Jascha Heifetz | |
|---|---|
 Heifetz in the 1920s | |
| Born | (1901-02-02)February 2, 1901 Vilnius,Russian Empire (now Lithuania) |
| Died | December 10, 1987(1987-12-10) (aged 86) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Violinist |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | Official website |
Jascha Heifetz (/ˈhaɪfɪts/; February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1901 – December 10, 1987) was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.[1] Born inVilnius, he was soon recognized as achild prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin style inSt. Petersburg. Accompanying his parents to escape the violence of theRussian Revolution, he moved to the United States as a teenager, where hisCarnegie Hall debut was rapturously received.Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said after hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."[2]
By the age of 18, Heifetz was the highest-paid violinist in the world.[3] He had a long and successful concert career, including wartime service with theUnited Service Organizations (USO).[4] After an injury to his right (bowing) arm in 1972, he switched his focus to teaching.[5][6][7]
Heifetz was born into aLithuanian-Jewish family inVilnius (which was then part of theRussian Empire, and is currently the capital ofLithuania).[8] Reuven Heifetz, Jascha's father, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilnius Theatre Orchestra for one season before it closed down. When Jascha was an infant, his father conducted a series of tests to observe how his son reacted to his violin playing. This convinced him that Jascha had exceptional musical potential. Before Jascha turned two, his father purchased a small violin for him and began teaching him basicviolin techniques, including bowing and simple fingering.[9]
In 1906, at the age of five, Heifetz began attending the local music school in Vilna, where he studied under Ilya Malkin. He was recognized as a child prodigy and made his public debut at the age of seven in Kovno (now known asKaunas, Lithuania), performing theMendelssohnViolin Concerto. In 1910, he joined the violin class of Ionnes Nalbandian at theSaint Petersburg Conservatory and later studied for six years with the renowned violin teacherLeopold Auer.[10]
He played in Germany and Scandinavia, and metFritz Kreisler for the first time in a Berlin private house, in a "private press matinee on May 20, 1912. The home was that of Arthur Abell, the pre-eminent Berlin music critic for the American magazine,Musical Courier. Among other noted violinists in attendance was Fritz Kreisler. After the 12-year-old Heifetz performed the Mendelssohn violin concerto, Abell reported that Kreisler said to all present, 'We may as well break our fiddles across our knees.'"[11]
Heifetz visited much of Europe while still in his teens. In April 1911, he performed in an outdoor concert in St. Petersburg before 25,000 spectators; there was such a reaction that police officers needed to protect the young violinist after the concert. In 1914, he performed with theBerlin Philharmonic conducted byArthur Nikisch. The conductor said he had never heard such an excellent violinist.[2]
| External audio | |
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 You may hear Jascha Heifetz performingPyotr Tchaikovsky'sViolin Concerto in D Major Opus 35 with SirJohn Barbirolli conducting theLondon Philharmonic in 1937Here |
To avoid theRussian Revolution, Heifetz and his family left Russia in 1917, traveling by rail to the Russian far east and then by ship to the United States, arriving in San Francisco. On October 27, 1917, Heifetz played for the first time in the United States, atCarnegie Hall in New York City, and became an immediate sensation.[12][13]Fellow violinistMischa Elman in the audience asked "Do you think it's hot in here?", whereupon the pianistLeopold Godowsky, in the next seat, replied, "Not for pianists."[14]
In 1917, Heifetz was elected an honorary member ofPhi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha chapter at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. At 16, he was perhaps the youngest person ever elected to membership in the organization. Heifetz remained in the country and became a United States citizen in 1925. A story circulates that tells of an interaction with one of theMarx Brothers: when he told the brother (usuallyGroucho orHarpo) that he had been earning his living as a musician since the age of seven, he received the reply, "Before that, I suppose, you were just a bum."[15]
On April 17, 1926, Heifetz performed atEin Harod, then the center ofMandatory Palestine’skibbutz movement.[16]
In May 1945 Heifetz played with his son forIvan Konev andOmar Bradley inKassel.[17]
In 1954, Heifetz began working with pianist Brooks Smith, who was Heifetz's accompanist for many years until he changed toAyke Agus as his accompanist in retirement.[18] He was also accompanied in concert for more than 20 years byEmanuel Bay, another immigrant from Russia and a personal friend.[citation needed] Bay facilitated the commission of Miklós Rózsa'sViolin Concerto, which Heifetz premiered in 1956.[19] Heifetz's musicianship was such that he would demonstrate to his accompanist how he wanted passages to sound on the piano, and would even suggest which fingerings to use.[20]
