Cannily selected,
this trio of sonata recordings presents
Heifetz with the unusual spectacle of
non-chauffeur colleagues at the piano.
Whatever his sovereign command, Heifetz’s
taste in accompanists remained strongly
rooted in the nineteenth century. Accordingly
it’s a particular tensile pleasure
to hear the patrician Rubinstein and
Moiseiwitsch and the much younger Kapell
in three sonatas at the centre of the
literature.
The earliest is the
Franck, made in London with Rubinstein
at EMI’s Abbey Road studios. This
is the only sonata they made together
– oddly, perhaps, given their
commanding presence as two thirds of
the Million Dollar Trio – but
it holds up well. It opens quite briskly
but possesses an intimacy and tact in
the Allegretto ben moderato that appeals.
Heifetz reserves his full weight of
expressive gesture for the Adagio where
tempo flexibility and tonal malleability
are all optimum. He ranges from high
wire precision and elfin thread to those
well loved lower string smears. There’s
some gorgeous playing from the duo,
not least from Rubinstein, in the Recitativo-Fantasia
and though by the side of some other
pairings of the time they can sound
hasty they don’t sound unduly
mechanistic or unfeeling. This is a
work that Rubinstein played with his
Polish colleague Kochanski and, quite
possibly, with Ysaye as well. I’ve
never been able quite to document either
their joint concert recital programmes
or their off-duty music making during
the First War in London – but
I’m sure they must have played
this work together. As a performance
I’d rank this one high, but not
as high as the classic Francescatti-Casadesus
or the Dubois-Maas of 1931.
The Brahms saw Heifetz
coupled with William Kapell, three years
before the pianist’s untimely
death. The latter plays splendidly well
but is not flattered by the usual Heifetz
recording balance which saw pianists
relegated to the back of the acoustic
stage. Even so we can still appreciate
his performance and concur with Heifetz
who had wanted to pursue the collaboration
with more recordings. We hear myriad
inflexions from Heifetz, who micro-manages
every aspect of the lyric line with
stupendous, scintillating violinistic
assurance. The changes of colour, the
quicksilver responses, the tension he
imparts are all magnificent and not
overbearing, though I can imagine less
sanguine views of this battery of devices
brought to bear. He really reserves
the greatest weight of vibrato for the
restatement of the first movement’s
initial melody, which then takes on
a remarkably poignant depth. It’s
only in the Adagio that the unceasing
tints and shadings take on a somewhat
wearying aspect. The attention to dynamics,
detail and shading in the scherzo is
remarkable. One can overlook some self-conscious
phrasing in the finale – when
playing like this is around one can
sit back and luxuriate. Still, one wouldn’t
place this recording above the earlier
Szigeti-Petri, no matter how distinguished
it is.
With the Kreutzer we
hit an interesting situation. An earlier
1949 traversal by Heifetz and Moiseiwitsch
was never issued but the pianist’s
test pressings have now been released
by APR and reviewed
by me on this site; The comments I made
there refer broadly, though not always
in detail, to this commercially released
1951 recording. There are caveats. For
all that the test pressings suffered
some damage (skilfully repaired by Bryan
Crimp at APR) it’s undeniably
the case that the balance between instruments
is far more just in the 1949 attempt,
one of the reasons that Heifetz vetoed
that project. Back in 1949 the two were
slightly tighter in the first movement
and were a touch more expansive in the
second though there was unanimity about
the finale, which they play with great
dash on both occasions. Again, one wouldn’t
necessarily want to draw parallels with
the Huberman-Friedman but that was a
recording of transfixing immediacy -
but do try to get the APR, the contrasts
and subtle differences are fascinating.
Mark Obert-Thorn has
done the honours here and very well
too. The Beethoven and Brahms would
not have been particularly problematic
but the Franck has been nicely equalized
and has plenty of treble air. No Heifetz
admirer should be without this.
Jonathan Woolf
Jascha Heifetz (violin) with
