1951 Violinist JASCHA HEIFETZ Hand SIGNED AUTOGRAPH + PHOTO + MAT Jewish VIOLIN

$581.70 $546.80 Buy It Now or Best Offer, $48.90 Shipping, 30-Day Returns, eBay Money Back Guarantee
Seller: judaica-bookstore ✉️ (2,805) 100%, Location: TEL AVIV, IL, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 285694067752 1951 Violinist JASCHA HEIFETZ Hand SIGNED AUTOGRAPH + PHOTO + MAT Jewish VIOLIN.

DESCRIPTION : Up for auction is an original BEAUTIFUL , BOLDLY HAND SIGNED and DATED 1951 AUTOGRAPH              ( Autograph -Signature - Autogramme ) With a blue pen of the beloved legendary Jewish violinist of Lithuanian  ( Wilna-Wilno-Vilnius ) descent, The child prodigy JASCHA HEIFETZ - "JASCHA HEIFETZ 1951" . The original AUTOGRAPH is beautifuly and professionaly matted beneath an IMPRESSIVE reproduction ARTISTIC ACTION PHOTO of quite young and heart breaking handsome HEIFETZ emotionaly playing his violin. The AUTOGRAPH and the reproduction ACTION PHOTO are nicely matted together , Suitable for immediate framing or display . ( An image of a suggested framing is presented - The frame is not a part of this sale - An excellent framing - Buyer's choice - is possible for extra $ 80 ). The size of the decorative mat is around   10.5 x 10 " . The size of the reproduction action photo is around 5 x 7 " . The size of the autograph ( Autogramme - Signature ) is around  3.5 x 2 " . Excellent condition of the hand signed AUTOGRAPH , The original reproduction action photo and the decorative mat  . ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images )  Authenticity guaranteed.  Will be sent inside a protective rigid packaging .    

AUTHENTICITY : The AUTOGRAPH is fully guaranteed ORIGINAL HAND SIGNED by HEIFETZ in 1951, It holds a life long GUARANTEE for its AUTHENTICITY and ORIGINALITY.

PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal & All credit cards. SHIPPMENT : SHIPP worldwide via registered airmail is $29  . Will be sent inside a protective packaging. Handling around  5-10 days after payment. 

Jascha Heifetz (/ˈhaɪfɪts/; 2 February  [O.S. 20 January] 1901 – 10 December 1987) was a violinist, considered by many to be the greatest violinist of all time. Born in Wilno, Russian Empire (present-day Vilnius, Lithuania), he moved as a teenager to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso since childhood—Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said on hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."[1] He had a long and successful performing and recording career; after an injury to his right (bowing) arm, he focused on teaching.[2][3][4][5] Contents  [hide]  1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Technique and timbre 2.2 Early recordings 3 Wartime 3.1 Decca recordings 4 Later recordings 4.1 Third Israel tour 5 Immigration to the U.S. 6 Later life 6.1 Death 7 Legacy 8 Family 9 Filmography 10 Notable instruments 11 Discography 12 In popular culture 13 See also 14 References 15 External links Early life[edit] This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Heifetz was born into a Russian Jewish family in Wilno, then part of the Russian Empire.[6] His father, Reuven Heifetz, son of Elie, was a local violin teacher and served as the concertmaster of the Vilnius Theatre Orchestra for one season before the theatre closed down. While Jascha was an infant, his father did a series of tests, observing how his son responded to his fiddling. This convinced him that Jascha had great potential, and before Jascha was two years old, his father bought him a small violin, and taught him bowing and simple fingering.[7] At five years old, he started lessons with Leopold Auer. He was a child prodigy, making his public debut at seven, in Kovno (now Kaunas, Lithuania) playing theViolin Concerto in E minor by Felix Mendelssohn. In 1910 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory to study under Leopold Auer.[citation needed] He played in Germany and Scandinavia, and met Fritz 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.'"[8] Heifetz visited much of Europe while still in his teens. In April 1911, Heifetz performed in an outdoor concert in St. Petersburg before 25,000 spectators; there was such a sensational reaction that police officers needed to protect the young violinist after the concert. In 1914, he performed with the Berlin Philharmonicconducted by Arthur Nikisch. The conductor was very impressed, saying he had never heard such an excellent violinist.[9] Career[edit] In 1917 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 27 October 1917, Heifetz played for the first time in the United States, at Carnegie Hall inNew York, and became an immediate sensation.[10][11] Fellow violinist Mischa Elman in the audience asked "Do you think it's hot in here?", whereupon the pianist Leopold Godowsky, in the next seat, imperturbably replied, "Not for pianists."[12] In 1917, Heifetz was elected as an honorary member of Phi 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. As he was aged 16 at the time, he was perhaps the youngest person ever elected to membership in the organization. Heifetz remained in the country and became an American citizen in 1925. When he told admirer Groucho Marx he had been earning his living as a musician since the age of seven, Groucho answered, "And I suppose before that you were just a bum."[citation needed] In 1954, Heifetz began working with pianist Brooks Smith, who would serve as Heifetz's accompanist for many years until he chose Dr. Ayke Agus as his accompanist.[13] He was also accompanied in concert for more than 20 years by Emmanuel Bay, another immigrant from Russia and a personal friend.[citation needed] 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.[14] 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 hospitalisation 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.[15] Technique and timbre[edit] This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Heifetz was "regarded as the greatest violin virtuoso since Paganini," wrote Lois Timnick of the Los Angeles Times.[16] "He set all standards for 20th-century violin playing...everything about him conspired to create a sense of awe," wrote music critic Harold Schonberg of the New York Times.[17] "The goals he set still remain, and for violinists today it's rather depressing that they may never really be attained again," wrote violinist Itzhak Perlman.[18] Virgil Thomson, possibly referencing Richard Wagner's reputed taste for silk next to his skin, called Heifetz's style of playing "silk underwear music", a term 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 approach the instrument. His use of rapid vibrato, emotionally charged portamento, fast tempi, and superb bow control coalesced to create a highly distinctive sound that makes Heifetz's playing instantly recognizable to aficionados. The violinist Itzhak Perlman, who himself is noted for his rich warm tone and expressive use of portamento, describes Heifetz's tone as like "a tornado" because of its emotional intensity. Perlman said that Heifetz preferred to be recorded relatively close to the microphone; as a result, one would perceive a somewhat different tone quality when listening to Heifetz during a concert hall performance.[19] Heifetz was very particular about his choice of strings. He used a silver wound Tricolore gut G string, plain gut unvarnished D and A strings, and a Goldbrokat steel E string medium including clear Hill brand rosin sparingly. Heifetz believed that playing on gut strings was important in rendering an individual sound. Early recordings[edit] This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Heifetz made his first recordings in Russia during 1910–11, while still a student of Leopold Auer. The existence of these recordings was not widely known until after Heifetz's death, when several sides (most notably François Schubert's L'Abeille) were reissued on an LP included as a supplement to The Strad magazine. Shortly after his Carnegie Hall debut on 7 November 1917, Heifetz made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company; he would remain with Victor and its successor, RCA Victor, for most of his career. For several years, in the 1930s, Heifetz recorded primarily for HMV in the UK because RCA Victor cut back on expensive classical recording sessions during the Great Depression; these discs were issued in the US 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. Some notable collaborations include his 1941 recordings of piano trios by Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms with cellist Emanuel Feuermann and pianist Arthur Rubinstein as well as a later collaboration with Rubinstein and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, with whom he recorded trios by Maurice Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Felix Mendelssohn. Both formations were sometimes referred to as the Million Dollar Trio. Heifetz also recorded some string quintets with violinist Israel Baker, violistsWilliam