Heifetz Collection, Vol 3 (1934-1937)

RCA海菲兹全集，第3卷/共46卷。 The hours on hours of great violin playing contained in this collection is more than an end in itself: it is also a means to measure the growth of the Heifetz repertory and to show us how it sounded as it was happening. Disc 1 of Volume 1 measures the extraordinary range of his art at ground zero: the Schubert Ave Maria for a superbly singing, sustained legato; the Bazzini La ronde des lutins for its antithesis, flawless articulation of difficulties at a speed such as had never been heard before. Were one to project two lines from these points to form an even-sided isoceles triangle, they would meet at a point symbolically representative of the fusion of both extremes of peerless muscular coordination, on behalf of the works most deserving of it: Bach's unaccompanied violin music. Heifetz's growing identity with the literature may impress some as a product of increasing age and maturity, but more than 50 years before he astonished the world of television viewers with his surpassing command of the Chaconne from the D Minor Partita he performed it in Carnegie Hall in a manner so superior that, as one writer put it, there was "no longer any vestige of a doubt as to the preeminence of Heifetz as a violinist." This was on December 1, 1917, for which the response to the newcomer's second recital was so tempestuous that it could only be likened to the 1890s, "when Paderewski was the sensation of the hour." During the month of December 1935 Heifetz put on wax half of the six unaccompanied sonatas and partitas of Bach: the Sonatas Nos.l and 3, included in this volume, and the Partita No.2, which is available in another volume. This coincided with a period in which (to quote my own comment dated January 9, 1937) "few of Mr. Heifetz's recent recitals have lacked a Bach sonata or partita." The superb opening Adagio of the G Minor Sonata or its profound counterpart in the C Major are the kind to beam a violinist's fullest capacities inward, as an actor might ponder endlessly the manner of doing justice to every word in a great Shakespearean soliloquy. Together with the "action" movements (Allegro, Fuga, etc.) they promote a trinity of elements rarely available to a string player: one composer, one performer, one listener. The Grieg C Minor was among the sonatas often heard from Heifetz in this period, joined by such new additions to the gallery of miniatures as Falla's Danza espanola, his own version of the charming Mouvements perpétuels Nos.l and 3 of Poulenc and the three-part Tallahassee Suite of Cyril Scott. While reasserting his right to an old franchise—ownership, by acclamation, of La ronde des lutins—he established, by preemption of competition, a new one: Dinicu's H or a Staccato. Grigoras Dinicu was a Rumanian violinist/composer whose now-famous piece came to the attention of Heifetz in a version for violin and orchestra. His own arrangement for violin and piano was published in 1930. It is plainly apparent why "staccato" is in the title: there is, very audibly, the "peach of a down-bow staccato" admired long before by the American virtuoso Maud Powell—also a whale of an up-bow. But why "hora"? Competent sources identify it as "an ancient round ... danced in languishing cadence to the lingering notes of bagpipes ... the hora proper now begins. It lasts a long time. "The traditional music also expresses "the tender thrill that must be passing through all the clasped hands," a suggestion evident enough in Dinicu's treatment of it. —Irving Kolodin The two concerto recordings included in this volume were made with John Bar-birolli and the London Philharmonic during one visit to London in 1935. The period 1934-37 was one of very active international concertizing by Heifetz and resulted in numerous recordings for the English affiliate of RCA, the Gramophone Company (or HMV, now EMI). He relished his popularity in England, visited as often as his schedule allowed and enjoyed making recordings there both with orchestra and piano. Those with orchestra in this volume are his first of the Wieniawski No.2 and his only recording of the Vieuxtemps No.4. Among Heifetz's few American recordings during this period was the Grieg sonata included here.