The Art of Violin

The Art of Violin
by Bruno Monsaingeon

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Movie Reviews of The Art of Violin

Movie Review: Great Leagacy
Summary: 5 Stars

And then some of these giants come back again, like Elman played a passage of Tsaichovsky and then Humoresque altogether lasted for about 5 min. And then there was Heifetz, playing Paganini Caprice no. 24 for 2.5 min. and then Wieniawsky's Polonaise in D ( 4.5 min. ) recorded in '55 and then a passage of Tsaichovsky of about 2 min recorded in '45. And then we have Milstein for about 10 mins playing Bach, Paganininia and Brahms concerto. Any lover of violin music would pay any price for these clips and the quality of these clips are very acceptable. The clips for Elman really captured the beauty of his tone quite well. The clips of Heifetz are all extremely expressive. One clip witnessed his enormous sense of drama and the other his virtuosity: saying Heifetz didn't play with feelings could hardly hold water. And the cleanliness of articulation of Milstein was also well captured.

On top of all these, we have 2 clips of Ginette Neveu totalling 4.5 min ; 2 clips of Thibaud ( Spanish dance and Malaguena ) for 3.5 min; 2 clips of Szeryng ( Bach and Hungarian Dance ) for 3 min; Menuhin ( St Mathew's Passion; Hungarian Dance; Chaconne in D ) totalling about 9 min.

We also have short clips of Kogan, Ida Haendel playing or even Ysaye for a min. or so ( but the picture quality of Ysaye is very poor ). There is also a acceptable clip of Kreisler, and a very nice clip of Szegeti. The first part finishes with Hassid's most beautiful as well as saddest sound when he played the Hebrew Melody, and for the second or last part, it ends with Meuhin playing Mozart again.

essntially, this is not a history of the violinists nor the school of violinists, it merely shows us the varieties of violinists. One would like it to take a better coverage and one wonders why padagogues like Joachim, Sarasate, Carl Flesch, Auer, Hubay... got left out. Nor was there any mention of Morini or Huberman?

Moreover, a lot of what the commentator Mr Perlman said needn't be included, nor were some of the comments from Hilary Hann. Fortunately, a lot was made up by the contribution from the other commentators like Menuhin, Ida Haendel or Gitles: they are most enlightening. Ida Haendel definitely has more insight than Perlman whereas the other commentator Gitlis, like his playing, is so precise and to the point, making it up so much.

It's great legacy. How can one ever miss this?