Primrose and Virginia Majewski, and Piatigorsky. He recorded the Beethoven Violin Concerto in 1940 with the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini, and again in stereo in 1955 with theBoston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Munch. A live performance from 9 April 1944, of Heifetz playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, again with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, has also been released. He performed and recorded Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto at a time when Korngold's scoring of numerous films for Warner Brothers prompted many classical musicians to develop the scarcely warranted opinion that Korngold was not a "serious" composer and to avoid his music in order to avoid being associated with him. Wartime[edit] Heifetz commissioned a number of pieces, perhaps most notably the Violin Concerto by William Walton. He also arranged a number of pieces, such as Hora Staccato by Grigoraș 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;[11] 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 by Bing Crosby. Decca recordings[edit] From 1944 to 1946, largely as a result of the American Federation of Musicians recording ban (which actually began in 1942), Heifetz went to American Decca Records to make recordings because Decca 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 by George Gershwin and Stephen 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 most popular artists, Bing Crosby, in the "Lullaby" from Benjamin Godard's opera Jocelyn and Where My Caravan Has Rested (arranged by Heifetz and Crosby) by Hermann Lohr (1872–1943); Decca's studio orchestra was conducted by Victor Young in the 27 July 1946, session. Recorded mostly in small studios, the digitally remastered performances (issued by MCA) have remarkably clear, high fidelity sound. However, Heifetz soon returned to RCA Victor, where he continued to make recordings until the early 1970s.[20] Later recordings[edit] 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 under Charles Munch and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner. In 2000, RCA released a double CD compilation entitled Jascha Heifetz – The Supreme which gives a sampling of Heifetz's major recordings, including the 1955 recording of Brahms's Violin Concerto with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the 1957 recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (with the same forces); the 1959 recording of Sibelius's Violin Concerto with Walter Hendl and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; the 1961 recording of Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the New Symphony Orchestra of London; the 1963 recording of Glazunov's A minor Concerto with Walter Hendl and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra (drawn from New York musicians); the 1965 recording of George Gershwin's Three Preludes (transcribed by Heifetz) with pianist Brooks Smith; and the 1970 recording of Bach'sunaccompanied Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor. Third Israel tour[edit] This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) In Be'er Sheba, Israel, 1953 On his third tour to Israel in 1953, Heifetz included in his recitals the Violin Sonata by Richard Strauss. At the time, Strauss and a number of other German intellectuals were considered by many to be Nazis, or at least Nazi sympathizers, and Strauss works were unofficially banned in Israel along with those of Richard Wagner. Despite the fact that the Holocausthad occurred less than ten years earlier and a last-minute plea from 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." Throughout his tour the performance of the Strauss sonata was followed by dead silence. Heifetz was attacked after his recital in Jerusalem 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. As the attacker started to flee, Heifetz alerted his companions, who were armed, "Shoot that man, he tried to kill me." The attacker escaped and was never found. The attack has since been attributed to the Kingdom of Israel terrorist group.[21][22] The incident made headlines in the press 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. Immigration to the U.S.[edit] This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The Soviet establishment considered Heifetz and his teacher Leopold Auer as traitors to their home country for emigrating to the US. Meanwhile, musicians who remained, such as David Oistrakh, were seen as patriots. Heifetz greatly criticized the Soviet regime; he condemned the International Tchaikovsky Competition for being biased against Western competitors. During the Carl Flesch Competition in London, Oistrakh tried to persuade Erick Friedman, Heifetz's star student, to enter the Tchaikovsky Competition, of which he was the principal juror. Hearing of this, Heifetz strongly advised against it, warning Friedman, "You will see what will happen there." Consequently, the competition received international outrage after Friedman, already a seasoned performer and recording artist for RCA, who had performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, among many others, was placed sixth behind players who had yet to establish themselves. Joseph Szigeti later informed Heifetz himself that he had given his student top scores. Later life[edit] This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) After an only partially successful operation on his right shoulder in 1972, Heifetz ceased giving concerts and making records. Although his prowess as a performer remained intact and he continued to play privately until the end, his bow arm was affected and he could never again hold the bow as high as before. Rudolf Koelman (left) with Heifetz, 1979 Heifetz taught the violin extensively, holding master classes first at UCLA, then at the University of Southern California, where the faculty included renowned cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and violist William 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 the Colburn School and serves as an inspiration to the students there. During his teaching career Heifetz taught, among others, Erick Friedman, Pierre Amoyal, Rudolf Koelman, Endre Granat, Eugene Fodor, Paul Rosenthal,Ilkka Talvi and Ayke Agus.[citation needed] During the last ten years of his life, Heifetz visited Hans Benning at Benning Violins for maintenance on his 1740 Guarneri violin.[23] Death[edit] Heifetz died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California on December 10, 1987, at the age of 86 following a fall at his home.[24] Legacy[edit] This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Heifetz owned the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, the 1731 "Piel" Stradivarius, the 1736 Carlo Tononi, and the 1742 ex David Guarneri del Gesù, the last of which he preferred and kept until his death. The Dolphin Strad is currently owned by the Nippon Music Foundation. The Heifetz Tononi violin, used at his 1917 Carnegie Hall debut, was left in his will to Sherry Kloss, his Master-Teaching Assistant, with "one of my four good bows". Violinist Kloss wrote Jascha Heifetz Through My Eyes, and is a co-founder of the Jascha Heifetz Society. 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's concertmaster Alexander Barantschik, who featured it in 2006 with Andrei Gorbatenko and the San Francisco Academy Orchestra in 2006.[25] In 1989, Heifetz received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Family[edit] This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Heifetz married silent motion picture actress Florence Vidor, ex-wife of King Vidor, in 1928, and adopted her seven-year-old daughter, Suzanne. The couple had two more children, Josefa (born 1930) and Robert (1932–2001) before divorcing in 1945. In 1947, Heifetz married Frances Spielberger Spiegelberg, with whom he had another son, Joseph (known as Jay). The second marriage ended in divorce in 1962. Heifetz's son Jay is a professional photographer. He was formerly head of marketing for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Hollywood Bowl, and the Chief Financial Officer of Paramount Pictures' Worldwide Video Division. He lives and works in Fremantle, Western Australia. Heifetz's daughter, Josefa Heifetz Byrne, is a lexicographer, the author of the Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words.[26] Heifetz's grandson Danny Heifetz is an accomplished drummer/percussionist. Heifetz's extended family was active in Los Angeles progressive political circles in addition to music and art: they include artist Frances Heifetz-Bloch and her husband Kalman Bloch and daughter Michele Zukovsky—co-principal clarinetists for the Los Angeles Philharmonic—and son Gregory Bloch, violinist for the Italian rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, It's A Beautiful Day, and member of theSaturday Night Live orchestra from 1978-80.