Sir Yehudi Menuhin, who died in March 1999, was both the founder and for 40 years the guiding spirit of the summer music festival that is named after him in the Swiss town of Gstaad. The Gstaad festival commissioned the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932) to write the Menuhin-Sonata as a memorial to the great violinist. Dmitry Sitkovetsky (Violin) and Michel Dalberto (Piano) premiered the piece in Saanen – a suitable musical hommage and tribute to one of the most influential musical personalities of the 20th century.