After the seasons of 1955–56, Heifetz announced that he would sharply curtail his concert activity, saying "I have been playing for a very long time." In 1958, he tripped in his kitchen and fractured his right hip, resulting in hospitalization atCedars of Lebanon Hospital and a near fatal staphylococcus infection. He was invited to play Beethoven at the United Nations General Assembly, and entered leaning on a cane. By 1967, Heifetz had considerably curtailed his concert performances.[21]
Heifetz was "regarded as the greatest violin virtuoso sincePaganini", wrote Lois Timnick of theLos Angeles Times.[3] "He set all standards for 20th-century violin playing...everything about him conspired to create a sense of awe", wrote music criticHarold Schonberg ofThe New York Times.[22] "The goals he set still remain, and for violinists today it's rather depressing that they may never really be attained again", wrote violinistItzhak Perlman.[23]
Virgil Thomson described Heifetz as being the master of playing "silk underwear music", a characterization he did not intend as a compliment. Other critics argue that he infused his playing with feeling and reverence for the composer's intentions. His style of playing was highly influential in defining the way modern violinists approached the instrument. His use of rapidvibrato, emotionally chargedportamento, fast tempi, and superb bow control coalesced to create a highly distinctive sound that makes Heifetz's playing instantly recognizable to aficionados. Itzhak Perlman, who himself is known for his rich warm tone and expressive use of portamento, described Heifetz's tone as like "a tornado" because of its emotional intensity. Perlman said that Heifetz preferred to record relatively close to the microphone—and as a result, one would perceive a somewhat different tone quality when listening to Heifetz during a concert hall performance.[24]
Heifetz was very particular about his choice of strings. He used a silver-wound Tricoloregut G string, plain unvarnished gut D and A strings, and a Goldbrokat medium steel E string, and employed clear Hill-brandrosin sparingly. Heifetz believed that playing on gut strings was important in rendering an individual sound.[25]
Heifetz made his first recordings in Russia during 1910–11, while still a student of Leopold Auer. The existence of these recordings was not generally known until after Heifetz's death, when several sides, includingFrançois Schubert'sL'Abeille, were reissued on anLP included as a supplement toThe Strad magazine.[26][failed verification]
On November 9, 1917, shortly after his Carnegie Hall debut, Heifetz made his first recordings for theVictor Talking Machine Company/RCA Victor where he remained for most of the rest of his career. On October 28, 1927, Heifetz was the starring act at the grand opening ofTucson, Arizona's now-historic Temple of Music and Art.[27] For several years, in the 1930s, Heifetz recorded primarily forHis Master's Voice in the UK because RCA Victor cut back on expensive classical recording sessions during theGreat Depression; these His Master's Voice discs were issued in the United States by RCA Victor. Heifetz often enjoyed playing chamber music. Various critics have blamed his limited success in chamber ensembles to the fact that his artistic personality tended to overwhelm his colleagues. Collaborations include his 1941 recordings ofpiano trios by Beethoven, Schubert, andBrahms with cellistEmanuel Feuermann and pianistArthur Rubinstein as well as a later collaboration with Rubinstein and cellistGregor Piatigorsky, with whom he recorded trios byMaurice Ravel,Tchaikovsky, andFelix Mendelssohn. Both formations were sometimes referred to as theMillion Dollar Trio. Heifetz also recorded some string quintets with violinistIsrael Baker, violistsWilliam Primrose andVirginia Majewski, and Piatigorsky.[11]
Heifetz recorded the BeethovenViolin Concerto in 1940 with theNBC Symphony Orchestra conducted byArturo Toscanini, and again in stereo in 1955 with theBoston Symphony Orchestra conducted byCharles Munch. A live performance of an NBC radio broadcast from April 9, 1944, of Heifetz playing the MendelssohnViolin Concerto with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony has also been released, unofficially.[11]
He performed and recordedErich Wolfgang Korngold'sViolin Concerto at a time when Korngold's scoring of films forWarner Bros. prompted many classical musicians to develop the opinion Korngold was not a "serious" composer and to avoid his music in order to avoid being associated with him.[11]
During the war, Heifetz commissioned a number of pieces, including theViolin Concerto byWilliam Walton. He also arranged a number of pieces, such asHora Staccato byGrigoraș Dinicu, a Romanian whom Heifetz is rumoured to have called the greatest violinist he had ever heard. Heifetz also played and composed for the piano.[28] He performed mess hall jazz for soldiers at Allied camps across Europe during the Second World War, and under the alias Jim Hoyl he wrote a hit song, "When You Make Love to Me (Don't Make Believe)", which was sung byBing Crosby.
