It made for instructive
listening digging out my RCA Heifetz
Great Concertos LP box set - blood red
and starkly powerful of livery. All
three of these concertos, and much else
besides, were in that set. The most
obvious improvement in terms of immediacy
of sound between that much-loved set
and this SACD incarnation comes in the
Sibelius. What was amorphous has now
become clear. The semi-audible introductory
orchestral rustle of the erstwhile LP
is now a vivid and organic sound, tremulous
and expectant. The solo line also emerges
with greater italicisation and curvature,
without damage to the tone. Whilst details
such as this are not as dramatic elsewhere
there’s no mistaking the greater clarity
and immediacy of the SACD. The performance
needs no endorsement from me, though
I don’t rank it higher than the earlier
Beecham 78 set that Heifetz recorded
in London, though it’s certainly swift.
Nor, for that matter, is it as tensile
as the Neveu, as aristocratic as the
Francescatti or as powerfully humane
as the Ignatius.
The Prokofiev is the
hostage of some weird balances. I can’t
think why the wind lines were as over
recorded as they are here but they are
obtrusive. Szigeti tended to hegemony
of the First Concerto whilst Heifetz
staked his claim to the Second (and
I’m not aware that either played the
other’s concerto). The inimitable "Heifetz
slides" are here in profusion and
a glamorous intensity of sound, though
one that tends toward the linear; the
slow movement is relatively fleet and
though it relaxes with great subtlety
I can never quite reconcile myself to
Heifetz’s tempi. For me Oistrakh and
Galliera are the pack leaders. The orchestral
playing and sound are of course much
preferable here than was the case in
the earlier Heifetz recording with Koussevitzky.
Two of the greatest
recordings of the Glazunov were made
with the same orchestra – the RCA Victor.
Milstein’s 1949 outing with Steinberg
in 1949 is justly famed but I equally
admire this Heifetz with Hendl fourteen
years later, though the fires had begun
to dip slightly and the tone was not
quite as rapier brilliant as in his
youth. This was reinforced by the LP
transfer which seems to have been fractionally
flat. The sound from the LP transfers
I’ve heard has a heavier, less mobile
sound and with a slower vibrato. It’s
also RCA up front in sound. Here there’s
a big difference. Re-pitching has made
Heifetz’s tone lighter, more flexible
and subtler; it also doesn’t dominate
the aural perspective as it did, much
to the advantage of the performance.
The original liner
notes have been reproduced and the Living
Stereo livery, which sports LP spines
in the background, adds a welcome slice
of living nostalgia to the enterprise.
A stellar trio of recordings then; none
at the very top, despite Heifetz’s sovereign
playing, but all of an awe-inspiring
level.
Jonathan Woolf
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra/Walter Hendl,
recorded June 1963 
RCA
RED SEAL LIVING STEREO SUPER AUDIO CD 82876 66372
2 [68.55] 
