Mozart, Violin Concerto No.5 in A major, K. 219

Mozart, who was also an accomplished violinist, wrote all of his five violin concertos in Salzburg in 1775, apparently for his own personal use. Their style can best be described as cosmopolitan and reflects the many musical currents he had been exposed to while on his travels in Italy and elsewhere. Aristocratic, suave, witty, wonderfully melodious, they are dazzling gems that conceal an inner core of challenging material that can be truly mastered only by the very best violinists, such as Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin was not only a peerless violinist, but also an ambassador of music who contributed with his art to the understanding among nations: Yehudi Menuhin, who as born in 1916 to Jewish immigrants in New York, began giving concerts and making recordings in his earliest youth. For seven decades he traveled around the globe for the sake of music - as violinist, teacher and, increasingly, as conductor. The committed humanist and cosmopolitan Menuhin was one of the first foreign soloists to appear in Germany after 1945. In 1957 he founded his own music festival in Gstaad. He obtained many awards for his musical achievements and died in Berlin at the age of 82 while on a tour of Germany.