Einstein and his violin
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| Einstein playing the violin at a chamber music rehearsal in Princeton, NJ. (Courtesy: Hannah Fantova Collection, Princeton University) |
is considered one of the premiere classical musicians of the 20th century. Born in New York, Menuhin first performed at the age of seven in San Francisco and four years later performed with the New York Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. After Menuhin performed a violin recital of Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1929, Einstein was reported to be so taken that he rushed into Menuhin's dressing room and exclaimed, "
Jetzt weiss ich, dass es einen Gott im Himmel gibt" ("Now I know that there is a God in heaven.") Menuhin was the first Jewish musician to perform in Germany after World War II. He received a fair amount of criticism from Israelis for the gesture but stated that it was necessary for the brotherhood of man.
A lover of music and an ardent violinist himself, Einstein was often invited to share his views on composers of classical music. In the late 1920s, a German weekly sent him a questionnaire about Bach, to which Einstein replied rather tersely: "This is what I have to say about Bach's life work: listen, play, love, revere—and keep your mouth shut." A decade later, Einstein's response was a bit more thorough and tempered:
(1) Bach, Mozart, and some old Italian and English composers are my favorites in music: Beethoven considerably less — but certainly Schubert.
(2) It is impossible for me to say whether Bach or Mozart means more to me. In music I do not look for logic. I am quite intuitive on the whole and know no theories. I never like a work if I cannot intuitively grasp its inner unity (architecture).
(3) I always feel that Handel is good — even perfect — but that he has a certain shallowness. Beethoven is for me too dramatic and too personal.
(4) Schubert is one of my favorites because of his superlative ability to express emotion and his enormous powers of melodic invention. But in his larger works I am disturbed by a certain lack of architectonics.
(5) Schumann is attractive to me in his smaller works because of their originality and richness of feeling, but his lack of formal greatness prevents my full enjoyment. In Mendelssohn I perceive considerable talent but an indefinable lack of depth that often leads to banality.
(6) I find a few lieder and chamber works by Brahms truly significant, also in their structure. But most of his works have for me no inner persuasiveness. I do not understand why it was necessary to write them.
(7) I admire Wagner's inventiveness, but I see his lack of architectural structure as decadence. Moreover, to me his musical personality is indescribably offensive so that for the most part I can listen to him only with disgust.
(8) I feel that [Richard] Strauss is gifted, but without inner truth and concerned only with outside effects I cannot say that I care nothing for modern music in general. I feel that Debussy is delicately colorful but shows a poverty of structure. I cannot work up great enthusiasm for something of that sort.
