Sunday 10 April 2011

Not often these days one comes across a new Jascha Heifetz recording in good sound (leaving aside, thankfully, the Bell Telephone Hour truncations). However, from Uruguay, of all places, comes a concert that Heifetz gave in Montevideo with Brooks Smith on 12th May 1955. Remarkably, the recording is in excellent sound and reproduces Heifetz's violin faithfully. Remarkably, too, for a Heifetz recording, the balance between piano and violin is pretty good and this really does make quite a difference in a piece such as the Kreutzer sonata. Most Heifetz duo recordings need to be put on one side as far as the music is concerned, because of a balance that over-favours the violin; but not this one.

I liked the programme of this lucky little CD: Vitali's Chaconne is followed by Beethoven's Kreutzer. Then Debussy's sonata, followed by a Dvorak slavonic dance, Lili Boulanger's Cortège, a Richard Strauss song arranged for violin and piano, Wieniawski's Capriccio-Valse, and ending with Ravel's Tzigane. They don't do programmes like that nowadays, more's the pity. And good to be reminded that even Heifetz was not perfect, with some shaky intonation with the double stops early in the Dvorak piece. Altogether an unexpected pleasure that arrived out of the blue (thanks to my friend Lee).

3 comments:

Lee said...

You also need to mention that the Vitali is with piano (not the monstrous organ part in the studio recording). I love this piece - the Vitali as well as the Capriccio-Valse which is a rarity for Heifetz too. Enjoy!

Harry Collier said...

Heifetz also seems to have liked the piece -- it was in his 1917 Carnegie Hall début (with organ). I have three versions by him -- with piano, with organ and with Donald Voorhees.

Lee said...

I love the piece too. Played in in my recital here in 1986. I have many versions of this.