Rosza Violin Concerto & Benjamin Romantic Fantasy Jascha Heifetz

Another fine Pfeiffer / Chase / Heiftez collaboration. Throw in Hendl conducting the Detroit Symphony on the Rozsa Violin Concerto and Izler conducting the RCAVVO on Benjamin's Romantic Fantasy and you've got a winner. This is an original 3-track recording and that is what this LP reissue was mastered from. The result? Not to be missed!
"…I'd have to say that the usual stumbling blocks have been sidestepped. Great care has been taken to do the right things, starting with the way the decision to remaster these RCAs was made." (Jonathan Valin, The Absolute Sound)

If you've only listened to Heifetz's crude interpretation of Sibelius's tempestuous and capricious concerto in the past, you might be incredulous after listening to this CD. "What? This is the Sibelius Concerto? It's a far cry from the one in my memory." After listening to it twice, however, tears should prick your eyes–the result of two gusts of contrasting emotions in one stroke: anguish over all the beauty, passion and subtlety you've missed in the past from this fabulous concerto, and jubilation at your new discovery of this supreme recording and the privilege to relish every bar of the music.

Jascha Heifetz was a Russian-American violinist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he moved to the United States as a teenager, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He was a virtuoso from childhood. Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said after hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees." He had a long and successful performing career; however, after an injury to his right (bowing) arm, he switched his focus to teaching.

The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 was the only concerto for violin composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Composed in 1878, it is one of the best-known violin concertos.

While not technically awful, Jascha Heifetz's 1955 recording of Brahms' Violin Concerto with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony is still close to unbearable. By 1955, Heifetz's once sinewy tone had tightened, his once supple technique had hardened, and his once warm interpretation had grown cold. With the never sinewy, supple, or warm Fritz Reiner, Heifetz creates a performance of Brahms' lyrical masterpiece that grates on the sensibilities.

Jascha Heifetz was, probably, the greatest twentieth-century exponent of his instrument. Violin at its best, although some memorable recordings are … more memorable than others…