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From 1944 to 1946, largely as a result of theAmerican Federation of Musicians recording ban (which began in 1942), Heifetz recorded with American Decca because the company settled with the union in 1943, well before RCA Victor resolved their dispute with the musicians. He recorded primarily short pieces, including his own arrangements of music byGeorge Gershwin andStephen Foster; these were pieces he often played as encores in his recitals. He was accompanied on the piano by Emanuel Bay or Milton Kaye. Among the more uncommon discs featured one of Decca's popular artists,Bing Crosby, in the "Lullaby" fromBenjamin Godard's operaJocelyn andWhere My Caravan Has Rested (arranged by Heifetz and Crosby) byHermann Löhr (1871–1943); Decca's studio orchestra was conducted byVictor Young on July 27, 1946, session. Heifetz soon returned to RCA Victor, where he continued to make recordings until the early 1970s.[29]
Returning to RCA Victor in 1946, Heifetz continued to record extensively for the company, including solo, chamber, and concerto recordings, primarily with theBoston Symphony Orchestra underCharles Munch and theChicago Symphony Orchestra underFritz Reiner.In 2000, RCA released a double CD compilation entitledJascha Heifetz – The Supreme. This release provides a sampling of Heifetz's major recordings, including the 1955 recording ofBrahms'sViolin Concerto with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the 1957 recording ofTchaikovsky'sViolin Concerto (with the same forces); the 1959 recording ofSibelius'sViolin Concerto withWalter Hendl and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the 1961 recording ofMax Bruch'sScottish Fantasy with SirMalcolm Sargent and theNew Symphony Orchestra of London; the 1963 recording ofGlazunov'sA minor Concerto with Walter Hendl and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra (drawn from New York musicians); the 1965 recording ofGeorge Gershwin'sThree Preludes (transcribed by Heifetz) with pianist Brooks Smith; and the 1970 recording ofBach's unaccompaniedChaconne from thePartita No. 2 in D minor.
On his third tour to Israel in 1953, Heifetz included theViolin Sonata byRichard Strauss in his recitals. At the time, many considered Strauss and a number of other German intellectuals Nazis, or at least Nazi sympathizers, and Strauss works were unofficially banned in Israel along with those ofRichard Wagner. Despite the fact that theHolocaust had occurred less than ten years earlier and a last-minute plea fromBen-Zion Dinur, the Israeli Minister of Education, the defiant Heifetz argued, "The music is above these factors … I will not change my program. I have the right to decide on my repertoire." In Haifa his performance of the Strauss sonata was greeted with applause, however in Tel Aviv it was followed by dead silence.[30]
Heifetz was attacked after his recital inJerusalem outside his hotel by a young man who struck Heifetz's violin case with a crowbar, prompting Heifetz to use his bow-controlling right hand to protect his priceless violins. The attacker escaped and was never found. The attack has since been attributed to theKingdom of Israel militant group.[31][32] The incident made headlines and Heifetz defiantly announced that he would not stop playing the Strauss. Threats continued to come, however, and he omitted the Strauss from his next recital without explanation. His last concert was cancelled after his swollen right hand began to hurt. He left Israel and did not return until 1970.
Heifetz married twice for 17 years each. His first wife was silent film actressFlorence Vidor, the ex-wife of film directorKing Vidor. Florence was 33 and Jascha was 27 when they married in August 1928, with the Jewish media commenting that she was a Christian from Texas marrying a Russian Jew. Florence brought her nine-year-old daughter, Suzanne Vidor, into the marriage.[33] The union produced one daughter, Josefa Heifetz, born in 1930, and a son named Robert Joseph Heifetz, born in 1932.[11] Jascha Heifetz filed for divorce at the end of 1945 inSanta Ana, California.[34]
Heifetz married a second time, wedding Frances Spiegelberg (1911-2000) in January 1947 inBeverly Hills.[35] Frances was a society lady from New York who also had a previous marriage with two children, ending in divorce. Their son Joseph "Jay" Heifetz was born in September 1948 in Los Angeles. Heifetz divorced her in 1963,[11] with temporary alimony ordered by the court in January,[36] and the divorce finalized in December.[37]
Heifetz enjoyed sailing off the coast ofSouthern California, and he was astamp collector. He played tennis and ping-pong, and amassed a personal library of books.[11]
After an only partially successful operation on his right shoulder in 1972, Heifetz ceased giving concerts and making records. His prowess as a performer remained, and he still played privately until the end—but his bow arm was affected, and he could never again hold the bow as high as before.
