A view from the violin
Jack Liebeck on Jascha Heifetz
‘Heifetz was my violin idol from a young age, and I loved listening to his recordings right from the beginning. We get influenced by our teachers, of course, and my teacher idolised him and got me onto him as well.
‘With Heifetz, it’s all about the singing line. You can hear where the passage work or melody is going almost from the moment he begins playing it – it’s as if it’s laser-guided. That said, listening today with more mature, critical ears, there’s a case for saying he tends to be rushing the whole time. And in a way, he did, in a manner that must have made it impossible to perform with him if you were a conductor. When I listen to some of his recordings, I wonder how the conductor can have kept up with him!
‘The most dangerous thing you can do as a violinist is to try to play like him. Heifetz’s style was so unique to him and wouldn’t work for anyone else. He had this way of playing that, as well as being electric in its intensity, was incredibly agile – he could turn on a sixpence. There are some famous masterclasses that you can find online where he is trying to teach people how to play little filigree passages in showpieces. He just puts the bow on the string and does his thing, but other people simply can’t do it like that! You just have to let him be.
‘There was a fashion at one point for saying “Oh, I don’t like Heifetz; he’s too cold”, but for me, he is still one of the greatest – up there in the top couple. The player who, perhaps, was most like him was Nathan Milstein, who had that same drive, but was more understandable in violinistic terms for us mere mortals!’