Jascha Heifetz: The Supreme
List Price:
Our Price: $8.98
You Save: $5.00 (36%)
Availability: Usually ships in 2 to 3 days
Buy Used: from $2.91 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Composer: Johann Sebastian BachComposer: Johannes Brahms
Composer: Max Bruch
Composer: George Gershwin
Composer: Alexander Glazunov
Composer: Jean Sibelius
Composer: Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Fritz Reiner
Conductor: Malcolm Sargent
Conductor: Walter Hendl
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra: New Symphony Orchestra of London
Orchestra: RCA Victor Orchestra
Orchestra: RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Performer: Brooks Smith
Performer: Jascha Heifetz
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-02-08
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Chaconne
- Allegro non troppo
- Adagio
- Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace
- Allegro moderato
- Canzonetta, Andante
- Finale, Allegro vivacissimo
- Introduction: Grave - Adagio cantabile
- Allegro
- Adagio - Andante sostenuto
- Finale: Allegro guerriero
- Allegro moderato
- Adagio di molto
- Allegro, ma non tanto
- Moderato
- Andante sostenuto
- Tempo I
- Allegro
- No. 1, in B flat major
- No. 2, in C sharp minor
- No. 3, in E flat minor
Free Music Notes for Jascha Heifetz: The Supreme
Free Music Review: Strings of Honey & A Bow of Fire
Hit: 5 Stars
No one has quite the volcanic sound that Heifetz does - it is ironic that his stage persona led to charges of emotional coldness. The truth is, with Heifetz's blend of sound and technique, emoting wasn't necessary.
I bought this set primarily for the Brahms (a piece to which I am slavishly devoted). This disk has the 1955 recording with Reiner and the Chicago. Heifetz sustained shoulder injuries two years earlier but the gleam of near-absolute perfection still clings to his playing.
Heifetz slices ferociously into the Brahms from the first note, laying bare its rugged passion, situated within an impeccable musical structure. This is one of the most difficult of all violin concertos (hence Joachim's comment that Brahms wrote it against rather than for the violin), but at age 54 Heifetz sails through the multiple stops, broken chords, running-scale passages, and rhythmic patterns. The performance is urgent and unforgettable, and well-matched by the burnished sound of the Chicago under Reiner. Heifetz's playing in the wistful second movement, particularly in the upper reaches of the music, is so beautiful as to feel like a blade piercing the heart. I would have paid many times over for this disk if it only had this performance on it.
The other performances are so much additional treasure. I must say the Tchaikovsky, which immediately follows the Brahms, sounds cheesy by comparison, but that's not Heifetz's fault. The Tchaikovsky is a lovely piece but in terms of depth of musical ideas it is no match for the Brahms. Heifetz takes the allegro portions of the Tchaikovsky at a very fast clip (the fastest I've ever heard), and in my opinion the speed here, even with Heifetz's technique, sounds rushed and deprives the music of some nobility, although it certainly provides thrills. It reminds me of the fabled Horowitz/Toscanini recording of the Tchaikovksy First Piano Concerto, in which the two giants duked it out in front of a live audience, sacrificing any semblance of nuance in the music to the thrill of breakneck speed. Therefore, I must disagree with the reviewer below who said this recording serves up this concerto as it was meant to be heard, with a gypsy-like quality.
The long "Scottish Fantasy" of Bruch's is one of my least favorite pieces in the repertoire, so I listened to it only twice. Heifetz navigates it, again with unsurpassed technical brilliance, but even he cannot make me like this piece.
The Sibelius Violin Concerto is out and out gorgeous (my copy of the disk did not have the scratch that other reviewers here have described, so I suppose I was just lucky). If this disk did not include the Brahms, the Sibelius would have been my favorite piece on it. Its individualistic romanticism, hovering on the border of modernism, is superbly served by Heifetz's richly colored playing.
Only in the Bach Chaconne does Heifetz sound strangely out of place - he plays it flawlessly, but almost as if he forgot who wrote it - as if he had got hold of the the Ravel "Tzigane" instead. It's interesting but this kind of music is simply not Heifetz's "fach", as they say in vocal music.
That leaves the Gershwin Preludes and the Glazounov Violin Concerto - all pieces that are seldom heard. The Glazounov is charming but utterly unmemorable - you'd be hard put to hum one phrase after you've heard it, but again that's not Heifetz's fault. The Gershwin Preludes are threaded with familiar sounding themes from his other works. These, too, are wonderfully played - Heifetz loved jazz and loved Gershwin and was renowned for his way with these piece. For this reviewer this music lacks the memorable quality of the major pieces on the set, but that's just a matter of taste. They are worth hearing at last once, and you won't ever hear them better played than here.
