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Isolde Marie Menges (16 May 189313 January 1976) was an accomplished English violinist who was most active in the first part of the 20th century.
Her Quartet gave a complete cycle of Beethoven quartets in Wigmore Hall in London in 1938, and another in Oxford.
She gave concerti with noted orchestras and conductors such as the New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Henry J. Wood, and London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bruno Walter, and the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1916 she played the Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto and Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole with Ernest Bloch.
During World War I, because her German heritage brought her loyalty into question in England, Menges toured North America from 1916 to 1919. She gave more than 100 free concerts for children in Canada.
In 1920, she married the composer Harold Tod Boyd; the couple had one child.
In 1923, she recorded Beethoven's violin concerto for His Master's Voice with Landon Ronald conducting the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, which is the first known recording of this work.
A major prize commemorates her at the Royal College of Music, where she taught from 1931.
Her younger brother was the composer and conductor Herbert Menges.
More specifically, notices included the following:
February 1913: Queen's Hall, Tchaikovsky V concerto: "...remarkable command of the bow and ... almost childish delight in displaying her mastery. Sometimes the conductor had to restrain her when she was on the point of making off with a passage at breakneck speed, and her phrasing was of the impulse kind which makes such frankly bravura music as this entertaining... Her tone was extraordinarily pure and her style clean and crisp... In great beauty of cantabile quality, but she missed some of the daintiness of Kreisler's "Schoen Rosmarin" by taking it too fast"The Times, Wednesday, Feb 05, 1913; pg. 8 And in this piece in April 1913: "... clean double-stopping, and ... brilliant manipulation of exacting passages... She.. succeeded in making the listener take a good deal of interest in it".The Times, Thursday, Apr 24, 1913; pg. 8
May 24, 1913: Queen's Hall, Brahms V concerto: "Although impulsiveness which bordered upon rashness... now her playing... was exceedingly careful of detail, and there was a very great beauty in her whole performance. She had evidently studied the work musically as well as technically, as the distinction of her phrasing showed... but she did not quite succeed in making clear.. the intricate development of the slow movement".The Times, Saturday, May 24, 1913; pg. 42
1915: Aeolian Hall, London, Brahms sonata in D minor, acc. Hamilton Harty: ".. performance was an exceedingly well thought out one, in which the only disadvantage seemed to be a too meticulous care for the emphasis of certain rhythmic accents... She was at her best alike in the .. pieces of Kreisler and the .. chaconne by Vitali... In the former her great variety of bowing and her feeling for the effect of sharply contrasted rhythms... gave remarkable life to her playing. In the latter it was chiefly her splendid tone and the display of an accurate technique in high octave passages... which gave the feeling of complete assurance..."The Times, Wednesday, Apr 21, 1915; pg. 11
January 23, 1918: Kelowna Theatre, British Columbia: "..she gave a free performance to 350 school children, and had bidden them shut their eyes and hear the bees humming and dream dreams of an imagination known only to childhood... in her evening's programme were: "Devil's Trill," Tartini; "Nocturne in D," Chopin; "Gavotte," Ph. E. Bach; "Prophet Bird," Schumann-Auer; "Hornpipe," Handel-Harty; Andante and Rondo from "Symphonie Espagnole," Lalo; Pradulium and Allegra, Pugnani; "Le Plus que Lente," Debussy; "Pensee Capricieuse," Albert Sammons; "Liebesfreud," Kreisler; "Schön Rosmarin," Kreisler".Kelowna Courier and Okanagan Orchardist, Thursday, Jan 24, 1918; pg. 4
1920: Wigmore Hall, Wieniawski concerto, Handel sonata: "The double stops and other ornaments are a model of neatness, and these are helped by a sensitive bow-hand".The Times, Monday, Feb 09, 1920; pg. 12 On February 21, same venue: "... she seems to be absolutely happy when giving out the charming melody; she enjoys it and has the gift of conveying her enjoyment to her hearers".The Times, Saturday, Feb 21, 1920; pg. 12
1923: Queen's Hall, Dvorak v concerto: "Miss Menges fully realized the warmth and passion of the Czech and the power of the fiddle to convey it"The Times, Monday, Sep 24, 1923; pg. 10
1926, Queen's Hall, Beethoven v concerto: "..capably played.. but improved as the work proceeded. In the first movement her playing was rather cold and uninspired with unimaginative performance by the orchestra.. However she warmed up to the lyrical dialogue in the second movement, and entered upon the third with a gusto..."The Times, Saturday, Sep 25, 1926; pg. 12
1923 – Sonata in D. "...the best thing on the violin in... This is a glorious piece of playing...."Gramophone, August 1923, p51
Bach
1924 – Chaconne, His Master's Voice D 875-6
Beethoven
1923 – Concerto; with Royal Albert Hall Orchestra under Landon Ronald
1925 – Kreuzer sonata; with Arthur De Greef
Brahms
1929 – 2nd and 3rd sonatas; with Harold Samuel
Schubert
1928 – Sonata (Sonatina) for Violin and Piano in G minor, D408; with Arthur de Greef
Vaughan Williams
1928 – The Lark Ascending for violin and orchestra (premiere recording); with Malcolm Sargent
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