Jascha Heifetz: Recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic

In 1940, Jascha Heifetz moved to Southern California where he remained until his death in 1987. Focusing on Heifetz’s recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic made in the early 1950s, the performances on this CD display the violinist in his absolute prime. Originally recorded with close miking, they capture every subtle nuance of the violinist’s playing in vivid detail. Although Heifetz’s playing is generally characterized by a driving intensity, he could express the most melting intimacy when necessary.

The CD begins and ends with two 20th-century violin concertos by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Both were European emigrants who ended up – like Heifetz who was a close friend of both of them – in Los Angeles, where they composed many scores for the burgeoning Hollywood film industry. Among the other works included are the Norwegian composer Christian Sinding’s Suite in ancient style (which Itzhak Perlman once singled out as one of his favourite Heifetz recordings, Brahms’s Hungarian No.7 in A in Joachim’s virtuosic transcription, Tchaikovsky’s soulful Sérénade mélancolique and Maurice Ravel’s scintillating gypsy-influenced Tzigane. Heifetz gives no holds barred renditions of all these works, performing with daring abandon throughout.