By the time this video was made (1939), Heifetz estimated that he had spent 66,000 (SIXTY SIX THOUSAND) HOURS playing and practicing the instrument not to mention the amount of thought and study that went into developing his musicality. Which comes out to an incredible 5 hours and 20 minutes of AVERAGE practice per day since he took up the instrument. He was at this point roughly midway through his career and played the violin till his death for ANOTHER 48 years.
It’s been 11+ years since you wrote this comment. Everyone who read it back then could be a fairly competent amateur on the violin by now if they had only practiced 1 hour a day
My father was a member of the NY Philharmonic during the time Heifetz played. He heard all the greats of his time, and to him, there was no one as great as Heifetz. He was in a class by himself.
My father Leon Rudin, auditioned for the symphony just after WW2. He was hired to begin in 1946. He played the audition for Walter Hendel, who was the assistant conductor at the time The only other violinist hired that year was Max Weiner. Heifetz came to play the Mozart A major during my father's first season. My father said, that at first, he was somewhat disappointed at the rehearsal. The playing was, of course, very good, but it lacked the intensity, and brilliance it had on recordings. But, this all changed at the concert. My father never forgot that concert. The live performance is available today, like everything else. Apparently, they would record everything, something my father probably never knew. Heifetz played several more times with the orchestra, and it was always as if God had come to town. His sound was unique in real life. Heifetz played with the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl twice in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The conductor was Bernstein. The first concert was the Brahms violin concerto, and the second was the Brahms double with Piatagorsky. My father's teacher, Stassavitch, had been an assistant to Auer, so he knew Heifetz and his family. He related a story to my father about how tough Heifetz's father was on his son. Rarely satisfied with his playing. Heifetz remained the iconic figure in violin play for my father's entire life.
+nidurnevets Apparently, it will only allow remarks of certain length, so the rest of what I wrote isn't there. I went on to say that Heifetz played with Philharmonic several more times. They also played two concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, with Bernstein conducting. My father's teacher was Stassavitch, who had been an assistant of Leopold Auer. Stassavitch told my father that Heifetz's father was rarely satisfied with his son's playing. He was very critical. Heifetz always remained the greatest violinist to my father, who died in 1996
After all!, his bowing articulation is so so special in the world, speechless, exquisite, especial in the rhythm is so graceful at the zenith forever. (90yrs.Japanese) sorry strange English.
The greatest violinist...the passion he shared with us all is so vivid in this all-too-short clip! Thanks for sharing this with those of us who can truly appreciate the talent and dedication to his art...
There are other great even superb violinists AND there is IMO the Zeus of them All. The tone, near perfection and wonderful musicality are Olympian. Thank you for posting-Regards-John
What can one say. The greatest violinist of the recording era shows once again why he was that and breathes extra life into a lovely composition like nobody else can. I wish we had a recording of the great Paganini. I can't imagine that he could play better than Heifetz, something that we'll never know.
janderson2000 Then by that standard Mozart would be the greatest violinist, violist, and forte-pianist of all time. I was talking about apples, not oranges.
+Gerry Rains Uh, no. Mozart is not some undisputed greatest composer.. ...but Heifetz isn't even considered a major composer. He's a player. Not even close to Paganini. He's "famous" for playing other people's music. To say he's as good as Paganini is laughable.
But what does Paganini's skill as a composer have to do with comparing the two men violinists which is how I was comparing them. That's ridiculous - it's totally unrelated. Heifetz acted in a movie - Paganini didn't - so what?
Heard him at Albert Hall in the Elgar. One Sunny afternoon in June 1949 I think. Again in the newly built Festival Hall playing Mozart 5 and the Brahms. Later in the same Hall a recital with Brooks Smith in many things including the Bruch Scottish Fantasy. Quite phenomenal in everything he did. Unsurpassed even by today's high standards.
The slow descent of the bow to the tip in the first 4 seconds is noteworthy to me. From watching Heifetz recently I've been feeling that the 1-2cm of hair closest to the tip hold a unique expressive potential in the bow, he initiates & rounds off notes/phrases in that region constantly
Marvellous as always; note the tremendous variety of bow-speed and the economy of movement both in the left and right hand. He's so much more in control than most recent performers.