[citation needed] Although Heifetz had a "difficult" personality, and has even been described as "misanthropic", he enjoyed the company of selected friends who zealously guarded his privacy, he spoke several languages including flawless English, and was an avid bridge and ping-pong player. His childhood had been difficult; his father was an extremely stern man who, even after Jascha had become the family's sole breadwinner, would still roundly criticise every performance.[27] Filmography[edit] Heifetz played a featured role in the movie They Shall Have Music (1939) directed by Archie Mayo and written by John Howard Lawson and Irmgard von Cube. He played himself, stepping in to save a music school for poor children from foreclosure. He later appeared in the 1947 film, Carnegie Hall, performing an abridged version of the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, with the orchestra led by Fritz Reiner, and consoling the star of the picture, who had watched his performance. In 1951, he appeared in the film Of 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 that featured the violinist performing a series of short works, the Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch, and the Chaconnefrom the Partita No. 2 by J. S. Bach. Heifetz conducted the orchestra, as the surviving video recording documents.[citation needed] The most recent film featuring Heifetz, Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler, premiered on 16 April 2011 at the Colburn School of Music. It is described as "The only film biography of the world's most renowned violinist, featuring family home movies in Los Angeles and all over the world. The documentary-like film talks about Heifetz's life and accomplishments and gives an inside view of his personal life."[5] Notable instruments[edit] Dolphin 1714 Stradivarius Heifetz-Piel 1731 Stradivarius Antonio Stradivari 1734 Carlo Tononi 1736 ex-David 1742 Guarneri Guarneri 1740 Discography[edit] Jascha Heifetz was a prolific recording artist. All of his recordings have been reissued on compact disc. J.S. Bach Chaconne DVD Mendelssohn Octet In E Flat Major Mozart Concerto In D Major Mozart Symphonie Concertante In E Flat Major Stravinsky Suite Italienne Toch " Divertimento, Op. 37, No. 2 " Turina " Trio, Op. 35, No. 1 " Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 5 Bach Concerto In A Minor Bach "Sonata No. 1, Partita No. 2 " Bach " Sonata No. 2, Partita No. 3 " Bach " Sonata, No. 3, Partita No. 1 " Beethoven Concerto In D Major Beethoven " Archduke Trio In B Flat Major, Op. 97, No. 7 " Beethoven " Sonata In A Minor, No. 4" Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata Beethoven " Sonata No. 8,Sonata No. 10 " Beethoven " Trios In G, Op. 9, No. 1" Beethoven " Trio In E Flat Major, Op. 3 " Beethoven Violin Concerto In D Beethoven " Trio In D, Op. 9, No. 2" Beethoven " Piano Trio, Op. 1, No. 1 " Bloch Poème Mystique Bloch Sonata Brahms Concerto For Violin And Cello Brahms Piano Quartet In C Minor Brahms " Quintette In G, Op: 111 " Brahms Trio No. 1 In B-Major Brahms " Concerto In D, Op. 77 " Brahms Violin Concerto Brahms 3 Hungarian Dances Brahms Concerto, Chausson – Poème, Bruch – Scottish Fantasy Bruch Scottish Fantasy Bruch " Concerto In G Minor, Op. 26, No. 1" Bruch Concerto No. 2 Bruch Scottish Fantasy Castelnuovo -Tedesco ? Concerto No. 2 Chausson Poème Op. 25 Dohnányi Serenade In C Dvořák " Piano Trio In F Minor, Op. 65" Dvořák Piano Quintet In A Dvořák Piano Quintet No.2 Ferguson Sonata No. 1 Françaix String Trio Franck Sonata In A Franck Piano Quintet In F Minor Gershwin Porgy And Bess; Music Of France Glazounov Violin Concerto Glière " Duo For Violin And Cello, Op. 39" Handel Halvorsen Passacaglia For Violin And Cello J.S. Bach Concerto In D Minor Khachaturian " Sonata, Op. 1 " Korngold " Violin Concerto In D, Op. 35" Mendelssohn " Trio In C Minor, No. 2 " Mendelssohn " Trio No. 1 In D Minor, Op. 49 " Mendelssohn Concerto In E Minor Mendelssohn Concerto In E Minor Mozart Quintet In C Minor Mozart " Divertimento In E Flat Major, K. 563 " Mozart " Concerto In A, No. 5, K. 219 " Mozart " Divertimento In E Flat, Duo In B Flat, No. 2" Mozart "Sonata No. 10, K378, No. 15, K454 " Mozart " Symphonie In E Flat, K. 364" Mozart " Violin Concerto, No. 5, K. 219" Mozart " Quintet In C, K. 515" Paganini 2 Caprices Prokofieff "Concerto In G Minor, No. 2 " Respighi Sonata In D Minor Rózsa Concerto Saint-Saëns " Sonata In D, No. 1 " Schubert Fantaisie Schubert " Trio No. 1, In B, Op. 49 " Schubert Quintet In C Major Sibelius Violin Concerto Sibelius Violin Concerto Spohr Double String Quartet Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto In D, Op. 35 Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Sinding – Suite Tschaikowsky Violin Concerto Tschaikowsky Sérénade Mélancolique Vivaldi Concerto For Violin And Cello In B Flat; Walton Concerto For Violin Arensky Trio In D Minor Bach Concerto In E Major Beethoven " Sonata In C Minor, No. 7 " Beethoven " Romances, No. 1 and 2 " Beethoven " Trios In C Minor, Op. 9, No. 3 " Beethoven " Spring Sonata In F, Op. 24, No. 5 " Beethoven " Piano Trio In E Flat, Op. 70, No. 2 " Brahms Concerto In A Minor Bruch Concerto In G Minor Castelnuovo-Tedesco " The Lark, Fauré – Sonata, Op. 13" Grieg Sonata In G Haydn Divertimento, Rózsa – Tema Con Variazioni Lalo " Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 21 " Martin Duo For Violin And Cello Schubert Sonatina in G minor Schubert " Trio In B Flat, No. 2 " Strauss Sonata In E Flat Tchaikovsky " Trio In A Minor, Op. 50 " Beethoven " Sonata No. 3, Sonata No. 6 " Bach Three Sinfonia; Bach Concerto For Two Violins Beethoven Sonata No.7 Beethoven Sonata Nos. 1 &2 Benjamin Romantic Fantasy Benjamin Romantic Fantasy Boccherini Sonata In D Brahms Sextet In G Major Bruch Scottish Fantasy Chausson Concerto For Violin Conus Concerto In E Minor Debussy " Sonata In G Minor, No. 3 " Dvořák " Piano Trio, Dumky " Grieg " Sonata No.3, Brahms – Sonata No.1 Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky, Rameau, J.S.Bach, Padilla, Sarasate" Handel Halvorsen – Passacaglia Handel Sonata In E Major Mozart " Sonata In C, No. 8, K. 296 " Mozart " Concerto In D, No. 1, K. 218" Prokofieff Concerto In G Minor Ravel Trio In A Minor Ravel Tzigane Saint-Saëns " Sonata In D Minor, Op. 75, No.1 " Schubert Sonata In G Minor Spohr Concerto No. 8 Strauss Sonata In E Flat Toch Vivace molto Vieuxtemps " Concerto In A Minor, Op. 37, No. 5 " Vitali Chaconne Wieniawski Concerto No. 2 In popular culture[edit] This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) On The Dick Van Dyke Show, Buddy and Sally (Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie) are doing a comedy sketch and Sally says to Buddy, "Hey, how 'bout Jascha Heifetz, he's got a whole symphony orchestra behind him!", to which Buddy replies, "Yeah, he's afraid to play alone!" On I Love Lucy, Lucy, Fred, and Ethel are trying to play as a trio. Fred plays the violin, Lucy plays the saxophone, and Ethel is at the piano. As they are tuning, Lucy says to Fred, "Give me your 'A', Jascha!" In NFL Films' Super Bowl XI highlights, Oakland Raiders announcer Bill King exclaims that 'Jascha Heifetz never played a violin with more dexterity than Kenny Stabler is playing the Minnesota Vikings defense this afternoon in the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena!' In season 5 episode 11 of Mad About You Fran tells Jamie that Ryan's violin teacher says he is a regular Jascha Heifetz. In the television series MASH, season 11, episode 3, "Foreign Affairs," Major Charles Winchester mentions Heifetz to a woman he is falling in love with. Heifetz is referenced in The Muppet Show (1977) where Rowlf the Dog opposite George Burns mentions "Oh listen, I can play any key. I'm another Jascha Heifetz", to which George replies, "Jascha Heifetz played the violin." Rowlf then replies, "Nobody will know the difference, George". Heifetz is later mentioned in The Muppet Movie (1979) when Rowlf the Dog, after being praised by Kermit the Frog for playing an impressive piece of music on the piano, shrugged modestly and replied, "I'm no Heifetz, but I get by." Heifetz is mentioned by Woody Allen in Broadway Danny Rose (1984). As one of Danny Rose's clients plays a glass harmonica Danny remarks "She's the Jascha Heifetz of her instrument!" In Season 3, Episode 5 of "The Golden Girls." "Nothing Left To Fear But Fear Itself" (1987), Sophia Petrillo (played by Estelle Getty) makes reference to Jascha Heifetz in sarcastic retort, when her daughter Dorothy (Bea Arthur) asks an obvious question: "Ma, are you going to tell a story?" Sophia: "Please! Does Heifetz rosin a bow?" He was mentioned by the character, Data, on the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Ensigns of Command" (1989) as one of the violinists he studied prior to his concert in Ten-Forward aboard the USS Enterprise. From Woody Allen's Hollywood Ending (2002): "If there's a brownout, Heifetz will still be on key, but your guitarist won't be." The character of Yasha the violinist in Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock is a reference to Jascha Heifetz. In the book The Jordan Rules, then-Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson made a reference to Heifetz by saying that, just as the musician was the featured performer no matter where he played in a performance, Michael Jordan would be the center of the Bulls' triangle offense, even when its design provided greater offensive opportunities for Jordan's teammates. Heifetz is one of the subjects of George Gershwin's 1922 song "Mischa, Jascha, Toscha, Sascha" recorded by the Funnyboners.