To Itzhak Perlman, he was, simply, "God." He was the greatest violin virtuoso of the 20th century. He was the violinist who almost single-handedly defined the art of violin performance for an entire era.
That Jascha Heifetz could achieve technical miracles without the slightest hint of physical effort made every other violinist stand in awe of him, a reverence that continues to this day as younger virtuosos aspire to his lofty standards of violin playing.
Heifetz touched audiences with the expressive intensity of his playing, purity of tone and almost superhuman perfection, his aristocratic elegance and authority. His stone-faced demeanor on the concert stage could not disguise the wealth of emotion in his playing. His violin magic transcended the world of classical music, earning him fame on radio and in Hollywood. Frank Sinatra once said he listened to Heifetz to learn how to improve his phrasing.
Heifetz's career lasted more than 65 years and spanned virtually the entire history of recording in the 20th century. Heifetz recorded mostly for RCA Victor, with brief appearances on releases from England's Gramophone Co., American Decca and Columbia. He made his first RCA discs in 1917, just days after his triumphant Carnegie Hall debut. His final recording stems from his last public concert, given in 1972 in Los Angeles, where he died in 1987, at 87.
RCA has mined its Heifetz discography many times over, most recently in 1994 when it reissued his entire commercial output in a 65-CD omnibus called "The Heifetz Collection." Now that the RCA and Columbia vaults have a single owner, Sony Classical, an even bigger storehouse of Heifetziana has appeared: "Jascha Heifetz: The Complete Album Collection."
Remove the lid of the oblong box and you'll find 103 CDs, one DVD and a 310-page hardback book with essays, indexes and photographs. Guinness World Records calls it "the greatest number of audio discs in a boxed set of classical recordings by a single instrumentalist." It's enough to transport fiddle fanciers to an extended stay in musical Nirvana.
Of paramount interest are three CDs of recordings Heifetz never approved for release. These include a noble Brahms Violin Concerto from 1937, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky; a 1945 Chausson "Poeme," with Pierre Monteux conducting; and chamber works by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak and others. The only missing items are two CDs' worth of encore pieces Heifetz recorded for Decca from 1944 to 1946; these have been reissued under separate cover.
The latest Heifetz omnibus is being marketed to LP-era nostalgists. The original cover art and jacket notes are retained, and the contents of virtually every disc do not exceed the contents of the original LPs. This makes for short playing times: Heifetz's 1959 Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording of the Sibelius concerto stands alone on a CD lasting only 27 minutes.