If Heifetz changed his bowing, he would have to reposition the violin. The way Heifetz holds the bow, which is in fact classified as Russian, is what allows him to reach the tip of the bow with the violin pointing far left. I can name a few violinists who don't acknowledge the relationship between bow hold and violin position. The result is that they usually have to force their wrists to bend up (extension) 45 * or even more just to get in the upper half of the bow.
it seems like the bow is like a arm extention! the arm and the bow seem to be one...and those octaves are simply perfect and the intonation is perfect as well, but at the same time is vibrato is great, and the trillers at 1:29 - 1:40 sound great! :)heifetz~loove him!
It says 0 dislikes at the moment. I'm not surprised. Idiots stay away from classical music, and the people with sense who listen to this cannot disagree that this is amazing.
He could produce loud staccato sound using the tip of his bow. He could produce continuous smooth staccato using the whole bow. That's why he is Heifetz.
Carl Flesch describes in detail the Russian Bow Hold in his book "The Art of Violin Playing," along with the German and Franco-Belgian bow holds. I don't know if people had names for them before Flesch labeled them. The subject can get confusing because the term "Russian bow hold" is thrown around quite often when in fact the person is actually describing more of a Franco-Belgian type hold.
Photos of Heifetz at age 6 show he always held it this way. So it must have been something natural to a child. Russian like bow holds were reccomended by Auer for shorter people with shorter arms, the Franco Belgian like holds for taller people.
HEIFETZ WAS THE EPITOME OF PERFECTION. I COULD IDENTIFY HIM AFTER HEARING SO LITTLE AS AN OPEN "G" SUCH AS IN THE BRUCH. HIS STYLE OF PLAYING WAS RED HOT.
I always wonder where Heifetz developed his bow technique. It's so unique and individually Heifetz. So many of the greats had amazing bow technique but there is just something about Heifetz' bow hand position that is absolutely amazing.
Elman and Milstein also used a similar hold. Auer wasn't choosy about bow holds and going back to the earliest photos of Heifetz, he always held the bow that way. Must have been the very way that hand was formed.
Is that rapid staccato really written in the music? It sounds more like something heifetz added in to show off lol. I wish there were videos of him playing the other hungarian dances. I would LOVE to hear him play one of the juicier ones like 4 or 17
Perlman holds his bow hand "differently" too. I also hold it strangely, but really it doesn't matter. Each hand is different and how people balance their bow is up to them.
This is the Joachim transcription, which Heifetz edited and rearranged a bit. I've played both versions. The argument that Joachim couldn't have written this because of the 10ths is not true, as Brahms and Bruch both wrote violin concerti for him that contained 10ths. The staccato on the other hand is a signature Heifetz specialty, and Joachim didn't have a spectacular staccato.
msdrug. The future is a long time! Surely Oistrach is "up there" too. For me, these two were the best. They did also have different styles. Oistrach always seemed more relaxed. There were both Russian too.
Not to mention how incredibly efficient his practice techniques were. According to Eric Friedman his student, he was a phenomenal practice machine (not in a negative sense), but in quality work and knew how to squeeze out the absolute maximum output possible from even the smallest bit of input in practicing. He also had total musical recall and at the age of 5 played a Bach piece on the piano by just hearing it once. At 4 years he would scream if he heard a wrong note....
He doesn't lift his finger off the bow. He doesn't grimace, doesn't strain or look like he's attacking his violin. He's totally relaxed. Some of today's violinists should take a lesson from him.
Most of the famous Hungarian Dances by Brahms were arranged by Joachim, but then I have seen at least 6 different versions for the solo of Hungarian Dance No. 5. I have seen Heifetz play brilliantly and he is almost close to perfect, I have no doubt he could play the original, however this is his arr.
An F1 car engine runs at its peak, but can only do so for a couple of races. But Heifetz threw out superlative performance after performance for over 60 years + , playing like 200 concerts a year at times. What makes artistes like him so great is that they don't just do this once or twice a year, but they keep at it all their lives.... My brain would probably blow before I understood where his absolute peak could have been then... BTW the analogy is because of the sound of his Guarneri.
66000 hours only practicing the violin by age 40? Then there's touring, music theory, sight reading, piano, arrangements... you do the math. When someone told Heifetz they'd give their life to play like this, he just said, "I did."
By the time this video was made (1939), Heifetz estimated that he had spent 66,000 (SIXTY SIX THOUSAND) HOURS playing and practicing the instrument not to mention the amount of thought and study that went into developing his musicality.
Which comes out to an incredible 5 hours and 20 minutes of AVERAGE practice per day since he took up the instrument. He was at this point roughly midway through his career and played the violin till his death for ANOTHER 48 years.
I spend an incredible 5 hours and 20 minutes a day AVERAGE on TH-cam. Sigh.