[28] Heifetz is often credited with the works of Victor Belmor, which is treated as a supposed spoof identity of Heifetz. However, Victor Belmor was born Joseph Hague, and produced his own music records and book. They are completely different men. Jascha Heifetz Is Dead at 86; A Virtuoso Since Childhood By HAROLD SCHONBERG Published: December 12, 1987 FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+ EMAIL SHARE PRINT REPRINTS Correction Appended Jascha Heifetz, the violinist whose name for more than half a century was synonymous with perfection of technique and musicianship, died late Thursday evening at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 86 years old and lived in Beverly Hills. Mr. Heifetz had entered the hospital on Oct. 16 to be treated for complications resulting from a fall and had recently undergone neurosurgery. United States Debut in 1917 When Mr. Heifetz made his United States debut at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 27, 1917, two of the listeners were Leopold Godowsky, the pianist, and Mischa Elman. As the 16-year-old Mr. Heifetz played, the other violinist mopped his brow and remarked to Mr. Godowsky: ''It's rather warm in here.'' ''Not for pianists,'' Mr. Godowsky responded. In the decades that passed after that ''warm'' night, Mr. Heifetz justified his rival's discomfort by winning recognition as perhaps the greatest violinist of his time. His playing was notable for many things: its silken tone, its technical perfection and its careful regard for the composers' slightest markings. It was always aristocratic in spirit; its lyricism, even if sometimes reserved, was intense, and the elegance and purity of phrasing were always remarkable. 'A Surpassing Talent' Most of these characteristics were already evident at Mr. Heifetz's New York debut, for the concert was described by a critic as ''the disclosure of a surpassing talent, well-nigh complete mastery of all the problems of violin playing, a sensitive, dignified and unassuming musician of such youth that much may still be expected in his development.'' The violinist Itzhak Perlman said of Mr. Heifetz yesterday, ''The first violin sound I remember was his. Nobody played like him - the strength and the force. His playing had the quality that sizzled and he had such color, He revolutionized violin playing to where it wishes to go today. None of us mortals are going to be able to reach his standard.'' Upon learning of Mr. Heifetz's death, the conductor Erich Leinsdorf observed: ''Jascha Heifetz was and will remain No. 1 of violin players. There is no other branch of music in which one person is as clearly recognized as being nonpareil.'' Always Remained Dignified Mr. Heifetz always remained dignified, and he avoided showmanship -partly, some say, because he lacked the flair for it, but more particularly because he thought it was in bad taste. The critic James Gibbon Huneker defined the Heifetz approach as advocacy of ''the Grecian ideal of art.'' There is evidence to support Mr. Huneker's theory. Twelve years after Mr. Heifetz's debut, and with three immensely successful worldwide tours behind him, the violinist replied in response to a question about what he could do now that he had reached the top: ''There is no top. There are always farther heights to reach. If one thought himself at the pinnacle, he would slide back toward mediocrity by that very belief in his success.'' During World War II, Mr. Heifetz toured Army camps, and in 1942 he heard that a throng of soldiers gathered to hear him had appeared under duress. Before beginning his concert, he told the soldiers that he would not be slighted if any of them left. Some took advantage of the offer, but the vast majority remained and applauded thunderously. Condemned Polite Applause On another occasion, Mr. Heifetz condemned the custom of polite applause. Applause, he believed, should be reserved only for meritorious performances. He advocated the hissing of poor musicians. His scorn of artists who resorted to showy tricks to win listeners was expressed as follows: ''It's not enough to be an honest-to-God artist. A man has to be an acrobat.'' Mr. Heifetz was unable to strike poses even when paid to do so. This became apparent in the first motion picture in which he appeared, ''They Shall Have Music.'' His acting was described by one critic as ''woefully deficient.'' In other filmed appearances, Mr. Heifetz did not even try to act. He just played. It may have been a coincidence, but in ''They Shall Have Music,'' which was shown in 1939, Mr. Heifetz played part of the Mendelssohn Concerto, the work with which he made his debut in his hometown of Vilna in Russia at the age of 6. It was in Vilna, where the violinist was born on Feb. 2, 1901, that he learned to play the violin at the age of 3. His father, Ruvin, a violinist, was his teacher. At 5, Jascha entered the Royal School of Music there and three years later he was graduated from the conservatory. Most Astonishing Genius His was a poor family, and when his father tried to persuade the great violin teacher, Leopold Auer, to listen to the prodigy, there were many refusals. The family had already moved to St. Petersburg to be near Auer. But when Auer finally granted young Heifetz a hearing, he made up for his previous reluctance by announcing that the boy was the most astonishing genius in his experience. The boy was one of those in a group of young Jewish violinists who later startled the world. The others would include Mischa Elman, Tosha Seidel, Efrem Zimbalist and Nathan Milstein. After two years with Auer, young Heifetz gave a recital in St. Petersburg that drew attention throughout Russia. In 1911, at the age of 10, he played in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic. Thereafter, the prodigy toured other countries on the Continent. At the age of 12, young Heifetz was already one of the most discussed violinists in Europe. After one of his Berlin concerts, he was invited to a dinner at the home of a music critic, Arthur Abell. Many distinguished violinists were present. The boy was asked to play. He said that he had brought his violin along, but that he lacked an accompanist. One of the guests, who introduced himself as Fritz Kreisler, volunteered to play the piano part for the Mendelssohn Concerto. When young Heifetz finished his performance, Mr. Kreisler - at that time the most popular and beloved violinist in the world - looked at his colleagues and said, 'Well, gentlemen, shall we all now break our violins across our knees.'' It was not until several years later, after young Heifetz became a success in the United States, that he went to England. A news story about his visit said: ''The London musical world is just at present sitting in ecstasy at the feet of Jascha Heifetz.'' In 1922, his appeal reached new heights when he gave four Carnegie Hall concerts. At the fourth concert, the crowd pushed into the already sold-out house and the police had to be called to restore order and to eject admirers who lacked tickets. Islands in the Pacific Thereafter, wherever he went he set attendance records. And few places that were accessible were not visited by Mr. Heifetz. He toured islands in the Pacific, where a violin had never been heard. It is said that he traveled more than two million miles on concert tours. In this, he was motivated by an active mind that made travel a passion. Wherever he went, he inquired into ways of life. This knowledge was supplemented by his fondness for reading. As he prospered, he became a collector of first editions. Not the least of his acquisitions was his Stradivarius violin, which had once belonged to Ferdinand David, the 19th-century violin expert. Mr. Heifetz was considered a matchless interpreter of Beethoven, Brahms and Mendelssohn. But he also composed a song called ''When You Make Love to Me - Don't Make Believe.'' His Tin Pan Alley alias was Jim Hoyle. But he drifted away from popular composing in the late 1940's, preferring to play chamber music with his friends Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz. 