The two great gems of this feast, for me, are the titanic performance of the Brahms and the glowing Sibelius, whose colors nearly leap off the CD in this performance. If you also love pyrotechnic thrills for their own sake, you'll treasure the Tchaikovsky, and the expertly served up Bruch, if Bruch is to your liking (I am not partial to his work). The Bach, Glazounov, and Gershwin are more in the way of dessert.
I have recordings of some of these pieces by other artists, and recordings of other violinists - I have heard them all: Milstein, Stern, Perlman, Oistrakh, Midori, Chang, Salerno-Sonnenberg, Mutter, Bell. . . Heifetz, in the end, makes most of them sound small-voiced. I have never heard anyone produce the breadth of sound in high notes, where everyone else's sound gets pinched, that Heifetz does. In my opinion, Oistrakh is the only competition Heifetz ever had in sound, and I don't think even Oistrakh quite caught him every time.
This set is a must-have for fans of Heifetz and of the half-dozen big 19th century concertos that rightly or wrongly loom so large in the solo violin repertoire. Heifetz can be heard playing the others in that group, the Beethoven, Bruch, and Mendelssohn concertos, on other disks.
Jascha Heifetz: The Supreme Poster
For many violin fans, Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) remains, quite simply, the greatest. Heifetz's perfect tone and electric playing weren't always subtle, but you can't deny the awesome power of his virtuosity and precision. Heifetz: The Supreme gathers some of his best-loved works--violin concertos by Sibelius, Glazunov, and Tchaikovsky--along with a few gems (Gershwin's Three Preludes, Bach's Chaconne from Partita No.?2) into one, remastered two-CD package. The Bach may be too intense for some tastes--it's an impassioned, romantic reading--but Heifetz is merely being himself. On the Sibelius and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, though, his skills are undeniable. Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony provide the perfect accompaniment for the violinist, and Heifetz simply lets loose. Heifetz's Gershwin transcriptions are an added, fun bonus. If you haven't been introduced to the glory of Heifetz, here's your chance. With remastered sound, he's never sounded better. --Jason VerlindeClassical Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in World's Finest Violin Recordings
Beethoven, Mendelssohn: Violin ConcertosRelease date: 1998-05-19; Music CD
Best price: $6.77
Price in other shops:
Itzhak Perlman - Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy ~ ZigeunerweisenRelease date: 1991-07-01; Music CD
Best price: $61.32
Jascha Heifetz: The SupremeRelease date: 2000-02-08; Music CD
Best price: $6.71
Price in other shops:
Heifetz ShowpiecesRelease date: 1997-06-17; Music CD
Best price: $6.46
Price in other shops:
Greatest Violin EncoresRelease date: 2001-03-27; Music CD
Best price: $25.88
Heifetz: Double ConcertosRelease date: 2000-01-11; Music CD
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops:
Brahms; Tchaikovsky: Violin ConcertosRelease date: 1993-03-09; Music CD
Best price: $6.31
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
Fritz Kreisler Plays KreislerRelease date: 1997-01-14; Music CD
Best price: $7.83
Price in other shops:
Korngold: Concerto; R?zsa: Concerto; Tema con variazioni; Waxman: "Carmen" FantasyRelease date: 1997-06-17; Music CD
Best price: $5.29
Price in other shops:
Heifetz: Beethoven & Brahms Concertos (Beethoven: Concerto for violin in D; Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Op77)Release date: 1995-05-09; Music CD
Best price: $8.15
Price in other shops:
Bach: Sonatas & PartitasRelease date: 1995-10-10; Music CD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
![Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto [Hybrid SACD] Image](/images/Beethoven-Violin-Concerto-Mendelssohn-Violin-Concerto-Hybrid-SACD-B0002TKFR2-X.jpg)
Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto [Hybrid SACD]Release date: 2006-09-28; Music CD
Best price: $7.18
Price in other shops:
Heifetz & Piatigorsky - Historic Performance Film FootageRelease date: 2005-08-30; DVD
Best price: $10.42
Price in other shops:
![Heifetz in Performance [DVD + CD] Image](/images/Heifetz-in-Performance-DVD-CD-B00064K2SK-X.jpg)
Heifetz in Performance [DVD + CD]Sony; Release date: 2004-12-07; DVD
Best price: $13.56
Price in other shops:
Heifetz: Double ConcertosRelease date: 2000-01-11; Music CD
Best price: $7.88
Price in other shops:
Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn: Violin ConcertosRelease date: 1995-05-09; Music CD
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops:
Heifetz ShowpiecesRelease date: 1997-06-17; Music CD
Best price: $6.58
Price in other shops: