Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Leopold Auer, Frantisek Drdla :: Jascha Heifetz Collection, Volume 5: The Russian Recordings, 1911

An unsurpassed performance

Michael Bradley | Palo Alto, CA USA | 02/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In my opinion this is the definitive recorded performance. Swiftly paced but heartfelt, played with a passion, an intensity and a profound understanding of the musical line that isn't approached by today's stars of the fiddle (nor even by Heifetz himself with Reiner for RCA). I listen to it often, and when I do I'm convinced it's the performance Beethoven heard in his mind, in his heart.



My thanks to Jacob Harnoy for issuing this unsurpassed performance and for achieving audio quality that makes it not just a listenable historic recording but a highly enjoyable one. I think it's a must-hear performance for all who love this work. (Another transfer I own (by Music & Arts) is thin and scratchy; this transfer by Doremi is full and rich.)



For those who find Heifetz too fleet (and if you think so, I think you're wrong!), try performances by Adolf Busch/Fritz Busch, Ginette Niveau/Hans Rosbaud, Yehudi Menuhin/Wilhelm Furtwangler, David Oistrach/Sixten Ehrling, Ida Haendel/Rafael Kubelik - performances that today's prodigies can only hope to grow to understand and equal. Or even try Fritz Kreisler/Leo Blech; it was Kreisler who begat the now-accepted modern tradition of performing the Beethoven reverently (i.e. slowly). But he carried it off, and did so compellingly!



And I can't close without commending another broadcast performance: Bronislav Huberman/Leo Barzin - an extraordinary performance by an extraordinary man. (All of these are available from Amazon.)"