Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz (originally Russian Иосиф Рувимович Хейфец, Jossif Ruwimowitsch Heifetz, .. * 20 Januarjul / February 2 1901greg in Vilnius, Russian Empire (now Lithuania), † December 10, 1987 in Los Angeles, California, USA), was one of the most famous violinists of the 20th century.

Life

Heifetz was born into a Jewish family in Vilnius, then part of the Russian Empire. A child prodigy, he played at the age of six years, the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. 1910 took him to the major violin pedagogue Leopold Auer in his class at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg. First foreign experience gained Heifetz in Germany, where in Berlin and 1913 in Leipzig, he gave concerts in 1912. In 1914 he appeared as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch. In 1917, the young violinist emigrated to the United States of America, where he still made ​​his concert debut in the same year at Carnegie Hall, New York City. In the following years, his reputation cemented as the world's best violinist. Concert tours to Australia (1921 ) and Asia ( 1923). Up to 200 concerts he gave annually. In 1925 he was naturalized in the United States. After 1933, Heifetz never stepped on in Germany. The Nazi propaganda spread that his game was emotionally cold, and stylized it to the typical example of a soulless Jewish violinist. Despite the obvious lack of substance of the allegations they were repeated again and again. Heifetz interpreted as a late romantic with great feel on highly individual manner in the spirit of his time. His mastery of the instrument was considered to be second to none, the precision of his playing set standards. The most striking peculiarity of his play was his intense tone. He refrained from his game to underline by movements of his body, both technically virtuosic and in lyrical passages.

From 1961 to 1983 he taught at the University of Southern California. His most famous students were: Pierre Amoyal, Erick Friedman, Eugene Fodor and Rudolf Koelman. According to him the professorship " Jascha Heifetz Chair of Music" was established, which is awarded for a limited time to outstanding violinist ( inn ) en. His characteristics as a violin teacher - listening carefully and economical exemplary intervention - he has occupied early sound film in numerous documents. These can be found on YouTube. Meanwhile, his role as participants in a prominent piano trios ( with Arthur Rubinstein, piano, and Gregor Piatigorsky, cello ) is there occupied by a converted into a longer video exemplary sound film fragment.

Heifetz recorded with the exception of Bartók, Schoenberg and Dvorak all the great violin concertos of the Classical and Romantic; In addition, the recordings of concertos by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa, Sergei Prokofiev, William Walton and others of his contemporaries are groundbreaking.

Heifetz has also recorded many works of chamber music. Legendary are the already mentioned piano trio recordings together with Arthur Rubinstein (p) and Emanuel fire man ( vc ) (or later with Gregor Piatigorsky ), a cast that "Dollar Trio Million" was received by the nickname in the history of music.

Overall, his musical career has been documented almost completely on sound and image carriers, most notably the sound carrier is the appeal by special quality. The oeuvre was published under the titles The Heifetz Collection at BMG and The Complete Album Collection by Sony.

Heifetz was married twice. Using Florence Vidor 1928-1946 The couple had two children, Robert and Josefa. With Frances Spiegelberg he was married from 1947 to 1963. From this marriage the son of Joseph went forth ( " Jay" ). Both marriages ended in divorce.

About the correct birth year Heifetz ' there is disagreement. The year of birth of the "official " biography reads 1901, but occasionally also be 1899 or 1900 given. Yasha's mother is said to have made him secretly two years younger. One reason, however, is not known.

Heifetz owned three violins: A Carlo Tononi, a Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù. The latter was his favorite concert instrument.

His grandson Danny Heifetz is also active as a musician, as a drummer with Mr. Bungle.

Filmography

  • Nathan Kroll: The Heifetz Master Class Vol 1-3 ( 1962).
  • Music for life, original title They Shall Have Music ( 1939)
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