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Jascha Heifetz

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jascha Heifetz was a Russian-American violinist, seen by many as one of the greatest violinists of all time. He was born on 2 February 1901 in Vilna, now Vilnius, into a Jewish family. His father Reuven was a violinist, violin teacher and concertmaster of the orchestra of the Vilna Theatre. In 1906 Jascha, five years old, went to music school, with Ilya Malkin. He was regarded as a child prodigy and made his debut at seven in Kovno with Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. In 1910 he entered the class of the Russian violin school in Saint Petersburg. In 1912 he met Fritz Kreisler in Berlin.

Music and breakthrough

As a teenager he played in a large part of Europe. In April 1911 he gave an open-air concert in Saint Petersburg for twenty-five thousand people, so excited that police had to protect him. In 1914 he played with the Berliner Philharmoniker. To escape the Russian Revolution his family left Russia in 1917, via the Far East and by ship to San Francisco. On 27 October 1917 he played at Carnegie Hall for the first time, and it was an instant sensation. At eighteen he was the highest-paid violinist in the world.

Influence

He had a long concert career and played for the USO during the war. After an injury to his right arm in 1972, the bowing arm, he turned to teaching. He died in 1987. Heifetz showed how pure and technically controlled a violin can sound, and his recordings remained a benchmark for later violinists. Itzhak Perlman later recounted that a Heifetz recital on the radio had led him to the violin.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to his recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and notice the purity and the speed in the last movement: how steady does the tone stay, even as the notes fly past?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists