Jascha Heifetz

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Jascha Heifetz (February 2, 1901 – December 10, 1987) was a violinist, often proclaimed as one of the greatest of all time and the most famous of the 20th century.

Heifetz was born into a Jewish family in Vilna in Lithuania, then a part of Russia. There is controversy over his birth year, which is sometimes put a year or two earlier (1899 or 1900). At any rate, his father was the concertmaster of the Vilna Symphony Orchestra, and Jascha took up the violin when three years old. He was a child prodigy, making his public debut when only seven, in Kovno (now Kaunas, Lithuania) playing the Violin Concerto by Mendelssohn. In 1910 he entered the St Petersburg conservatory to study under Leopold Auer. He played in Germany and Scandinavia at the age of 12, meeting Fritz Kreisler for the first time in a Berlin house (this is when Kreisler, after accompanying the 12-year-old Heifetz in a performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto, said, "Now we can all break our fiddles across our knees."). Heifetz visited much of Europe while still in his teens.

On October 27, 1917, Heifetz played for the first time in the United States; that evening's recital at Carnegie Hall became the stuff of legend. Fellow violinist Mischa Elman complained "Phew, it’s hot in here", whereupon Leopold Godowsky, in the next seat, imperturbably replied: "Not for pianists." Heifetz stayed in the country and became an American citizen in 1925. When he told Harpo Marx (a great admirer) that he had been earning his living as a musician since the age of seven, Harpo answered: "And I suppose before that you were just a bum."

Heifetz made his first commercial recording on November 7, 1917. Throughout his career, he continued to record, almost always for RCA Victor. He had an immaculate technique and rapid finger vibrato. From time to time, his near-perfect technique and conservative stage demeanor caused some to accuse him of being overly mechanical, even cold. Even so, most critics agree he infused his playing with feeling and reverence for the wishes of the composers.

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 1940 recordings of 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 Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and Mendelssohn.

Heifetz commissioned a number of pieces, perhaps most notably the Violin Concerto by Sir William Walton. He also arranged a number of pieces, such as Hora Staccato by Grigoraş Dinicu, a Romanian gypsy whom Heifetz is rumored to have called the greatest violinist he had ever heard. He wrote a hit song, "When you make love to me, don't make believe", under the alias Jim Hoyl. Heifetz was also an accomplished pianist, even performing mess hall jazz for soldiers at Allied camps across Europe during the Second World War.

On his fourth tour to Israel in 1953, Heifetz included in his recitals the Violin Sonata by Richard Strauss. At the time, Strauss was considered by many to be a Nazi composer (see Strauss and the Nazis), and his works were unofficially banned in Israel along with those of Richard Wagner. Despite the fact that the Holocaust had occurred less than 10 years earlier and a last-minute plea from the Israeli Minister of Education, the defiant Heifetz argued that "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 man who struck blows to his right arm with an iron bar. As the attacker started to flee, Heifetz alerted his companions, who were armed, "Shoot that man, he tried to kill me." The assailant escaped and was never found.

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 right arm began to hurt. He left Israel and did not return until 1970.

He owned both a Stradivarius and the 1740 "ex David" Guarneri del Gesù, the latter of which he preferred and kept until his death. The Guarneri is now in the San Francisco Legion of Honor museum, in accordance with Heifetz's will. His will dictates that the violin may be taken out and played "on special occasions", by deserving players.

In 1972 he ceased giving concerts and making records, although his prowess as a performer appeared intact after more than half a century in the public eye. Subsequently he taught at the University of Southern California with his friend Gregor Piatigorsky. He died at the Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, of heart failure.

His daughter Josefa Heifetz Byrne is a lexicographer ("Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words" ISBN 0246111518).

His grandson Danny Heifetz has played drums and percussion with Mr. Bungle, Dieselhed, and Link Wray.

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