[78-L] heifetz

[David Lennick]

When I did RSVP, if we had a request for music that we were sick of (like the 
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto) or loathed (like Ravel's "Tzigane"), we'd play the 
Heifetz version. Always more interesting than any other performance, in 
addition to getting it out of the way sooner.

Okay, it had to be violin music that was requested..

Anyone ever hear his gag recordings as "Josef Hague de Sarasate"? The fiddlers 
equivalent of Jonathan and Darlene Edwards, with even the sound engineer in on 
the gag (recording him off mike, in a tunnel, and adding hum).

dl

DAVID BURNHAM wrote:
> To me, the most hair-raising Heifetz recording ever made was "La Ronde des Lutins", particularly the first acoustic recording.  He nails every run, every harmonic and, having just listened to a couple of You Tube performances by Vengerov and Perlman, you can hear how these very accomplished violinists bury handfulls of wrong notes in the rapid clusters.  Listen to the acoustic Heifetz and forget about anything Heifetz would have become in later years.  Try to appreciate that you're hearing a 15 or 16 year old boy, who could have missed a lot of the runs and still would have been impressive, and wonder at the shear perfection of the performance, the harmonics are flawless and sound effortless.  Heifetz' later recordings of this work are no less exciting but youth is no longer an element.
> 
> db