Talk:Jascha Heifetz

Why take out my comments about Jascha...

Lets not be revisionist here. People reading about Jascha should realize the historical background of why his insistence to play Strauss' music was so contraversial. It is important part of Jascha personality to see that he placed music above ethical behaviour and details of this have been reported in the Israeli newspaper Maariv. If you want to edit my English, go ahead. But leave the quotes from Maariv alone. Let use a neutral point of view. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.215.170.193 (talk • contribs) 17:53, 8 April 2005.

• Please clarify. Are you suggesting the above paragraph? What quotes are you referring to? Paradiso 18:24, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC

Technique and Tonality

I just rewrote this section in the hope of providing something with more coherence and resonance. I had previously added the stuff about portamento and the Perlman quote but it seems other people came along and chipped away at this paragraph until it had all but disintegrated into dust. If you feel so moved to edit further try at least to leave the content in a coherent state and not looking like it was written by a committee otherwise my confidence in this whole wiki enterprise will begin to waver. --Julian Brown 07:06, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Unbalances the article

The stuff about Heifetz and Strauss is worthy of note, but should it really take up so much of the article? If this were a full-length biography, it would be OK, but as it stands it unbalances the article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.135.247.23 (talk • contribs) 10:04, 10 April 2005.

I agree that it takes up too much of the article, but its a dramatic story and an interesting read! So I suggest keeping it while trying to expand the rest of the article a bit. Paradiso 14:15, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Heifetz had nothing to do with Nazi/Jew relations.

Yes, everything you said happened did happen. But to take up 50% of an article about Heifetz and a couple of concerts in Israel is both demeaning to a great artist and unproportional to his almost 70 year long career. It deserves at the most a passing reference and should not made so important. Most people thinking about Jascha Heifetz think about him as a Master Violinist, attaining the pinnacle of his art, and this should be the main focus of this article. --Luckybeargod 02:24, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

I agree with you. More on music, less on politics and religion. This is supposed to be an encyclopedia here, not a platform to express your own views. --k72ndst 02:03, Feb 14, 2006 (UTC)

I removed what was previously at the very top of this page because it was outrageously POV. --Todeswalzer|Talk 02:47, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

AFD result

This article was nominated for deletion on 8 October 2005. The result of the discussion was Speedy keep. An archived record of this discussion can be found here.

--Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 21:40, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Expansion and Improvement

• As per user Smedley Hirkum, we should work at expanding and improving the article. We also should format it into sections.

My suggestions are:

• Prodigy;

• Recording Artist (explaining his recording);

• Touring Career ( explaining his concerts including the problem in Israel);

• Entertainment - including 3 movies, TV shows etc;

• Discography;

• Appeared in;

• References
  • Footnotes
  • Further Reading

Capitalistroadster 04:33, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Picture of Heifetz

Currently, there are two copies of the same portrait floating around: commons:Image:Heifetz.jpg and Image:Heifetz.jpg.jpeg. Both claim that the picture is in the Public Domain, but the evidence presented to support that assertion is rather thin. It looks like a promo shot made in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Does anyone know more? Algae 11:21, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

I am looking at the photo of him that is around 1920. If he was born in 1901 there is no way he could have looked like that at 19. He looks much older. At least 30. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.113.161.114 (talk) 22:12, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Heifetz the pianist

I thought I knew a lot about JH, but I'd never heard he played piano. 24.226.90.180, I'm not doubting you, but can you provide a source for this so I can read more about it? Cheers JackofOz 09:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Just to comment about JH playing piano: You can see him playing piano on his master class video. He was accompanying some Bach violin concerto, E major if I remember right. He played piano all right. He made lots of arrangements from piano to violin so he probably worked a lot with the piano. 88.192.204.65 20:26, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Jascha Heifetz deserves our respect

It was definitely something I learned in Music School (Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory) that Jascha Heifetz was an excellent pianist; Fritz Kreisler was as well.