It’s been 11+ years since you wrote this comment. Everyone who read it back then could be a fairly competent amateur on the violin by now if they had only practiced 1 hour a day
The most beautiful bow arm ever, perfect intonation, poise, and supreme
confidence. All Heifetz.
And not to even talk about the noise
I feel like every time I watch his bow arm I learn something new.
Он сво́ей скрипкой меня околдовал. Уже без его скрипки как без воздуха не могу . Я столько хлебнули говоря беды что этим живу
My father was a member of the NY Philharmonic during the time Heifetz played. He heard all the greats of his time, and to him, there was no one as great as Heifetz. He was in a class by himself.
+nidurnevets Really ? Tell me more, please.
My father Leon Rudin, auditioned for the symphony just after WW2. He was hired to begin in 1946. He played the audition for Walter Hendel, who was the assistant conductor at the time The only other violinist hired that year was Max Weiner. Heifetz came to play the Mozart A major during my father's first season. My father said, that at first, he was somewhat disappointed at the rehearsal. The playing was, of course, very good, but it lacked the intensity, and brilliance it had on recordings. But, this all changed at the concert. My father never forgot that concert. The live performance is available today, like everything else. Apparently, they would record everything, something my father probably never knew. Heifetz played several more times with the orchestra, and it was always as if God had come to town. His sound was unique in real life. Heifetz played with the orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl twice in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The conductor was Bernstein. The first concert was the Brahms violin concerto, and the second was the Brahms double with Piatagorsky. My father's teacher, Stassavitch, had been an assistant to Auer, so he knew Heifetz and his family. He related a story to my father about how tough Heifetz's father was on his son. Rarely satisfied with his playing. Heifetz remained the iconic figure in violin play for my father's entire life.
+nidurnevets Apparently, it will only allow remarks of certain length, so the rest of what I wrote isn't there. I went on to say that Heifetz played with Philharmonic several more times. They also played two concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, with Bernstein conducting. My father's teacher was Stassavitch, who had been an assistant of Leopold Auer. Stassavitch told my father that Heifetz's father was rarely satisfied with his son's playing. He was very critical. Heifetz always remained the greatest violinist to my father, who died in 1996
Thank you
+nidurnevets Great family story, wow.
awesome...lucky are those who saw him live.
+Deepak Sharma i remember hearing and seeing him live in Chicago with the Symphony when i was a child - i never forgot it
yep,that's what we say how lucky you are ：）
Extra lucky are those who saw Brahms live
@@sphinxg7893 lol
Literally the MOMENT he lowered his bow onto the string I was amazed. His control of the instrument is absolutely unmatched.
After all!, his bowing articulation is so so special in the world, speechless, exquisite, especial in the rhythm is so graceful at the zenith forever. (90yrs.Japanese) sorry strange English.
i love the way he interprets this; he makes the music "come alive" and hes so modest!
The greatest violinist...the passion he shared with us all is so vivid in this all-too-short clip! Thanks for sharing this with those of us who can truly appreciate the talent and dedication to his art...
I am so in love with the way he utilizes his bow.
that pianissimo harmonic at 1:25 (after the ascending run) is stunning. what control!
Played very beautifully! My favorite violinist of all time.
@1:10 onwards. That left hand. Pure poetry. What beauty and finesse! That is the formation of a hand that is ideal for playing the violin.
Exactly, it's interesting to see everyone's different approach to mastering the violin.
There are other great even superb violinists AND there is IMO the Zeus of them All. The tone, near perfection and wonderful musicality are Olympian.
Thank you for posting-Regards-John
With Heifetz, evry thing sounds simple!
What can one say. The greatest violinist of the recording era shows once again why he was that and breathes extra life into a lovely composition like nobody else can. I wish we had a recording of the great Paganini. I can't imagine that he could play better than Heifetz, something that we'll never know.
+Gerry Rains Play better? How about COMPOSE. Musicians that interpret others' works are not in the same league as the ones who compose.
janderson2000 Then by that standard Mozart would be the greatest violinist, violist, and forte-pianist of all time. I was talking about apples, not oranges.
+Gerry Rains Uh, no. Mozart is not some undisputed greatest composer.. ...but Heifetz isn't even considered a major composer. He's a player. Not even close to Paganini. He's "famous" for playing other people's music. To say he's as good as Paganini is laughable.
But what does Paganini's skill as a composer have to do with comparing the two men violinists which is how I was comparing them. That's ridiculous - it's totally unrelated. Heifetz acted in a movie - Paganini didn't - so what?
