Yehudi Menuhin (violin)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor


Recorded at the Großer Saal, Musikverein, Vienna, from 7th to 8th December, 1948, and on 15th February, 1949; Kunsthaus, Lucerne, from 28th to 29th August, 1947

In partnership with Yehudi Menuhin, one of the foremost violinists of the last century, Furtwängler's highly-praised 1947 performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, was his first post-war studio recording following his flight to Switzerland after the German collapse of 1945.

Sixteen months later, at the end of 1948, Furtwangler led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the first of several sessions at which this unique partnership - representing the absolute peak of European music-making - recreated to the full the genius of one of Mozart’s finest compositions.

The first volume of this series of 1940-50s recordings (8110994) has been highly successful, The Sunday Times describing the disc as containing “exquisite moments” and that “the best, most Furtwängler-ish thing on the disc is a noble account, dark and passionate, of the overture to Gluck’s Alceste.”