Swept Away on Strings of True Masters

The violin is such a difficult instrument to play that it takes years before most people can produce even an acceptable sound. Yet virtually every major virtuoso has become a master before age 12. If they haven’t, they’re not likely to, ever.

This is one of the startling claims that emerges in Bruno Monsaingeon’s fascinating, sprawling two-part film, “The Art of the Violin,” to be screened tonight at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

The first hour focuses on the changes in the way the violin was played in the 20th century. The second concentrates more on personalities. In truth, segments from either part could be interchanged without anyone particularly noticing a difference.

What holds the first hour loosely together is the idea--expressed in a filmed interview with Itzhak Perlman--that artists of previous generations had readily identifiable individual voices. He implies that his generation and those that followed do not.

Yet among the eloquent interviewees, Perlman included, are younger violinists such as Hilary Hahn and Laurent Korcia, who express themselves quite distinctly and to the point, at least in speech.

Best just to savor the performances in both hours by such giants as Elman, Francescatti, Heifetz, Kreisler, Stern, Thibaud, Ysaye and a host of others, including tragic figures such as Michael Rabin (died of an overdose), Joseph Hassid (fell silent at the onset of schizophrenia) and Ginette Neveu (en route to a tour of the United States, disappeared in a plane crash off the Azores).

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Some of the most moving footage includes that of Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh playing Bach’s Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and Menuhin playing the Chaconne from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2. Historical performance issues be damned. Anyone not swept away by either of them should head for the nearest emergency room.

They might have to anyway. It’s a heady experience to be lifted so repeatedly into such exalted artistic realms.

* Bruno Monsaingeon’s “The Art of the Violin” will screen tonight at 7 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. $12. (800) 300-4345.