'I Agree With Liszt' It amused him that people expressed surprise that he still needed to practice after 50 years of work. ''I agree with Liszt,'' he said. ''If I don't practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.'' Cheap publicity rubbed the violinist the wrong way, just as posturing on the concert stage did. Thus he denied reports that he had insured his hands for a tremendous sum, declaring that to do so would make him self-conscious. But despite his shunning of publicity, he was often in the news. When the American Federation of Radio Artists was formed in 1937, with Eddie Cantor at its head, Mr. Heifetz served as vice president with Helen Hayes and Lawrence Tibbett. As an officer in the American Guild of Musical Artists, he fought bitterly against James C. Petrillo, then president of the American Federation of Musicians, who had instituted a ban against making recordings. With like intensity, he tried to prevent Yehudi Menuhin from performing with the Los Angeles Symphony because Mr. Menuhin had refused to join the guild. Played Charity Concerts Mr. Heifetz often played for charity and used his talents to raise funds for causes he deemed worthy. Thus, in 1938, he gave a concert without fee at a Connecticut school. The funds were to be used to fight attempts to dam the Saugatuck River, which was near his home at the time. The project had aroused his neighbors. Mr. Heifetz commissioned a number of concertos for his instrument, most notably the one by Sir William Walton. Louis Gruenberg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold were other composers whose concertos the violinist introduced. His sympathies, however, did not lie with modern music. When he returned from a visit to Israel in 1950, he remarked that the music of most contemporary Israeli composers shared ''the tendency of modern music not to sound too much like music.'' Back in Israel in 1953, the violinist introduced a Concertino by Menahem Avidon. And on this same visit, he raised a storm by defying Israel's unofficial ban on music by German composers. Mr. Heifetz played Richard Strauss's Violin Sonata in Haifa and Jerusalem. After the Jerusalem performance, the violinist's right hand was slightly injured by a man who attacked him in front of his hotel. In an earlier controversy, Mr. Heifetz declined to appear with the Chicago Symphony if Wilhelm Furtwangler became a guest conductor. He took the position that Furtwangler had had ample opportunity to leave Germany before and even during World War II, and that he chose to remain, thereby serving the cause of Nazism. Judge of Youth Contest The violinist performed on radio programs, although he felt that they ''played down'' to listeners. And in 1952, he was the main performer in a television series on his master classes. He also became a member of a panel that auditioned high school musicians in the New York area on the series, ''Musical Talent in Our Schools,'' sponsored jointly by The New York Times and radio station WQXR. The violinist's versatility extended to decorative design. Lamps he designed were distributed through the Heifetz Company. As Mr. Heifetz grew older, he became less willing to make long tours. And the man of medium height with the long, sensitive face and the high-domed forehead was seen less on concert stages. He took many sabbaticals in the late 1950's. But he gave a concert at Hunter College on Feb. 18, 1956, and on Dec. 9, 1959, he returned to New York to play at the United Nations, a cause in which he believed. Mr. Heifetz spent much time in California, where he sailed his yawl, Serenade, in a race to Honolulu. In 1958, he conducted a master class for five advanced students at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he was named Regents Professor of Music and artist in residence. Taught Master Classes In October 1961, he joined with Gregor Piatigorsky, the cellist, and William Primrose, the violist, to teach master classes in a new division of the University of Southern California School of Music. The concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, Glenn Dicterow, a participant in one of those master classes, said yesterday: ''We've lost that connection with a great era of fiddle playing. To me, he was the most human of all violin players. We're all children compared to him. He never had any competition but himself.'' During the remaining years of his life, Mr. Heifetz withdrew more and more from concert performances, saying, in effect, that he had done enough performing and no longer felt the need. Aside from occasional concerts, which ceased entirely in 1972, he confined his activities to recording - which also more or less ceased after a shoulder operation in 1975 - and to teaching at the University of Southern California. He also made occasional television appearances, including a lengthy program for French television that displayed a typical Heifetz program - including his favorite ''Scottish Fantasy'' by Max Bruch - and the expected Heifetz perfection of violin-playing. Among his many distinctions, he was one of the very few musicians whose recorded life-work was available. In 1975, RCA Records released - all at one time - almost every recording he made for the label between 1917 and 1965, a total of 24 disks. Two years later, the company released six more records of Mr. Heifetz playing chamber music; a few minor recordings made during World War II for Decca were also released. The conductor Zubin Mehta, music director of the New York Philharmonic, said yesterday: ''Not since Nicolo Paganini has an artist evolved as completely as Heifetz. I know that he only wants to be remembered by his music. Thank God we have his entire recorded repertory, so that he will never leave us.'' To the end of his life, he remained aloof - his detractors called him arrogant and contemptuous - and uninterested in publicity. In a 1980 interview with John Rockwell, a New York Times music critic, he said that he did not want to be put on a pedestal, but did want to go on practicing, teaching and playing. Referring to an operation on his shoulder, he said: ''The operation doesn't make it any easier, but I still practice and play, and it doesn't stop me from demonstrating things to students.'' He added: ''I can still be of service. I still have some time.'' In recent years, Mr. Heifetz was not able to play because he suffered with arthritis. In 1929, Mr. Heifetz married Florence Vidor, a star of silent films. They had two children, Josepha and Robert. The marriage ended in divorce in 1945. In 1947, Mr. Heifetz married Frances Spiegelberg. They had a son, Joseph, and were divorced in 1963. Mr. Heifetz's mother, Anna, died in 1947 and his father in 1957. He had two sisters, Pauline, who married Samuel Chotzinoff, the musical director of the National Broadcasting Company, and Elza, who married the playwright S. N. Behrman. Surviving are Mrs. Behrman, two sons, Robert and Joseph, also known as Jay, and a daughter, Josepha. THE MUCH-RECORDED HEIFETZ MAGIC From his years as a teen-age virtuoso in Europe until near the time of his retirement from the concert stage, Jascha Heifetz remained exceptionally active in the recording studio. Beginning in 1917, at the age of 16, with a recording of Schubert's ''Ave Maria,'' Mr. Heifetz built an enormous catalog of works on disk, concluding in 1968 when the violinist recorded chamber pieces by Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Mr. Heifetz was perhaps best known for his interpretations of the standard violin concerto repertory, some of which has been re-released on compact disk by RCA during recent months. Among them are Mr. Heifetz's recorded classics: versions of the Beethoven and Brahms concertos (RCD1-5402); Sibelius, Glazunov and Prokofiev concertos (RCD1-7019); Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos (5922-2-RC), and Bruch's ''Scottish Fantasy'' (6214-2-RC). Six volumes of Heifetz recordings are available today on compact disc with seven more scheduled for release in March. Much of the remainder of Heifetz's recordings are still available on LP, many of them reissued in 1975 by RCA as part of an extensive retrospective of the violinist's work. Despite his reputation as a standard bearer of the mainstream violin repertory, Mr. Heifetz actually devoted considerable time to the performance of 20th-century pieces, commissioning concertos from Walton and Korngold, among others, which he subsequently recorded. These performances include the Korngold Concerto in D with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (RCA AGM1-4902m); Louis Gruenberg's concerto, with the San Francisco Symphony (RCA AGM1-4942m) and, on one album, Walton's concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra paired with the concerto Heifetz commissioned from Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, in a performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (RCA LM2740m). Biography Jascha Heifetz, widely regarded as one of the greatest performing artists of all time, was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, which was then occupied by Russia, on February 2, 1901.. He began playing the violin at the age of two. He took his first lessons from his father Ruvin, and entered the local music school in Vilna at the age of five where he studied with Ilya Malkin. He made his first public appearance in a student recital there in December 1906, and made his formal public debut at the age of eight in the nearby city of Kaunas (then known as Kovno, Lithuania). With only brief sabbaticals, he performed in public for the next 65 years, establishing an unparalleled standard to which violinists around the world still aspire. Heifetz entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1910. He studied first with I.R. Nalbandian, and then entered the class of Leopold Auer in 1911. By then his public performances were already creating a sensation. One outdoor concert in Odessa in the summer of 1911 reportedly drew as many as 8,000 people. The young Nathan Milstein, who was in the audience, recalled that the police surrounded the boy when he finished playing to protect him from the surging crowd. In 1912, Heifetz appeared for the first time in Berlin, which was then one of the great musical centers of the world. “He is only eleven years old,” Auer wrote in his letter of introduction to the German manager Herman Fernow, “but I assure you that this little boy is already a great violinist. I marvel at his genius, and I expect him to become world-famous and make a great career. In all my fifty years of violin teaching, I have never known such precocity.”