a lovely story in Menuhin's autobiography about when he learned this concerto as a little boy. If I remember correctly he wanted to get onto learning the Beethoven concerto, but had to do the Mozart 5th first, so memorised it in some concentrated practice as a step towards being allowed to play Beethoven. His playing was somewhat mechanical. His teacher lost his temper with him for overlooking the beauty of the Mozart and made him do it again, at which point he was seduced by the piece altogether and at the next lesson made up for his error.
Why is this sounding a half step too high? This movement is in E major but here it sounds F major! which means that the recording is played too fast, even allowing that Berlin tunes higher than A=440
Images parfaites d'Henri-Georges Clouzot mais rivalité flagrante entre Karajan et Menuhin. Deux mondes qui s'entrechoquent. Yehudi qui aimerait faire chanter son violon avec plus de volubilité et qui lève les yeux au ciel quand il est rappelé à l'ordre par un Karajan aux mâchoires serrées qui impose une rigueur et un respect pointilleux. C'est presque un sketch. En ce qui concerne l'orchestre, on les sent tendus et le postérieur encore plus hermétique que les mâchoires du petit Kayser...Le résultat est décevant tant les disparités sont flagrantes entre les aspirations des uns et la volonté des autres. Un patchwork bien disparate...Heureusement que Clouzot les a rendus photogéniques. Mozart n'était pas au rendez-vous par contre.
