Bruno Monsaingeon Edition, Vol. 2 - Yehudi Menuhin Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Bruno Monsaingeon Edition, Vol. 2 - Yehudi Menuhin Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 19, 2014

When Yehudi Menuhin died on March 12, 1999, he was regarded as one of the finest, if not the finest, violinists of the 20th century, a title documentary Bruno Monsaingeon actually refers to in one of the pieces included on this four Blu-ray compilation. Violin of the Century is just one of several fascinating documentaries and performances captured by Monsaingeon over the course of close to two decades between 1979 and 1996. A complete list of contents is found below, but there’s a nice variety here of interview footage, tour documentaries as well as a glut of performances, including everything from Bach to Brahms to Bartok. Video quality is fairly erratic, but for the most part audio quality is very good to excellent.

The contents of this four disc set are:

Disc One

The Violin of the Century (1080i; 1:55:06) French and English LPCM 2.0 Mono

Conversations with Yehudi Menuhin — Mykonos, June 1994 (1080i; 3:06:13) LPCM 2.0

Disc Two

Retour aux Sources: Yehudi Menuhin in the Soviet Union — First Episode (1080i; 52:24) LPCM 2.0

Yehudi Menuhin in Moscow (1080i; 2:06:18) LPCM 2.0

Encores (1080i; 7:07) LPCM 2.0

Retour aux Sources: Yehudi Menuhin in the Soviet Union — Second Episode (1080i; 52:35) LPCM 2.0

Yehudi Menuhin and Victoria Postnikova in Leningrad (1080i; 1:35:36) LPCM 2.0 Mono

Note: There was a packaging error in the review copy sent to me. Though the disc was correct, its envelope said Disc 3, so that the package had two Disc 3 envelopes.

Disc Three

Retour aux Sources: Yehudi Menuhin in the Soviet Union — Third Episode (1080i; 55:14) LPCM 2.0

Yehudi Menuhin in Leningrad (1080i; 1:28:30) LPCM 2.0 Mono

Yehudi Menuhin and Victoria Postnikova in Moscow (1080i; 48:30) LPCM 2.0

Tchaikovsky’s Trio (1080i; 51:05) LPCM 2.0

Disc Four (BD 25)

The Four Seasons (1080i; 51:18) Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 (1080i; 58:08) Dolby Digital 2.0

"Do You Realize How Much “I Love Music”? — Monsaingeon on Menuhin (1080i; 58:00) 1.78:1 Dolby Digital 2.0

Le Grand Echiquier: Yehudi Menuhin (1080i; 5:16) Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

The Elgar Concerto 3rd Movement (1080i; 16:08) Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Bruno Monsaingeon Edition, Vol. 2 - Yehudi Menuhin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bruno Monsaingeon Edition 2: Yehudi Menuhin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Euroarts with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer mostly in 1.33:1 (see the contents listing above for exceptions). While no actual technical data on the video is included in this set, it seems evident that these are upconverts, and fairly ragged looking ones at that. There are manifold video anomalies present, from roll off to tear to some pretty ugly sharpening that has added distinct halos. The interview segments seem to fare the best, with at least a reasonbably detailed image, but nothing here really even comes close to rising to traditional high definition sharpness and clarity.

Bruno Monsaingeon Edition, Vol. 2 - Yehudi Menuhin Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Most of the discs feature LPCM 2.0 and LPCM 2.0 Mono mixes which capably support the spoken moments and offer at least baseline fidelity for the musical elements. Somewhat strangely, the fourth disc only contains Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes, which are noticeably less full bodied. There are no actual issues with distortion or other damage.

Bruno Monsaingeon Edition, Vol. 2 - Yehudi Menuhin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080i; 3:30). Disc Three contains a trailer for Bruno Monsaingeon Edition 1 - Dietrich Fischer Dieskau.

Bruno Monsaingeon Edition, Vol. 2 - Yehudi Menuhin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The historical importance of these interviews and performances probably outweighs the insufficiencies of the video (and in a couple of cases, the audio). This will be a must have for Menuhin fans, for it contains a glut of biographical data, much of it relayed by Menuhin himself, as well as some winning performances.