[1] Heifetz’s Berlin debut took place at a private press matinee on May 20, 1912, at the home of Arthur Abell, the Berlin critic for American magazine, Musical Courier. Heifetz played the Mendelssohn concerto with Marcel van Gool at the piano. Critics and many of the leading violinists of the day attended, including Carl Flesch, Hugo Heerman, Willy Hess, and Heifetz’s idol, Fritz Kreisler. “You should have seen the amazement on their faces,” Fernow gleefully reported to Auer, and “when Fritz Kreisler sat down at the piano and accompanied Jascha in his Schön Rosmarin pandemonium broke loose in the room.” After hearing Heifetz play, Kreisler reportedly turned to his fellow violinists and said, “We might as well take our fiddles and smash them across our knees.” Heifetz’s public debut in Berlin took place four days later at the large hall of the Hochschule für Musik. A sold out audience packed the 1,600 seat hall. Fernow wrote to Auer that the recital was “a sensational success” and that “the public was wild with enthusiasm.” Then, on October 28, 1912, Heifetz replaced the ailing cellist Pablo Casals to make his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic playing the Tchaikovsky concerto under the direction of the legendary conductor Arthur Nikisch. Years later, Arthur Abell wrote: “When Jascha finished playing there occurred a demonstration such as I have seldom witnessed in more than seventy years of attending concerts. Nikisch himself led the applause and the whole orchestra joined in.” Heifetz also made debuts in Warsaw and Prague in 1912. He was to have made his American debut in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I precluded travel. Finally, in the wake of the first stage of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Heifetz family made an arduous journey to the United States. They travelled by way of the Trans-Siberian Railroad from St. Petersburg to Japan. From there they set sail for the United States, crossing the Pacific Ocean with a stop in Hawaii, and landing in San Francisco. They then travelled the length of the United States by train, and finally arrived in New York at the end of August. Heifetz spent most of the next two months preparing for his U.S. debut, which took place at Carnegie Hall on October 27, 1917, with André Benoist at the piano. That recital stands as one of the most sensational debuts in musical history. The reviews in the many daily newspapers that then existed in New York were so rapturous in their praise that Heifetz’s manager simply reprinted them in their entirety in multi-page ads in the leading music magazines. Musical America hailed the 16-year-old as a “transcendentally great violinist” in a full page review entitled “Hats Off, Gentlemen, A Genius!” Sigmund Spaeth in The Evening Mail said that until Heifetz, the concept of the perfect violinist had just been an ideal. “Then,” he wrote, “a tall Russian boy with a mop of curly hair walked out on the stage of Carnegie Hall and made the ideal a reality.” William J. Henderson wrote in The New York Sun that Heifetz had the “technique which must make him the admiration and the despair of all the other violinists,” but added that “better than this is the exquisite finish, elasticity and resource of his bowing, which gives him a supreme command of all the tonal nuances essential to style and interpretation.” Pierre V.R. Key added in The New York World that Heifetz’s “breadth, poise, and perfect regard for the turn of a phrase constantly left his hearers spellbound. Nothing that he undertook was without a finish so complete, so carefully considered and worked out, that its betterment did not seem possible….For the moment it is sufficient to say that he is supreme; a master, though only [sixteen], whose equal this generation will probably never meet again.” Among the many violinists who packed Carnegie Hall that afternoon to hear Heifetz were Fritz Kreisler, Maud Powell, Franz Kneisel, and David Mannes. The one everyone remembers, however, is Mischa Elman—the first great violin prodigy to emerge from Auer’s tutelage. Elman had already been playing in the United States since 1908 and, until Heifetz set foot on the stage of Carnegie Hall, he was widely considered to be Auer’s greatest pupil. Seated next to him at Heifetz’s debut was the pianist Leopold Godowsky. As the first half of the recital progressed, Elman leaned over to Godowsky and whispered: “It’s awfully hot in here.” Without missing a beat, Godowsky replied: “Not for pianists.” To Elman’s everlasting despair, a reporter overheard Godowsky recounting the exchange during intermission, and the story was soon repeated in press accounts around the world. Two weeks after his Carnegie Hall debut, Heifetz travelled to Camden, New Jersey to make his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company. He had already recorded a few sides for the Russian company Zvukopis in St. Petersburg in May 1911, and a few homemade cylinder recordings have survived from a session at the home of Julius Block in Berlin in November 1912, but the Victor recordings mark the true beginning of Heifetz’s recording career. Over the next 55 years, he made hundreds of recordings for RCA Victor and its English affiliate HMV. All of them remain in print, inspiring generations of new listeners. After extensive tours throughout the United States in 1918 and 1919, Heifetz—long before the ease of air travel—began a series of tours to the far reaches of the world. He became one of the first musicians to be well known through recordings before appearing in person. By the time he made his London debut in 1920, Britons had already bought some 70,000 copies of his records. In the coming decade he toured Europe, India, the Middle East, Australia, Japan, China, and North and South America, taking audiences and critics by storm wherever he went. An avid amateur photographer, Heifetz documented these early travels with home movies. He returned to Russia for the first and only time in 1934, giving concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where his boyhood teacher, Nalbandian, stood at the back of the auditorium with tears streaming down his face. In May 1925, Heifetz became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was an outstanding pianist, and he celebrated by improvising jazz on the piano at a party hosted by the soprano Alma Gluck and her husband, the violinist Efrem Zimbalist. By then, Heifetz’s fame had already transcended the world of classical music. In the coming years, the name “Heifetz” became so iconic that it was used in radio, motion picture, and television dialogue as a synonym for perfection. Much to Heifetz’s amusement, even cartoons referred to him. He often clipped them and taped them to his filing cabinet in his studio. One, from Parade magazine, showed an irate customer complaining to his mechanic: “$120.34 for a tune up? Who tuned it, Jascha Heifetz?” Another depicted a man mixing a cocktail, with the caption: “Master of mixology: Hei-fizz.” In 1939, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer built a Hollywood movie, “They Shall Have Music,” around Heifetz. In it, Heifetz—playing himself—came to the rescue of a music school for children by playing an impromptu benefit concert. The fictional school in the movie was loosely based on the Chatham Square Music School in New York. In real life, Heifetz had joined forces to raise money for that school—at a benefit concert he participated in skits and, wearing short pants and a sailor shirt, played in a “student” orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini. His fellow students included the likes of Nathan Milstein, Adolf Busch, Josef Gingold, Oscar Shumsky, William Primrose, and Emanuel Feuermann. Heifetz performed in benefit concerts throughout his career. A “Victory Loan” concert that he gave at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York with pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff in April 1919 raised an incredible $7,816,000 to help pay for expenses incurred by the U.S. government during World War I.