+Plastic i want to say it's staccato, but if you would look closely, his left hand is performing a pizzicato. And if you would listen clearly, the notes played sounds distinctly percussive...
@Giggitee O'Yeah I get why you think these "muh Ling Ling" comments are annoying, but that's a quite vile thing to say, and I advise you refrain from doing so.
I know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail nonetheless. As lightning turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same. And now, it’s here. Or should I say, *I am.*
351 people had to "break their fiddles across their knees". I've never seen anything like this from ANY violinist. Heifetz's skills are beyond belief. In fact this pretty much sums up how invincible he was at his prime. As Milstein said, "Nobody can play like that. I can't, nobody can. Forget about his recordings. What Heifetz does in live performance is just incredible."
Paganini actually didn't play it as well. He wrote it for a play, and this tune was meant to be a fast devilish style piece. He missed many of the notes as he played, but he said that it wasn't necessary to hit all the notes to bring out the full effect. Heifitz is the only one to ever play it perfectly at this speed.
IN the middle 70's he came to Peru and gave a concert. He played this piece, the Rondo by Mozart, the March by Prokofiev, etc, and Ciaconna by Bach. Great and memorable concert. I was just a kid but still remember his performance.
Everybody is talking about the left hand pizzicato section, but the section at 2:30 with the thirds, in runs that fast, and that intune, is one of the most stunning things to a violinist you could ever imagine. That is ridiculously hard.
+Lukas Pelling Stradivaris are lush and colorful, Heifetz did not have a cushioned attack. Guarneris are perfect for him, though he used the Dolphin well.
In music, there are rock stars, there are idols, there are celebrities. But rarely, there are legends. This is one of them. Edit: Y'all niggas asking "r u talkin bout Heifetz or Paganini???" The answer is "Yes." Also, the Bieber comment is an obvious troll.
This has to be the single greatest performance of this piece other than perhaps by Paganini himself. I listened to Hillary Hahn, yo-yo ma and others attempt this piece but none of came close (granted, yo-yo ma did play this on a cello). This man is actually insane
^They're both some of the best modern violin performers tho I will have to disagree with you with who had the better recording. Hilary's performance was not as articulated (staccato's were not as clear) as Heifetz's even though her recording is with much better equipment. Imo, that's what makes Heifetz's performance of this caprice superior: the clean playing maintained at such an amazing tempo.
Someone suggested selecting the RU-vid .25x speed at 2:48 while he plays the glissandi slide with his 4th finger sliding up and some dark magic is behind hitting those notes like individual stops with a single bow stroke. I have listened to 5 different recordings of the Caprice including the digitally remastered recording of this piece with piano with Heifetz. Every other recording skips half the piece or takes the liberty to rush through parts to sound impressive but at the cost of losing control of the violin. Listening to the entire piece at .25x gives a special perspective how every high high harmonic is in tune on the first stop then he adds the vibrato. One thing I was surprised by is how often his bow will leave the strings on a down bow and when he brings it back on an upbow the tone is his always perfect and connected.
A. Hadelich described a technique of playing a slight undulation with the bow to make a glissed scale sound more defined. Heifetz likely used this. Perhaps he invented it.
All those countless hours of practice, playing until your fingers are stripped of flesh to the bone, being forced to restring your violin from the blood on your fingers, having your neck permanently crippled and deformed from holding your instrument there for hours, the mental anguish of hitting the wrong note or passage again and again and again until you feel like you're loosing your mind, forsaking food sleep and basic human contact for years all for the sake of art, and making this incredible piece look so goddamn easy...truly magnificent!
Andrew Wang I've been playing violin since I was three, and from overuse i have damaged my wrists and my neck from nerve damage, currently I am 14 and I have to get a surgery to fix damages in my arm, and my back is damaged. I have doctor's appointments every so often, but it's not technique. I went to Colburn, and now I am in New York for the Julliard Young Art's program -so you really can't say my technique is off. It's more of 6 1/2 hours of practice daily. It's not a hobby, it's my life. No time for friends outside out of violin. But it's worth it.
Fro Froyo I've played violin since I was 4, and I'm 23. I'm by no means a professional musician but I've had enough learning and teaching experience to know a problem when I see one. I would say that unless your very life depended on it, over 6 hours of practice a day is redundant at best and (in your case) physically damaging at worst. There is only so much your brain and muscle memory can absorb effectively per session. Player longevity is a consideration as well, and if you are already suffering injuries so bad that you have to see a doctor and are suffering nerve damage at the age of 14, then that is a serious problem you need to address if you want to still be playing by the time you hit 40. Heifetz could play into his 70s with few physical problems other than an attack by a deranged man on his arm late in his career. You might want to reconsider your regimen. Frankly, I'm shocked that your instructors didn't do anything to intervene. If you are doing this to yourself out of your own volition, then someone should have informed you of the consequences. If they are *making* you do this, then that's actually child abuse.