Late in life, Heifetz was known as a dedicated teacher and a champion of socio-political causes. He publicly advocated to establish9-1-1 as an emergency phone number, and crusaded for clean air. He and his students at theUniversity of Southern California protested smog by wearing gas masks, and in 1967, he converted his Renault passenger car into an electric vehicle.[38]
Heifetz taught the violin extensively, holding master classes first atUCLA, then at theUniversity of Southern California, where the faculty included renowned cellistGregor Piatigorsky and violistWilliam Primrose. For a few years in the 1980s, he also held classes in his private studio at home in Beverly Hills. His teaching studio can be seen today in the main building of theColburn School and serves as an inspiration to the students there. During his teaching career Heifetz taught, among others,Erick Friedman,Pierre Amoyal, Adam Han-Gorski,Rudolf Koelman, Endre Granat, Teiji Okubo,Eugene Fodor,Paul Rosenthal,Ilkka Talvi andAyke Agus.[11]
Heifetz died atCedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, on December 10, 1987, at the age of 86 following a fall in his home.[1]
Heifetz owned three Stradivarius violins during his life including the 1714Dolphin Stradivarius, the 1731 "Piel" Stradivarius, and the 1734 'Habeneck' made in Cremona.[39] He also owned the 1736 Carlo Tononi, and the 1742ex DavidGuarneri del Gesù, the last of which he preferred and kept until his death.[40]
The Dolphin Strad is currently owned by the Nippon Music Foundation and is on loan toRay Chen. The Heifetz Tononi violin, used at his 1917 Carnegie Hall debut, was left in his will toSherry Kloss, his Master-Teaching Assistant, with "one of my four good bows". Violinist Kloss wroteJascha Heifetz Through My Eyes, and is a co-founder of the Jascha Heifetz Society.[41]
The famed Guarneri is now in the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum, as instructed by Heifetz in his will, and may only be taken out and played "on special occasions" by deserving players. The instrument has recently been on loan to San Francisco Symphony'sconcertmasterAlexander Barantschik, who featured it in 2006 withAndrei Gorbatenko and theSan Francisco Academy Orchestra.[42] In 1989, Heifetz received a posthumousGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Heifetz's first child, Josefa, is alexicographer, the author of theDictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words. Her married name is Josefa Heifetz Byrne.[43]
Heifetz's second child, Robert, picked up a love of sailing from his father. He taughturban planning at several colleges and universities. He was a peace activist who protested US military intervention around the world, and encouraged peace talks between Israel and Palestine. He died of cancer in 2001.[44]
Heifetz's third child, known as Jay, is a professional photographer. He was head of marketing for theLos Angeles Philharmonic andHollywood Bowl, and the chief financial officer ofParamount Pictures' Worldwide Video Division. He lives and works inFremantle,Western Australia.
Heifetz's grandson is musicianDaniel Mark "Danny" Heifetz, born in 1964, who served as a long-time drummer for several bands, best known for his decade withMr. Bungle during 1988–1999.[45]
Heifetz played a featured role in the movieThey Shall Have Music (1939), directed byArchie Mayo and written byJohn Howard Lawson and Irmgard von Cube.[46] He played himself, stepping in to save a music school for poor children from foreclosure. He later appeared in the film,Carnegie Hall (1947), performing an abridged version of the first movement of Tchaikovsky'sViolin Concerto, with the orchestra led byFritz Reiner. In 1951, he appeared in the filmOf Men and Music. In 1962, he appeared in a televised series of his master classes, and, in 1971,Heifetz on Television aired, an hour-long color special in which he performed a series of short works: theScottish Fantasy byMax Bruch, and theChaconne from thePartita No. 2 byJ. S. Bach. Heifetz conducted the orchestra, as the surviving video recording documents.[citation needed]
| External audio | |
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| You may hear Jascha Heifetz performingJohannes Brahms'Violin Concerto in D Major Opus 77 withSerge Koussevitzky conducting theBoston Symphony Orchestra in 1939Here on archive.org |
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