Befitting his legendary status, Jascha Heifetz-The Complete Album Collection, is the biggest box set ever created for a solo artist. With 103 CDs and 1 DVD, this limited edition collection features all of the violinist's recordings made by RCA Victor between 1917 and 1972,those made in England for His Master's Voice and distributed in the U.S. by RCA Red Seal, three LPs issued on Columbia Masterworks and one on Vox Cum Laude.
Jascha Heifetz was a Lithuanian-born American violinist. He was born in Vilnius. As a teen, he moved with his family to the United States, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. He had a long and successful performing and recording career; after an injury to his right (bowing) arm, he focused on teaching. The New York Times called him "perhaps the greatest violinist of all time."
There have been few recordings of all three of Grieg's beguiling violin sonatas, and with the exception of the sublime Augustin Dumay/Maria-João Pires recording, most of them have been negligible. There have been still fewer recordings of arrangements of his charming piano miniatures by Joseph Achron and nearly all of them have been negligible. So perhaps one can be forgiven for approaching this disc by violinist Hagai Shaham and pianist Arnon Erez coupling all three sonatas plus six song arrangements with more than casual curiosity: could this be the recording that finally puts the works on the musical map?
Much Ado, the solo debut album by Korean American violinist Danbi Um is as striking for the young musician's choice of "old world" repertoire as her virtuoso interpretations and the sumptuous sound she draws from her 1683 "ex-Petschek" Nicolo Amati violin. Danbi conjures memories of a musical Golden Age, a sensibility instilled in her by a roster of internationally renowned tutors.
Since this CD's overtly Romantic program is plainly aimed at the mass market and the works are obvious showpieces for violin and piano, some will regard this album merely as a flashy vehicle for a rising star. Yet David Frühwirth has judiciously chosen a number of obscure but delightful works to premiere here, and the pieces by the almost forgotten Jenö Hubay, Efrem Zimbalist, Joseph Achron, Ovide Musin, and Hans Sitt are charming curiosities that many will find appealing. While the names of Kurt Weill, Alexander Glazunov, Henryk Wieniawski, and Henri Vieuxtemps are indeed famous, Frühwirth has nonetheless found a few of their unknown gems to lavish with his considerable skills and flamboyant Viennese style.
This is set of records of violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz, one of the best violinists ever. It was originally issued in seventies on vinyl and it is mono. As you can read in the booklet. "The selections on these compact disks were recorded before noise-reduction methods were available. In the digital remastering, effort was made to minimize the inherent noise; radical methods were not used in order to preserve the full-frequency content of the original recordings. Therefore, some noise may be experienced in reproduction on wide-range equipment".
Befitting his legendary status, Jascha Heifetz-The Complete Album Collection, is the biggest box set ever created for a solo artist. With 103 CDs and 1 DVD, this limited edition collection features all of the violinist's recordings made by RCA Victor between 1917 and 1972,those made in England for His Master's Voice and distributed in the U.S. by RCA Red Seal, three LPs issued on Columbia Masterworks and one on Vox Cum Laude.