BBC Music – February 2022
English | 108 pages | pdf | 69.37 MB
As we were putting together our cover feature on Jascha Heifetz, I got in touch with three of today’s leading violinists to find out what they make of their famous forebear. The responses were fascinating. ‘Was he was my favourite violinist? ’ replies one. ‘Unlikely. But he was a huge influence on just about all of us.’ ‘I doubt that any of us have escaped his influence,’ agrees another. ‘While he isn’t my “favourite”, you can’t take your ears off him when he’s playing.’ The third, meanwhile, admits that ‘when people asked us what we wanted to
be when we grew up, I’d say I wanted to play the violin better than Heifetz!’… before implying that her tastes have now changed a little. As Jack Liebeck (not one of the three) points out on p31, Heifetz’s style is distinctively, uniquely and inimitably his. Whether or not you enjoy his recordings is a matter of taste – I am largely a big fan – but they are rarely dull. What do you think?
Given my own track record of subjecting a succession of violin teachers to a sound that resembles the proverbial nails being dragged down a blackboard, this seems an apposite issue in which to pass the BBC Music Magazine bow on to someone who, in contrast, plays the instrument rather well. From next month, we welcome our new editor Charlotte Smith, who joins us from The Strad. Many thanks for your company over the last few months!
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