From The Times, London June 4 1999

   Eclectic, impish, humane - Menuhin touched many lives, writes Michael
   Binyon

   HE WOULD have smiled that innocent, almost impish, smile to see
   so many friends - from such a diversity of countries, classes and
   religions.  There were Queens, Princes, Prime Ministers and Presidents.
   Ambassadors mixed with impresarios, teachers with human rights
   campaigners, and musicians with broadcasters.

   All were friends of Yehudi Menuhin.  And, gathered yesterday in
   Westminster Abbey, they all paid tribute to a man whom the Dalai Lama
   called a "spiritual brother" and Nelson Mandela saluted as a world
   citizen and ambassador of goodwill.

   The memorial service, one of the most glittering the abbey has seen
   for years, was itself a mirror of Lord Menuhin's life: eclectic,
   multicultural, multinational and inspirational.  The prodigy who
   first beguiled audiences with his playing more than 70 years ago -
   and made his first gramophone record in 1928 - had in his hectic life
   gathered friends from every part of the world.  The service reflected
   them all.

   Most of the great world faiths were represented: Prince Sadruddin
   Aga Khan quoted the Koran and spoke of Menuhin's "frugal, modest
   life", which he lived "according to God's will and a scrupulous sense
   of justice".  Rabbi David Goldberg read from Isaiah and intoned the
   Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

   Dom Laurence Freeman, a monk, read a message from another monk, the
   Dalai Lama, who said he had lost "a dear friend and comrade-in-arms
   in the struggle for a more peaceful and compassionate world".  Desmond
   Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, spoke of the lifelong
   inspiration he had found as a teenager hearing Menuhin play in the
   shanty towns of South Africa.

   And the very soul of England, the country Menuhin finally made his
   own, sang out in full-throated rendering of All People That on Earth
   do Dwell and Jerusalem.

   Baroness Thatcher, seated opposite Sir Edward Heath, sang along with
   dozens of ambassadors, past and present, who represented the many
   countries in which Menuhin played so often and to such acclaim.  The
   crowned and formerly crowned heads of Europe were there: the Queen
   of Spain and Queen Fabiola of the Belgians, King Constantine of Greece
   and Queen Anne-Marie, Princess Margarita of Romania, Prince Radu of
   Hohenzollern, Prince Hassan of Jordan, and the Crown Prince and
   Princess of Yugoslavia - celebrating Menuhin's many initiatives for
   world peace just as their country was on the brink of making peace
   with the world.

   But as Professor George Steiner emphasised in his address, the glitter
   and glamour were, for Menuhin, of little consequence.  He reached
   out not only to audiences and musicians but also to the downtrodden
   and oppressed, refugees and those seeking reconciliation.  He was,
   Professor Steiner said, a "guru" to the world whose ecumenicism was
   "rooted in enlightenment and the anguished clairvoyance of the dangers
   that now surround us".

   One nation that above all others honoured and took Menuhin to its
   heart was Germany - for his early and sometimes unpopular role in
   leading the moves for reconciliation with the former wartime enemy.
   Dozens came from Germany for the service: Rita Sussmuth, former
   speaker of the Bundestag, former German ambassadors and statesmen,
   players, musicians and cultural representatives.

   But Menuhin's striving for reconciliation between nations was, as
   Professor Steiner put it kindly, full of innocence.  And he related
   a story that brought a smile to everyone who had ever experienced
   Menuhin's anguished enthusiasms.  During the Six-Day War in 1967,
   Menuhin telephoned him late at night.  "You must join me.  Ten of us
   must go immediately to the Middle East and put ourselves between the
   front lines." That, he insisted, would immediately bring about a
   ceasefire between the Arabs and Israelis.  And Professor Steiner told
   the abbey that ever since he has suffered twinges of regret at the
   note of levity and cynicism with which he discouraged Menuhin from
   his scheme.

   There was, of course, beautiful music at the service.  The soprano
   Arianna Zukerman, accompanied by Daniel Hope on the violin, sang
   Erbarme dich, mein Gott from Bach's St Matthew Passion; the young
   tenor Ian Bostridge filled the overflowing abbey with Comfort ye my
   people from Handel's Messiah; and, fittingly, two of the pupils from
   the Yehudi Menuhin School in Stoke D'Abernon, Alina Ibragimova and
   Nicola Benedetti, played the adagio from Bach's concerto for two
   violins.

   Perhaps the most moving point, however, was the prayer that Menuhin
   himself wrote - movingly read by his sons, Krov and Gerard.  It was
   a typical Menuhin prayer - inspirational, wide-ranging, eclectic,
   humane and, like so many of his writings, in need of editing.

   In it he called for help in preserving his capacity for "wonder,
   ecstasy and discovery", asked to be allowed to awaken the sense of
   beauty and asked never to lose "the life-giving exercise of protecting
   all that breathes and thirsts and hungers: all that suffers".

   He added: "may those who survive me not mourn but continue to be as
   helpful, kind and wise to others as they were to me.

   "Although I would love to enjoy some years yet the fruits of my lucky
   and rich life, with my precious wife, family, music, friends, literature
   and many projects, in this world of diverse cultures and peoples I
   have already received such blessing, affection and protection as
   would satisfy a thousand lives."

Tony Duggan
Staffordshire,
United Kingdom.