It's harmonics (instead of pressing down the string you only lightly touch it), doesn't require a lot of precision. The note will ring well even if the finger is not perfectly at the right spot. That jump itself is really not that hard to do with a bit of practice, and I'm sure this man did that a lot.
If you're not precise the harmonic won't sound clear doe Especially high , the higher the harmonic is the more precise you've to be for it to sound clear and full
I was just telling my husband tonight that there isn't another violinist out there that can capture what Heifetz did and the only way I could even consider this getting any better was to hear Paganini himself. I've heard so many versions of this where it sounds like an exercise, but no one - period - nailed the soul and musicality behind it like Heifetz. Hands down my favorite performance of this piece.
Itzhak Perlman said about Heifetz that he rose violin playing to a level we mortals (including Perlman) can only dream about. He also said that Heifetz is the best player ever....saying nothing about Paganini.....
Of course, but I am sure Perlman knows Paganini is considered the best ever....so saying Heifetz is the best ever is a pretty bold statement. Perlman said that Heifetz is the best ever. Heifetz sait that Grigoras Dinicu was the best he ever heard. The conclusion is that Dinicu was the best ever :) Just kidding, but this is very interesting.
***** paganini being considered the bet ever is a bit of a bold statement as well, in fact, quite a few violinists have been called the best ever, Locatelli, Paganini, Ernst, Lipiniski, Wieniawski, Ysaye just to name a few...
donesixfour I never said that Paganini was the best, in fact, how do you compare these violinistsI - I certainly can not judge , in fact, I've never heard the. Niccolò Paganini - ( born 1782 - died 1840 ) Pietro Antonio Locatelli - ( born 1695 - died 1764 ) Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst - ( born 1814 - died 1865 ) Karol Józef Lipinski - ( born 1790 - died 1861 ) Henryk Wieniawski - ( born 1835 - died 1880 ) Eugène Ysaÿe - ( born 1858 - died 1931 )
Back in the early Sixties, when I was in my early teens, I adored Heifetz's recordings and listened to them over and over again: concertos by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, Mendelssohn and Sibelius, wonderful recordings of unaccompanied Bach.... Heifetz was my idol, and it is one of my regrets that I never heard him live, even though we both lived in Los Angeles: my parents packed me off to summer camp just when Heifetz was giving a series of performances at the Hollywood Bowl, and I still rather hold it against them. My father even had the nerve to say of Heifetz: "In many ways, he's a very unsatisfactory guy." If Heifetz didn't meet his standards, who on Earth could possibly have made the grade? But who knows? I'm seventy now, and maybe I'll get to hear him in Heaven....
Maaz Zafar Probably, Paganini would compose pieces that were too difficult for even him, and master them, and he even used double stops with the G and E strings without hitting A and D
True. Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on [this] Theme of Paganini" is at least equally amazing, particularly in the 18th Variation. Brahms's "Variations on [this] Theme of Paganini" is great, as well.
To listen to classical music you need time, concentration, but also, most importantly, an artist who can show you the beauty of it. Just like he has done.
I mean... dude did really just absolutely crush every note. I've watched this video easily and truly 30 times and I'm always awed by dude's perfect balance of feeling and accuracy.
What's not to love? This man is frigging amazing! The absolute command and strength in the bowing arm, the precision of the fingerings, the intonation, the harmonics, the pizzicato...and he makes it look as easy as breathing.
I saw him perform in Carnegie Hall on his farewell tour, and there was an aura about him - you can see it here in his posture and the lack of extraneous movement - like he owned the stage and dared anyone to deny it. Who ever could?
Six years ago, I owed all fame to Heifetz, but today, I do think the piano plays a great role, to filing the blank and difficult turning, which all made this awesome work.
One of the world's music treasures which shows all violin's technical abilities. Many composers were influenced by that piece and wrote their own compositions as variation on a theme and other music contributions.
In my opinion this is the best interpretation of this fantastique caprice (the most beautiful of all 24), Heifetz has got a PERFECT technique and his violin is such beautiful sounding. I think that Auer's arrangement is special, I can't imagine this caprice without that pizzicato at the end, the intonation is perfect. Maybe you've understood that Heifetz is my favourite violinist ever, and in my opinion nobody else will be better. Thanks for this musical treasure, I've listened to it about 500 times (I'm not joking) and I'll continue to consider this version the best one. Thanks Federico Giacoppo 🎻
It is Auer's arrangement: it has the same variations as Paganini wrote them, plus some variations written by Auer (Heifetz' teacher); anche then it is for violin and piano (Paganini originally wrote it for violin solo)
Heifetz plays this fiendishly difficult work with effortless perfection. He makes it sound divine, and I am dead certain that Paganini himself would have admired him as much or even more than any devout Heifetz fan would.
