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It was in 1943 that Menuhin first met the Hungarian-born composer and pianist Béla Bartók, one of the greatest composers of the last century, who ended his days an émigré in America, where he died from leukaemia in 1945. Menuhin played for Bartók and also commissioned the Sonata for Solo Violin, of which Menuhin would give the première the following year with the composer present, and later record. Numerous recordings document Menuhin’s strong association with Bartók and his music. There are actually seven Menuhin recorded accounts of Violin Concerto No. 2 , including concert tapes that have been issued on compact disc, two conducted by Ernest Ansermet, and the other by Fritz Reiner. Of the four studio versions that Menuhin himself approved for release, three of them, dating from 1946, 1957 and 1965, are conducted by Antal Doráti. The fourth is the one included here, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954). Violin Concerto No. 2 (1937–38) was composed for and dedicated to Bartók’s friend and fellow-Hungarian Zoltán Székely (1903–2001). It is in three extensive movements, and, typically of this composer, the music is wide-ranging, passionate and atmospheric, as well as being hyper-scrupulous in its notation. Although one might sometimes find Menuhin’s tone lacking the last degree of fullness and his intonation not the most exacting, his instinct for, and devotion to, Bartók’s music is evident throughout and he brings out the composer’s heartfelt and fiery writing. Furthermore, that Menuhin and Furtwängler were working together was indicative of a continuing ‘thaw’ in these musicians’ relationship, which had been healed as late as 1947, when they recorded Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (Naxos 8.110996). Before World War II and, of course, during it, when Menuhin gave over 500 concerts for Allied troops, he had refused to work with Furtwängler owing to his alleged Nazi sympathies, of which Furtwängler was later exonerated. If Furtwängler is not particularly associated with Bartók’s music, although in 1927 he had conducted the première of Piano Concerto No. 1, with the composer as soloist, his conducting of the complex and rhythmically tricky orchestral writing in Violin Concerto No. 2 leaves little to be desired. In 1953 the Philharmonia Orchestra, not yet a decade old, having been formed by entrepreneur and record-producer Walter Legge, provides a virtuoso and considered response to its distinguished guest-conductor and his own intense partnership with Menuhin, in this the violinist’s second recording of music that he was already so experienced in. This remains, if not a flawless performance, an unusually truthful and penetrating one, with a palpable collaborative tension to sustain the length of 38 minutes.