+janderson2000 I don't think we will ever really know how well Paganini played by today's standards, as it was before the age of recordings.
Heard him at Albert Hall in the Elgar. One Sunny afternoon in June 1949 I think. Again in the newly built Festival Hall playing Mozart 5 and the Brahms. Later in the same Hall a recital with Brooks Smith in many things including the Bruch Scottish Fantasy. Quite phenomenal in everything he did. Unsurpassed even by today's high standards.
I wish I could listen to him live... Lucky man, David. Completely agree with you.
Liar, old people never use the internet.
「CELLO KID」 You stupid kid, cello kid
@@cellokid5104 I resemb resent that remark. I use the internet all the time.
The slow descent of the bow to the tip in the first 4 seconds is noteworthy to me. From watching Heifetz recently I've been feeling that the 1-2cm of hair closest to the tip hold a unique expressive potential in the bow, he initiates & rounds off notes/phrases in that region constantly
Marvellous as always; note the tremendous variety of bow-speed and the economy of movement both in the left and right hand. He's so much more in control than most recent performers.
What a violinist ,Ihave in my collection all his cds & dvds
There is only one JASCHA HEIFETZ GREAT
!♥!One of the greatest artists,ever!♥!
i could watch this over and over again.
So good!!
Heifetz is absolutely amazing. Could listen to him non stop
Beautiful
Wonderful.!!! Just wish it had been a little longer.
gracias nuevamente a Uds y que dios los cuides. saludos.!
Encore! Encore! Stunning!
Love this song!!! reminds me of my childhood.
Thankyou for allowing us to here this.good to know we have recordings of Sarasate who the notes here coukd havealso tell us was born in 1844.
this deserves many more views...
so smooth
Jaw dropping PERFECTION!!!!!
awesome job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sencillamente maravilloso escuchar siempre que posible uno de los Grandes Violinistas que NOS HAN DEJADO BELLOS RECUERODS !!!!!!!!!!
wonderful !!
unbelievable..... a lifetime of practice
El Excelentísimo y Prestigioso Violinista JACHA Heifetz deslumbra en cada interpretación por SÍEMPRE
I Love it So Much!!!!!!!!!It sounds beautiful by violin!!
I LOVE IT! it's by far the best outta the bunch i say, it's so cute and playful, you can really imagine people doing ballroom dances to this xD
Heifetz is (was) one of the best!
No one like jascha heifetz. True maestro!
If Heifetz changed his bowing, he would have to reposition the violin. The way Heifetz holds the bow, which is in fact classified as Russian, is what allows him to reach the tip of the bow with the violin pointing far left. I can name a few violinists who don't acknowledge the relationship between bow hold and violin position. The result is that they usually have to force their wrists to bend up (extension) 45 * or even more just to get in the upper half of the bow.
Maravilloso. Gracias.
it seems like the bow is like a arm extention! the arm and the bow seem to be one...and those octaves are simply perfect and the intonation is perfect as well, but at the same time is vibrato is great, and the trillers at 1:29 - 1:40 sound great! :)heifetz~loove him!
Superb! TY SamLee for posting.
Magistral Interpretación
Perfection!
Absolute perfection!!
God, watching him is so incredible!!!
From a filming of a concert at Pomona College in 1952.
BEAUTIFUL. TX.
I love it, so exciting,
his finger movements are absolutley amazing. :0
my favourite dance. i play it at parties.
It says 0 dislikes at the moment. I'm not surprised. Idiots stay away from classical music, and the people with sense who listen to this cannot disagree that this is amazing.
The best ever!
His bowing was perfect and engaging.
You are right. One of them exist.
One word: EPIC.
He could produce loud staccato sound using the tip of his bow. He could produce continuous smooth staccato using the whole bow. That's why he is Heifetz.
Carl Flesch describes in detail the Russian Bow Hold in his book "The Art of Violin Playing," along with the German and Franco-Belgian bow holds. I don't know if people had names for them before Flesch labeled them.
The subject can get confusing because the term "Russian bow hold" is thrown around quite often when in fact the person is actually describing more of a Franco-Belgian type hold.
Photos of Heifetz at age 6 show he always held it this way. So it must have been something natural to a child. Russian like bow holds were reccomended by Auer for shorter people with shorter arms, the Franco Belgian like holds for taller people.
I'm a simple man, I see heifetz I click
Esse violinista toca muito... parabéns.
