Release Date: 03 January 2006
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313267026
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: HEIFETZ
Description
Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987)Transcriptionsfor Violin and PianoJascha Heifetz was born in Vilnius in 1901, the son of a violinist,his first teacher from the age of three. Further lessons from Elias Malkinenabled him, by the age of six, to play Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto andat the age of nine he was able to enter St Petersburg Conservatory, eventuallyto join the class of Leopold Auer. He made his international debut in Berlin in 1912, later in the same year appearing as soloist in Tchaikovsky's ViolinConcerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Nikisch. In 1917he left Russia for a concert tour in the United States, making his Americandebut at Carnegie Hall and his first commercial recordings, and eight yearslater became an American citizen. He made his first return to Russia in 1934 and for many years he continued an international career of great brillianceand distinction, earning a legendary reputation as a virtuoso, as well as forhis performances of chamber music with musicians of similar fame and calibre,such as the pianist Artur Rubinstein, the cellists Emanuel Feuermann and GregorPiatigorsky, and the viola-player William Primrose. In his later years he taughtat the University of South California in Los Angeles, where the Heifetz Chairof Music was established for him, giving master-classes, but with relativelyfew pupils. He gave his final recital and made hislast recordings in 1972. He died in 1987.As a player Heifetz did much to develop the techniquesof violin-playing, influencing many younger players through his virtuosity, hisagility and speed in performance, the purity of his intonation, his handling ofthe bow and his use of vibrato, and providing a standard against which otherperformances of standard concert repertoire might be measured. He introducednew concertos, some written specially for him. This contemporary concertorepertoire included concertos by William Walton, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, ErichKorngold and Miklos Rozsa. At the same time he was responsible for a large numberof transcriptions for violin and piano, many of which remain in standardvirtuoso repertoire.In 1923 Heifetz acquired the instrument that he preferred,made in 1742 by the last of the family, Giuseppe Guarneri, known as Guarneridel Jes??. He also had a Tononi instrument and instruments by AntonioStradivari. His apparent impassivity in performance concealed strong powers ofconcentration and interpretations that were carefully planned, with everyattention to detail.The present recording opens with a transcriptionof Chopin's Nocturne, Op. 55, No. 2, a work written in 1843 and dedicatedoriginally to Chopin's Scottish admirer Miss Jane Wilhelmina Stirling. The longmelodic lines of the Nocturne, with only the lightest addition of double-stopping,are in marked contrast to the energy of the Russian-Jewish composer AlexanderKrein's Dance No. 4, with its suggestions of the kletzmer style that hadbeen part of Krein's family background.'Jeanie with the light brown hair', b
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