[2] When, in 1933, the Great Depression threatened to close the Metropolitan Opera House, Heifetz returned to participate in a benefit to save the Met. Dressed as Johann Strauss, Jr., he took the podium to conduct the “Tales from Vienna Woods Waltz.” During World War II he gave concerts to raise money for U.S. War Bonds and for organizations such as the Red Cross, British War Relief, and the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. His many benefit concerts in France led the French government to make him an officer in the French Legion of Honor in 1939, a rank that the President of France elevated to commander in 1957. And, his last recital at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles in October 1972 was a benefit for the Scholarship Fund at the University of Southern California’s School of Music. Heifetz donated his services to the USO during the Second World War, playing for thousands of service men and women around the world—often in dangerous situations. He played for Allied troops in Central and South America in 1943, in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy in 1944, and France and Germany in 1945. He gave concerts in and near war zones in hospital wards, sports arenas, and often from the back of a flatbed truck that carried around a camouflaged upright piano for his accompanist. One outdoor concert that he gave in Italy in 1944 was bombed, and he briefly found himself lost behind enemy lines in Germany in 1945. Heifetz had close associations with composers throughout his life. At the age of thirteen he performed the Glazounov concerto under the direction of the composer, who was then the Director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Heifetz was an early champion of the Elgar concerto. He studied it with Auer shortly after its 1910 premiere by Kreisler, and performed it in London in 1920 with Elgar in the audience. Sergei Prokofiev was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory when Heifetz was there, and heard Heifetz play with Glazounov. Years later, Heifetz championed Prokofiev’s second violin concerto, giving its U.S. premiere in 1937, and making the first recording of it shortly thereafter. Heifetz also commissioned and premiered concertos by William Walton, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Miklós Rózsa, Louis Gruenberg, and Erich Korngold. He met Shostakovich when he returned to Russia in 1934, knew Stravinsky and Schoenberg, made an effort to program music by contemporary American composers on his recital programs, and had ties with Darius Milhaud, Ernest Bloch, and others. He met Sibelius in Finland and helped to popularize his concerto, making its world premiere recording. Heifetz was a composer himself. He contributed significantly to the violin repertoire by creating dozens of masterful transcriptions and arrangements of works by other composers. He published his first transcription, of Ponce’s Estrellita, in 1928. Two years later he created a sensation with his arrangement of Dinicu’s Hora Staccato. Heifetz was a close friend of George Gershwin, and he asked him to write something for the violin. Gershwin died before he could honor the request. Heifetz helped to make up for that loss by transcribing Gershwin’s three piano preludes in 1942 and songs from Porgy and Bess in 1944. They are now among the most beloved transcriptions in the violin repertoire. In the 1940s, Heifetz—under the pseudonym Jim Hoyl—wrote several popular songs with the lyricist Marjorie Goetschius. One, When You Make Love to Me (Don’t Make Believe), became a hit in 1946. Among those who recorded it were Bing Crosby, Dick Jurgens, Helen Ward, and Margaret Whiting, and the song was featured in the soundtrack to the 1949 movie, The Set-Up, directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Ryan. In the 1950s, Heifetz returned to Europe, Japan, and Israel where, in 1953, he was attacked by a man wielding a metal pipe for playing the violin sonata by the German composer Richard Strauss. He also continued to tour the United States and, in December 1959, he played at the United Nations in New York. The previous year he began teaching at the University of California at Los Angles. Leopold Auer once “put a finger on me,” Heifetz told a reporter at the time. “He said that some day I would be good enough to teach.” Heifetz moved to the University of Southern California in 1962 where several of his masterclasses were filmed and broadcast on television. He continued to teach at USC until 1983. “Violin playing is a perishable art,” Heifetz said. “It must be passed on as a personal skill—otherwise it is lost.” Heifetz had a long love of chamber music. He played it privately with friends throughout his life, and as early as 1934 performed Beethoven’s op. 127 string quartet publicly at a benefit concert at New York’s Town Hall for the Beethoven Association. He made legendary chamber music recordings with violist William Primrose, cellist Emanuel Feuermann, and pianist Arthur Rubinstein in the 1940s. After the untimely death of Feuermann in 1942, Heifetz formed a trio with Rubinstein and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. They appeared in a series of four concerts at the Ravinia Festival just outside of Chicago in the summer of 1949, made a series of recordings, and were featured in a film. Critics quickly dubbed them the “Million Dollar Trio.” Heifetz and Piatigorsky had planned another series of trio recordings with the pianist William Kapell in the 1950s, but Kapell’s death in a plane crash in 1953 prevented that. Then, in 1961, they began a series of “Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts.” In the coming years they traversed a wide range of repertoire with fellow musicians, from duos by Toch and Kodály to octets by Mendelssohn and Spohr. They gave concerts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, and made many recordings. Heifetz’s solo performances became rarer in the 1960s, but he returned to England to record concertos in both 1961 and 1962, and gave concerts in Israel in 1970. He performed the Beethoven concerto at the opening of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles in 1964, gave solo recitals in New York in 1966 and Los Angeles in 1968, and filmed a concert for television in Paris in 1970 that aired in the United States on NBC in 1971. His last recital took place in Los Angeles in October 1972, 55 years after his U.S. debut. He continued to perform in concerts given by his students at the University of Southern California until 1974, when a shoulder injury put an end to his public career. Heifetz championed a number of causes throughout his life. He was active in unions, serving as a founding member and first vice president of the American Guild of Musical Artists in 1936 and as a founding member of the American Federation of Radio Artists in 1937. Later, he led efforts to establish “911” as an emergency phone number, and crusaded for clean air. He and his students at the University of Southern California protested smog by wearing gas masks, and in 1967 he converted his Renault passenger car into an electric vehicle. Heifetz was married twice, to Florence Vidor from 1928 to 1946, and to Frances Spiegelberg from 1947 to 1963. Both marriages ended in divorce. He had two children, Josefa and Robert, with his first wife, and one, Joseph (“Jay”) with his second. Heifetz was an avid sailor, loved ping pong and tennis, and collected books and stamps. He died on December 10, 1987 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, but his magic lives on through his recordings, which remind us why the great critic Deems Taylor once wrote that Heifetz has “only one rival, one violinist whom he is trying to beat: Jascha Heifetz.” by John and John Anthony Maltese Birth: February 02, 1901 in Vilnius  Death: December 10, 1987 in Los Angeles California, United States  Nationality: American Occupation: violinist 1910s-1970s Jascha Heifetz Society  Classical Notes: The Violinist of the Century Sheila's Corner: Jascha Heifetz Official Web Site of Violinist Jascha Heifetz Heifetz, Jascha (Iossif Robertovich), great Russian-born American violinist; b. Vilnius, Feb. 2, 1899; d. Los Angeles, Dec. 10, 1987. His father, Ruben Heifetz, an able musician, taught him the rudiments of violin playing at a very early age; he then studied with Ilya Malkin at the Vilnius Music School, and played in public before he was 5 years old; at the age of 6, he played Mendelssohn's Concerto in Kovno. In 1910 he was taken by his father to St. Petersburg, and entered the Conservatory there in the class of Nalbandian; after a few months, he was accepted as a pupil by Leopold Auer. He gave his first public concert in St. Petersburg on April 30, 1911. The following year, with a letter of recommendation from Auer, he went to Berlin; his first concert there (May 24, 1912), in the large hall of the Hochschule für Musik, attracted great attention: Artur Nikisch engaged him to play the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic (Oct. 28, 1912), but his appearance proved uneventful. He then decided to continue his studies with Auer in St. Petersburg and in Germany. While visiting Auer in Norway in 1916, he played in a joint concert with Toscha Seidel before the king and queen of Norway. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, he went to America, by way of Siberia and the Orient. His debut at Carnegie Hall in N.Y. (Oct. 27, 1917) won for him the highest expression of enthusiasm from the public and in the press. Mischa Elman, the prime violinist of an older generation, attended the concert in the company of the pianist Leopold Godowsky. When Elman complained that it was too hot in the hall, Godowsky retorted, "Not for pianists." Veritable triumphs followed during Heifetz's tour of the U.S., and soon his fame spread all over the world. He made his first London appearance on May 5, 1920; toured Australia (1921), the Orient (1923), Palestine (1926), and South America. He revisited Russia in 1934, and was welcomed enthusiastically. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1925, and made his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. Heifetz made regular tours throughout the world, appearing not only with the foremost orchestras but as a recitalist. As a chamber music artist, he played in trios with Rubinstein and Feuermann, and later with Pennario and Piatigorsky. He taught classes of exceptionally talented pupils at the University of Southern Calif. in Los Angeles (1962-72). In 1974 he made his last public appearance and thereby brought to a close one of the most extraordinary violin careers in history. The Olympian quality of Heifetz's playing was unique in luminous transparency of texture, tonal perfection, and formal equilibrium of phrasing; he never allowed his artistic temperament to superimpose extraneous elements on the music; this inspired tranquillity led some critics to characterize his interpretations as impersonal and detached. Heifetz made numerous arrangements for violin of works by Bach, Vivaldi, and contemporary composers; his most famous transcription is "Hora Staccato" by Grigoraş Dinicu, made into a virtuoso piece by adroit ornamentation and rhythmic elaboration. In his desire to promote modern music, he commissioned a number of composers (Walton, Gruenberg, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and others) to write violin concertos for him and performed several of them. JASCHA HEIFETZ Jascha Heifetz’s celebrated position as one of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century seems unassailable. Along with that of Fritz Kreisler, his name is associated with the evolution of the instrument’s technique and style in the first half of the century. Famed though Heifetz was for his extraordinary reliability and dazzling technique, his reputation nonetheless suffered slightly from intimations that he was a rather uninvolved player. Early in his career, he attended a gathering of several notable players in a private house in Berlin where he gave a performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Kreisler at the piano; Kreisler commented to the other violinists present: ‘We may as well break our fiddles across our knees.’ Upon Heifetz’s London début in 1920 at the Queen’s Hall (having already sold 70,000 recordings in the UK) Bernard Shaw wrote to him, remarking: ‘Your recital has filled me and my wife with anxiety. If you provoke a jealous God by playing with such superhuman perfection, you will die young. I earnestly advise you to play something badly every night before going to bed, instead of saying your prayers. No mortal should presume to play so faultlessly.’ After initial training by his father, Heifetz attended the Vilna School of Music (under the direction of Elias Malkin, a former pupil of Leopold Auer). Later he went to Auer himself as the youngest member of his class in St Petersburg and remains one of Auer’s best-known pupils. Heifetz’s own teaching engagements were both exacting and sporadic. Erick Friedman became his first regular pupil in 1957, cancelling a large number of concert engagements to take up intensive study with him which was given free of charge. Heifetz undoubtedly transformed Friedman’s playing and moulded him in his own image in terms of interpretation (he reputedly never imposed his own technical methods upon others), eventually paying him the greatest of compliments by inviting him to record Bach’s Double Violin Concerto (the only recording of the work made by Heifetz in which he is partnered by another violinist, Heifetz famously having otherwise recorded both parts himself ). From 1962–1972 he was Professor of Violin at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Well known for being methodical in his preparation, Heifetz was noted for remaining consistent in his interpretation (rather in the manner of Rachmaninov as a pianist) as opposed to the older tendency towards spontaneity in each performance. In this sense his approach can be seen as the antithesis to Joachim’s (although via Auer he had a linked pedagogic lineage). He recorded remarkably widely, his first commercial discs being made in 1917. Early accounts of Heifetz’s playing whilst still in St Petersburg c.1910 reveal that he had already acquired something of his distinctively penetrating and devastatingly accurate tone. His recordings show amazing technique, as well as a highly influential style of playing: accurate to the letter of the musical score, sweetened by an intense and (some might argue) rather too regular vibrato. Claims for his modernity can however be overstated. His use of portamento throughout his career (uniquely linked to a fast accentual vibrato which came to be termed the ‘Heifetz slide’) sounds unfamiliar to today’s ears even though, as in the case of recordings by the actor John Gielgud, it is remarkable how little his tone varied throughout his life. Many readers will find it surprising that Heifetz played on gut strings throughout his career, the sound he desired being achieved with a silver-wound gut G, plain gut D and A, and a ‘Goldbrokat’ steel E. Heifetz’s discography is so large it is hard to do it justice here in so small a space. This said, his playing has a notable consistency that makes generalisation rather less problematic. His distinctive style – the tautness of sound, with regular but generally well-controlled vibrato; his frequent employment of a distinctive portamento, quite different from those employed by violinists of the nineteenth century – enlivens many cantabile passages, and his peerless agility and intonation are remarkable even by today’s standards. Much of this sound, however, admits relatively little variation, so that in truth one is hearing Heifetz first and the composition as a mere vehicle. This works better in some contexts than others. The Bach and Mozart concertos selected here (including a famous 1946 recording of Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with Heifetz playing both parts) seem comparatively un-nuanced to our modern ears. His 1951 performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 is typical in its rather steely character, although the finale is taken in a poised and stately fashion. The 1939 and 1956 recordings of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto show a little change in style: the earlier recording is fastidious but tonally subtle; the later employs a harder, perhaps more brash sound. The extent to which this perception is the result of changing recording technology or Heifetz’s own advancing years is debatable (similar traits mar later Elman discs as well, but to a much greater extent). For me, though, Heifetz’s recorded performances of Franck’s Violin Sonata (1937) and Walton’s Violin Concerto (1941) are masterly. Here his sound, (which one might describe as that of an iron fist in a velvet glove) seems more appropriate; from the tough yet mysterious opening of the Walton to the laconic performance of Franck’s first movement it is counterpoised throughout by an electric, if tightly controlled, sense of excitement.    ebay5687 folder 202

  • Condition: Excellent condition of the hand signed AUTOGRAPH , The original reproduction action photo and the decorative mat . Heifetz signed on the back of a printed paper clipping ( Propably a program ) and the printing at the back is shown at the background of the SIGNATURE. ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images )
  • Religion: Judaism

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