I have to say I am not clear about the first comments on the discussion page. How is it that the Berlin Philharmonic deserves the title "infamous"? Yes, they existed in Nazi Berlin during the war (and before and after), but it seems to me that to categorically attach a negative stigma to that very well respected organization lacks any neutral purpose. Although it seems clear that Richard Strauss in the very least was not anti-Nazi, but I am not sure why a JEWISH violinist (Heifetz) can be summarily indicted on the basis of playing music by one of the most well renowned composers of the time (indeed of any time). After all, does the accusation make the charge true? Does being attacked by a possibly unstable individual make the person attacked guilty of whatever fancy the attacker believes is a legitimate reason justifying his actions? There are many people who have led lives that do not come close to living up to any standard of ethics or morality who nonetheless have made incredible artistic contributions to society. It is a tribute the amazing nature of art that this can be so. To name a few people who created great works of art and yet could be considered artists in their fields and have made invaluable contributions to art. Should we ban their works? Doesn't this just give their extremist views more creedence (speaking more about the racists/fascists then the pedophiles :)). I think Heifetz is to be commended for understanding this difference. Heifetz is probably the greatest violinist of all time, and certainly did not contribute to the Holocaust, should we be so quick to judge his actions? Intolerance works all ways. You cannot stop intolerance by being so narrow minded as to allow your specific view of tolerance to be the only acceptable one. Krininaleni 20:12, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

I agreed with you until you started talking like a crazy man. --Smedley Hirkum 23:02, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

---Ditto!!--- Also, as a violinist, I agree entirely with what Heifetz did. If a mass-murderer wrote wonderful music, I would not hesitate to play it. That is the beauty of music: It can be completely seperate from the faults of its creator. It would have been different if he was playing songs written to promote the Nazis, but he wasn't. It was a violin sonata, for goodness sake! Person who likes to think 16:44, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Hey, guys, that's an encyclopaedia. What the hell does this paragraph about this incident in Israel has to do in an encyclopeadia, and with a so subjective point of view? Could we imagine that in encyclopeadia Britannica, for example? I mean, read Amoyal's version of the facts in his last book, it's absolutely different. Heifetz would have said:

"This man was better Jew than me. I hadn't to play Strauss in Israel"

Anyway, I think theses lines could be just delete, don't you think so? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.219.118.169 (talk • contribs) 17:59, 8 October 2006.

Hum. Strauss music is not "nazi's music". Read a bit of his correspondance with Stephan Sweig. He was just an opportunist, as were many musician at this time in Germany (who said Karajan?). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.219.118.169 (talk • contribs) 18:02, 8 October 2006.

I don't see why the fact that he was a Jew is relevant enough to be in the intro.--Karljoos (talk) 20:00, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Digital recordings?

Concerning "digital recordings" by Heifitz: Did JH actually make any digital recordings? He died in 1987, far into the age of digital recording, but I thought he'd retired before this technology was much-used. Perhaps I need further study on this matter, but I'm broaching the subject here where its answer is well-known.

--71.50.109.84 23:47, 6 February 2007 (UTC)GeronimoPFudgemuffin

No, Heifetz did not make digital recordings. He retired in 1972, before digital recording was commercially used in the recording industry. He DID make a number of stereo recordings, going as far back as 1955 and continuing to the end of his career. Naturally, many of his recorded performances have been digitally remastered. Sallyrob 18:34, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Just one minor correction: Denon did launch the digital PCM recording system commercially in 1972 [1], so technically it would have been possbible. Yet Heifetz did not record for Denon ... --FordPrefect42 22:07, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