I wonder how absolutely crazy this would have sounded in real life as he was recording. This already sounds insane on a video of this quality, imagine if you were actually there
Listening to this makes me happy I've been around for a while. Had I been younger and less experienced in listening to music I might have not appreciated how beautifully he plays. Even in the most frenzied parts of the piece, every note is perfectly on time and exactly as distinct as it should be. Impressive.
Bravo Maestro virtuoso! He totally nailed the essence of this number -Absolutely knocked it out of the park! Never heard such a crisp, clean and perfect rendition of this incredible piece.
I owned the VHS tape version of this performance and watched it hundreds of times, and Heifetz never seized to amaze me. I think watching this performance was one of the reasons I decided to give up being a musician. Part of me figured out pretty young that no matter what I did, I wasn't even going to come close what Heifetz could do, which was pretty close to perfection. Wish I could have been old enough to hear him play live.
+Charles Cheng It's sad to have such an idea of music. You shouldn't play to be better or as good as someone you admire, but because it pleases you to play ; there are millions of very valuable musicians that are maybe not as good as these masters but are still able to create wonders with their instrument, and it's how it should be... I know there is only one Heifetz, one Perlman, one Hahn and one Ma (I'm a cellist ^^), but there is not only one great violinist and even anyone that is either perfect or better than all the others
+Charles Cheng Same did Oscar Peterson when he first heard at young age Art Tatum's "Tiger Rag". He just cried and didn't play piano for two weeks. Then he started again and became one of the most well-know pianist in jazz. So, don't give up.
+jean de la croix I agree with you that the motivation for playing should be the internal pleasure, but playing is fundamentally different from becoming a professional musician, in which case you do have to be better than a lot of people in order for your professional value to be recognized. So maybe it's perfectly fine for someone not with superb talent to quit a musical career.
Yeah I understand but if you always look at people who are better than you (there are always such people), you'll never progress, in music you don't progress fighting against the others but for yourselve, or it's how it should be. Personnally, I study mathematics, and if I wanted to be the best of the class, I would have commited suicide by now. You can never be the best,but you don't have to
+jean de la croix I agree, but you should always be playing for a reason or for someone such as my reason being to become the best violinist in the world or at least I can be
U must cry as this is so wonderfull, it is something I can't tell, but to cry of this beautifull performace. I think Pagaini would smile and be happy as how Jascha performed it
I actually watched a documentary about him that said he has a "practice regimen that puts even professional athletes to shame" I guess he really does 40 hours (I know, it's a TwoSet meme)
16 years ago, just after RU-vid started I began watching this video. 2 broken violins later I still get motivated by this video. I quit trying to play violin, now I just break fishing rods.
As it says in the description, the accompanist was called E. Bay... One of the best bargains ever. What a privilege to be able to accompany the great Jascha Heifetz. They must have really worked together for thousands of hours to achieve this level of performance.
He was my favorite violinist! He possessed perfect intonation and technique, and his interpretations were unparalleled, indeed. He was the consummate performing artist!
Jascha Heifetz, no one superior at the strings of a violin. You don't have to hear the music, just watch his hands, and even a layman can clearly see no stumbles anywhere, no mistakes, nothing out of place, even if one is not a musician, let alone a violin player, one can see perfection, but if one is familiar with a violin concert, or composition, or one plays the violin at any level, and one is lucky to be watching and listening to Master Heifetz, one can detect and enjoy perfection immediately; one can see it and one can hear it. There is no mistake in judging correctly, and one knows then that Heifetz deserved to be considered one the greatest violinist of all times, if not the greatest ever! We lost him in 1987. A Russian gift for the ages.
Heifetz killed this one; Hahn's isn't even close. To be fair, given their ages when they performed the piece, Hillary cannot have the maturity nor the authority of Heifetz'. She does have wonderful intonation, but there's one thing working to her great advantage there: the reverb. A recording as dry as this one (Heifetz') is very revealing and unforgiving. The way he showcases every technique here is just flawless, explosive and over-the-top, and the way he shreds makes me think he wants to rip the strings by the song's end. It's as if he knows that someday, one million other guys will perform this same piece and just dares everyone, "Just try and top this..."
Paganini wasn't even 30 when he composed this, and given he could play it, this whole concept of maturity/authority just seems bullshit when Hahn played it at around the same age and Paganini composed/played it when he was, what? half the age Heifetz is here?
Nah bro.. I love both violinists but I don’t think maturity is it.. they both have unique aspects that make their performances one of a kind (personally I prefer Hahn but that’s only an opinion AHAHAHA)
Ling Ling was a student of Heifetz. Also once he challenged Heifetz, and lost, and broke his fiddle across his knee. He was then made to do the Heifetz workout for the rest of his life.
he misses a lot of notes, but i mean that’s just the human in him. anyone living under the pressure of being heifetz live is bound to fail, but he still comes out of top with his fire.
