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Yes, but if he chooses Heifetz. . .

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In Reply to: RE: Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto posted by grichens on July 02, 2009 at 08:00:52

. . . he's going to get the Auer cuts - not to mention a bloated image of the soloist! While this type of balance may add a superficial excitement to the Heifetz performance, it is not realistic. The funny thing is, Heifetz probably did not need this type of overbalancing of his part, but apparently he ego would not allow anything more realistic.

My piano teacher, who was a friend of and collaborator with cellist Gabor Rejto, passed on one of Rejto's stories about those Heifetz chamber music recordings he made for RCA (Schubert Quintet, etc.) which Rejto participated in. These were preceded by all-day rehearsals at Heifetz's house. Heifetz told all his colleagues to bring their own lunches. So during the rehearsal day, lunch time arrives and the musicians take out their sack lunches - except for Heifetz. He has his maid come in to bring him a hot lunch!

Don't get me wrong, I still have Heifetz's recording - but I just don't think it's necessarily the last word in recordings of this concerto. As I mentioned in another post, the more recordings I have (or have heard) of a particular work, the less I think that there can be a single top performance.

Follow Ups:

RE: Yes, but if he chooses Heifetz. . . - docw 11:14:58 07/02/09 (0)
I have the Brahms/Tchaik vc's rbcd in my car player.

Last night, listened to 1st and 2nd mvmt of the Brahms during commute--amazingly good, fast passages (maybe too fast) but wonderful nevertheless. I didn't think the violin was as huge sounding as I remembered here.

However, I do remember all the versions (cd and LP) of the Tchaikovsky are the same with a huge huge violin and wow loud fortes from Chicago after the inital intro at the first movement. Shockingly loud. But exciting.

I taped the 80th BD celebration program for Heifetz from NPR, back in the 80's. Fun to listen to that. Full of those stories. I think they played an old master of the Brahms VC after the official show part.
RE: Yes, but if he chooses Heifetz. . . - grichens 09:44:51 07/02/09 (4)
"He has his maid come in to bring him a hot lunch!"

Fabulous! Come to think of it, I don't believe I have any of Heifetz's chamber works - and his other concerto recordings don't stick in my mind the way the Tchaikovsky piece has (possibly credit Reiner and the CSO for some of that).

"As I mentioned in another post, the more recordings I have (or have heard) of a particular work, the less I think that there can be a single top performance."

Absolutely. Also, listen-ability and historical accuracy are not necessarily the same. While the Heifetz recording is my favorite version (at least to my wooden ears), it's only fair to warn about Auer's "interpretation".
Cheers.
- RE: Yes, but if he chooses Heifetz. . . - vahe@flash.net 09:47:42 07/04/09 (3)
  I have nearly all Heifetz recordings on vinyl starting with mono era all the way to the later period when he concentrated more on chamber works performing with Piatigorsky and several other big name soloists.
  
  The single major issue with most Heifetz recordings are the poor audio, the Chicago and Boston recordings are the exceptions. The later chamber recordings suffer from some of the driest and lifeless sound on record, those of you who are old enough and remember RCA’s famous Studio 8-H sound will know what I am talking about. (Studio 8-H was the studio where Arturo Toscanini produced his radio broadcast performances with NBC orchestra, those still stand as the worst recordings made by anyone, simply put “telephone booth” ambiance).
  
  Heifetz never fared well with record reviewers, past and present, some of it is due to his complete lack of any emotional display during his public performances, public loves showmanship on the stage and having a few orgasms on the stage always guarantees standing ovations
  .
  Some have called him violinists violinist, I recall reading an article in “Musical America” journal back in sixties on David Oistrakh’s first trip to USA, one of the first items on his agenda was to order all Heifetz recordings.
  
  Whether you like Heifetz, Oistakh, Stern, Menuhin or any of the old timers from the past generation, one disturbing thing about all current star violinists active today is how similar they all sound, I can identify Heifetz or any of the big name violinists from the first note, not so with current artists, they all sound the same to me.
  
  And finally, being a Heifetz fan, my all time favorite performance is Max Bruch Scottish Fantasy, to me his tone and technique is made for this work and no other performance comes close.
  
  Vahe
  - "violinists active today. . . how similar they all sound" - Chris from Lafayette 21:27:01 07/05/09 (2)
    I think part of the issue is that engineering was more differentiated in the old days, and that alone influenced the "sound" we all heard of the particular artists. In general, I agree there's more uniformity today - but I do think you could still differentiate today's artists very reliably if you lived with their performances as long as you've lived with the performances of Heifetz, Oistrakh, Stern, Menuhin, et al.
    
    Interestingly, I was just listening to one of Menuhin's recordings of the Kreutzer Sonata yesterday (the Japanese Victor performance from the early 50's on Biddulph - generally held to be superior to his subsequent performances he recorded later in life) - it can't hold a candle to the Repin performances I've heard recently.
    
    I agree with you about the Scottish Fantasy - that was one of Heifetz's best recordings, and one where the balance was not so absurdly tipped in his favor.
    - RE: "violinists active today. . . how similar they all sound" - vahe 09:13:21 07/06/09 (1)
      "Interestingly, I was just listening to one of Menuhin's recordings of the Kreutzer Sonata yesterday (the Japanese Victor performance from the early 50's on Biddulph - generally held to be superior to his subsequent performances he recorded later in life) - it can't hold a candle to the Repin performances I've heard recently."
      
      Yehudi Menuhin started as a super virtuoso in his early years, later in life for whatever reason he almost completely lost his technique, his later recordings demonstrates his struggles with the bow, totally unable to produce an even tone, but he kept on trucking well into the old age producing some performances that technically would be considered unacceptable by anyone else.
      
      Vahe
      - Yes - that was my point (I think) - Chris from Lafayette 14:31:46 07/06/09 (0)
        
        In Reply to: RE: "violinists active today. . . how similar they all sound" posted by vahe on July 06, 2009 at 09:13:21
        
        . . . the point being that the Biddulph recording is probably the best of any of Menuhin's recordings of the Kreutzer (recorded before he started deteriorating), and yet even this one is inferior (IMHO) to the Repin recording (and probably to a few others from the violinists of today). And to take the point a bit further, suppose I grant that violinists of today lack the easily identified individuality of sound characteristic of yesteryears' violinists, that's still only one aspect of a total performance (as the superiority of the Repin/Argerich or Repin/Lugansky performances of the Kreutzer Sonata make clear).

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