R. Kreutzer

I don't quite get the point of the "Kreutzer" anecdote given in the Miscellaneous section. Who is this "R. Kreutzer" meant to be? – But, what's worse: the story is unsourced, and no proof for it can be found on the web. Delete? --FordPrefect42 23:39, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Yup, I agree... I just took it out. If a cite can be found it could go back. Antandrus (talk) 00:19, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I think that this is a mixed up version of a different event. When Heifetz first came to New York he attended an event at a patrons house and to play the Mendelssohn Concerto (around the time of his debut). He did not realize that he was expected to bring the sheet music for the Pianist as he had never done anything like that before. While he and the pianist were trying to figure out what to do, a guest emerged from the crowd and said something like, "I can try to play the piano part from memory" They played the concerto together much to the delight of the audience, and it was only afterward that this mystery pianist, Fritz Kreisler, introduced himself to Heifetz. If anyone thinks that this story should be included, I can clean this story up and can site a source (the Axelrod book, I believe) Nodrog71 06:14, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Does not sound very plausible. Fritz Kreisler was a violinist himself, not a pianist ... But if the story can be properly referenced, why not? --FordPrefect42 13:25, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I can provide the proper documentation. There eare those who said that Kreisler was almost as good a pianist as he was a violinist! (I can cite references for that too! :)) Nodrog71 21:13, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I was aware that Kreisler was a decent pianist. The piano accompaniments to his short compositions betray someone who knew the piano not just through theory. -- JackofOz 09:31, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Heifetz's debut

I'm new to editing in Wiki, but I just thought I could comment about the debut of Heifetz. According to a book "Violin Mastery, ISBN 0-486-45041-4" Heifetz said in an interview: "My first appearance in public took place in an overcrowded auditorium of the Imperial Music School in Vilna, Russia, when I (he) was not quite five. I played the Fantaisie Pastorale with piano accompaniment. Later, at the age of six, I played the Mendelssohn Concerto in Kovno to a full house." 88.192.204.65 20:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

IPA Pronunciation

Can someone add the correct IPA pronunciation of his name?--Geremia (talk) 07:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

The name is the more poetical word in Hebrew for "will, wish, desire" (also "thing, object", but this is not what's meant here). It should be pronounced "Chefez" - ch as in "Bach", both e's as in "bed", z as in "zar" (or ts in "boots").

The common transcription in English attempts to reflect the Russian way of pronouncing a Hebrew word: the Russian "e" is almost always pronounced "ei" , (but then why transcribe "Hei" and pronounce "Hai" and leave out the "ch" altogether ?). To the ears of a native Hebrew speaker it sounds funny and unnatural. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.68.97.207 (talk) 17:48, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

Weasel phrase?

"widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's preeminent violinists and one of the greatest violinists of all time."

Surely a sentence like that should have some reference supporting it?--83.88.93.176 (talk) 15:19, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It's just POV. I've never seen this kind of statement in the Britannica and I don't think it has a place here.--Karljoos (talk) 19:59, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

What is a violin master?

User 74.243.219.178 has twice revised the lead to note that Heifetz was not only a violin virtuoso, but also a "master". I removed this once, because I had no idea how a violin master differed from a virtuoso. 74.243.219.178's insistence in including this word suggests that he or she believes the word adds important information. 74.243.219.178, could you please tell us on this talk page what you are trying to say? Thanks. --Ravpapa (talk) 07:05, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

Heifetz's US debut

I have not seen the 1920 NYT review that claims that this was Heifetz's first appearance in the US. But if it does make that claim, it is wrong. Heifetz's 1917 tour is well-documented in all his biographies (that I have read) and in contemporary newspaper reports. So I would suggest removing the reference to the NYT review, as it is only misleading. --Ravpapa (talk) 09:19, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

A moment later: Ah, I understand the source of the confusion. The NYT review is of Heifetz's appearance in Queens Hall in London, not in New York. It was indeed his first British tour. So I am removing the reference. --Ravpapa (talk) 09:22, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I've removed the POV statement. It doesn't belong. (As for the claim that he was the best of all time, what about Paganini himself?) Triplestop x3 11:39, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Heifetz's birth date

User 68.239.8.157 has added a valuable citation to records of Heifetz's birth. 68.239.8.157, if you are still there, can you tell us where you found this information? Did you actually look it up in Salt Lake City, or read it in a secondary source? Because it needs a footnote. --Ravpapa (talk) 15:31, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure what happened here because this information is now in a footnote, but there are several problems with the sentence and footnote. First, Polotsk is NOT Vilnius. These probably refer to two different guberniyas in the Russian empire. Was his family registered in Polotsk because they had ancestors there? Second, reference to Lithuania as occupied by the Russian Empire during that period is problematic: the word is not neutral and reflects a national bias; and it would be as correct to say the city was in Russian-occupied Poland. A more neutral approach might be to say Vilnius was/is in Lithuania, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time. That avoids a lengthier treatment of the joint Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, the Republic and the three partitions, which are covered in other articles. Hypatea (talk) 11:36, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Russell Heifetz Byrne (grandson #1 of 5) here, ready to contribute

Hi, I've just recently started contributing to Wikipedia, and thought I'd wander over here to see what I might be able to add. I did a couple little things:

• I just updated the reference to Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler, and named it so we can refer to it repeatedly in the future.
• I added a reference to Ayke's book (Heifetz As I Knew Him) on the Wartime sentence where it mentions his piano playing.
• I added a link to Arthur Vered's fan site to the External links section.

Some Suggestions:

Family life revision 1

Description

A small addition for my uncle Bob Heifetz, so all three of Heifetz's children have a mention. Also, I suggest a tiny reference to my father Robert Byrne.

Proposal

Heifetz's son Jay is a professional ... [omitting existing middle section of Jay's description -rb] ... Fremantle, Western Australia. His son Bob (1933-2001, "Robert Heifetz; Educator, Peace Activist". Los Angeles Times. April 19, 2001. {{cite news}}: More than one of |work= and |newspaper= specified (help)) was an Urban Studies and Planning professor, peace activist and a charter sailor based out of San Francisco Harbor. Heifetz's daughter, Josefa Heifetz (formerly Josefa Heifetz Byrne), is a lexicographer, author of The Word Lover's Dictionary (formerly Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary). She was married for 18 years to Robert Byrne, a Hall of Fame billiards instructor.

Family life revision 2

I suppose we could also expand the sentence about middle grandson Danny (3 of 5) into a longer sentence enumerating all 5 of us.

Other Suggestions:

• How about we add Arthur Vered's biography (Jascha Heifetz [1986]) to the References section?
• How about we change the References section to Notes, and then have a new References section for general bibliographic reference?
• How about a Discography section? We could limit it to the two massive box sets, the 65 CD set from 1994, and the 103 CD set from 2011. You need both of them (or at least the 2011 set plus the Decca Recordings, which are part of the 1994 set, but not the 2011 set) to have everything he ever recorded.
• How about a section called Notable Performances? It could include the one in front of 25,000 at age 12 in Russia, then the US premiere at 17, maybe a blurb about his extensive traveling the world equivalent to 5 round trips to the moon (!) done mostly before jet air travel was in full-swing. Finally, his last public performance could be mentioned here, along with a nod to the recording done in Paris for the TV special shown in the US, and later released on 12" Laser Video Disc. [I have one of these. -rb]
• How about a section called Transcriptions? He published about 100 of them.
• I'm writing an article on Ayke Agus, Heifetz's last piano accompanist, and I'll link it back here once it goes live.
• Once Dario Sarlo's Ph.D thesis is published, we should include it in the References section.
  • Same goes for Dario's English translation of the Russian biography of Heifetz covering his first 17 years.

Russellbyrne (talk) 09:07, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Pupils

The list of pupils has been turning into a catchall - with no way of knowing which were actually Heifetz students and which were not. Per discussions in the Claudio Arrau and other article talk pages, I have trimmed the list, deleting any names which currently lack an article in English Wikipedia. This article is a biographical one on Heifetz and not an excuse for alleged pupils to promote themselves.THD3 (talk) 14:02, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Considered greatest violinist

William2001 added a weasel word template to the article. I am assuming he was objecting to the lead sentence which (quite modestly) says Heifetz was considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. The statement was, in fact, unsupported by citations in the article. I have added three (in the Technique and Timbre section), and have removed the tag.

William, if you were objecting to something else, please post to the talk page and we can find supporting documentation. Thanks, --Ravpapa (talk) 16:56, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

OK. Thanks. :-) William2001 (talk) 23:57, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

Jim Hoyl

   Anyone who knows that Jim Hoyl was a Heifetz pseudonym will not mind landing in the Wartime section of the article; those who don't are entitled to be livid at being sent to the beginning of a section that doesn't mention the pseudonym. I changed that Rdr's target accordingly.
--Jerzy•t 02:48, 29 September 2015 (UTC)