HEIFETZ WAS THE EPITOME OF PERFECTION. I COULD IDENTIFY HIM AFTER HEARING SO LITTLE AS AN OPEN "G" SUCH AS IN THE BRUCH. HIS STYLE OF PLAYING WAS RED HOT.
No! White hot.
The greatest talent in the years past
Majstrovská úžasná hra.Anika.
I always wonder where Heifetz developed his bow technique. It's so unique and individually Heifetz. So many of the greats had amazing bow technique but there is just something about Heifetz' bow hand position that is absolutely amazing.
the great russian teacher, leopold auer, taught heifetz when he was a boy.
Elman and Milstein also used a similar hold. Auer wasn't choosy about bow holds and going back to the earliest photos of Heifetz, he always held the bow that way. Must have been the very way that hand was formed.
Incredible :o
The transcription is made by Joseph Joachim. He transcribed all 24 Hungarian Dances.
wow perfect bow control
at this age its hardly fair to call him a prodigy.... GENIUS is the proper term for a man of this stature.
Is that rapid staccato really written in the music? It sounds more like something heifetz added in to show off lol. I wish there were videos of him playing the other hungarian dances. I would LOVE to hear him play one of the juicier ones like 4 or 17
Wonderful!! Thank you!!
The best
Perlman holds his bow hand "differently" too. I also hold it strangely, but really it doesn't matter. Each hand is different and how people balance their bow is up to them.
Greeting from Hungary,guys :)
+Gondorfi1 Thank you, Hungary! :)
This is the Joachim transcription, which Heifetz edited and rearranged a bit. I've played both versions. The argument that Joachim couldn't have written this because of the 10ths is not true, as Brahms and Bruch both wrote violin concerti for him that contained 10ths. The staccato on the other hand is a signature Heifetz specialty, and Joachim didn't have a spectacular staccato.
Brahms and Bruch never wrote tenths in their concerti. They are not virtuoso works.
Wish I had been alive in NYC to see him.
@rahulpower hahaha!! a disorganised ballroom! hahaha that would be funny! :D
msdrug. The future is a long time! Surely Oistrach is "up there" too. For me, these two were the best. They did also have different styles. Oistrach always seemed more relaxed. There were both Russian too.
...and both were Jewish!!
...as we're all the great violinists in the first half of the 20th century....and their teacher Auer, was also Jewish!
I believe he calmed down, kept it simple, and didn't let himself get going too fast.
By simple, I mean simple from his point of view.
Not to mention how incredibly efficient his practice techniques were. According to Eric Friedman his student, he was a phenomenal practice machine (not in a negative sense), but in quality work and knew how to squeeze out the absolute maximum output possible from even the smallest bit of input in practicing.
He also had total musical recall and at the age of 5 played a Bach piece on the piano by just hearing it once. At 4 years he would scream if he heard a wrong note....
He doesn't lift his finger off the bow. He doesn't grimace, doesn't strain or look like he's attacking his violin. He's totally relaxed. Some of today's violinists should take a lesson from him.
Most of the famous Hungarian Dances by Brahms were arranged by Joachim, but then I have seen at least 6 different versions for the solo of Hungarian Dance No. 5. I have seen Heifetz play brilliantly and he is almost close to perfect, I have no doubt he could play the original, however this is his arr.
oh man T.T that is so good
Actually, I just got a biography of Heifetz by Heifetz's student and the title is 'Student of God' :P
Гений....❤
An F1 car engine runs at its peak, but can only do so for a couple of races. But Heifetz threw out superlative performance after performance for over 60 years + , playing like 200 concerts a year at times. What makes artistes like him so great is that they don't just do this once or twice a year, but they keep at it all their lives....
My brain would probably blow before I understood where his absolute peak could have been then...
BTW the analogy is because of the sound of his Guarneri.
so true.
Delicious!
@cloudchaser07 Yep. His name was Joseph Joachim.
A living proof that posture actually matters when playing.
Wow!
He took rhythmic liberties masterfully.
Madre mía...
How is the quantity of hours in a lifetime enough to gain this much mastery of an instrument?
66000 hours only practicing the violin by age 40? Then there's touring, music theory, sight reading, piano, arrangements... you do the math.
When someone told Heifetz they'd give their life to play like this, he just said, "I did."
@@srinitaaigaura wooow that gave me goosebumps. He gave his life to a violin😭😭😭😭😭😭
Más que su religión lo que cuenta es su arte.
agree!!
watching his bow hold alone is mind blowing, the wrist and the elbow and shoulder is just to much on top of that
His students often have that hand. I have worked with one in particular.