The Greatest Violinist of the 20th Century Was...

[dtwilbanks]

 

[Keemun]

NOT Jashca Heifetz.    

[dtwilbanks]

NOT Jashca Heifetz.    

Well then, who...?

[Keemun]

I'd probably go with Leonid Kogan or David Oistrakh.  I think Heifetz is overrated and I find his thin, scratchy and sometimes squeaky tone rather annoying.

[Que]

Ask Carlos, he could provide you with a very long list of many, very great violonists.

Of course there is no such a thing as THE greatest, but some other favourites: Nathan Milstein, Michael Rabin, Josef Suk, Jacques Thibaud, Joseph Szigeti, and Bronislaw Huberman.

Q

[Que]

I'd probably go with Leonid Kogan or David Oistrakh.  I think Heifetz is overrated and I find his thin, scratchy and sometimes squeaky tone rather annoying.

Try his pre-'50s recordings - if you can stand the sound of historical recordings.

I forgot Leonid Kogan!

Q

[carlos]

Ask Harry Collier. He can provide a much longer list that I could

[Que]

Ask Harry Collier. He can provide a much longer list that I could

But I like your list...

Q

[sidoze]

it very well might have been Julian Sitkovetsky if he hadn't died so young. The recordings which survive are astonishing, IMO.

[Harry Collier]

I think Heifetz is overrated and I find his thin, scratchy and sometimes squeaky tone rather annoying.

As the French would say: "Eh ca, alors!" (too complicated to do accents on my travelling laptop). Heifetz: thin, scatchy and squeaky"? These newbies should be confined to other areas of the site. One wonders why Virgil Thomson called Heifetz's playing "silk underwear music".

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

With violinists, I think the situation is far less clear than with pianists. In terms of violinists, I'd have to say that David Oistrakh was probably the most consistently satisfying, capable, and versatile violinist I've ever heard, yet on OTOH, except for the Khachaturian concerto (cond. by the composer), I can't think of a single work for which his performance is my favorite. If one could combine the Bach of Arthur Grumiaux, the Brahms of Gioconda de Vito, the Beethoven sonatas of Zino Francescatti, the Sibelius of Camilla Wicks, the Prokofiev of Joseph Szigeti, the Grieg of Mischa Elman, the Nielsen of Kai Laursen, the Paganini of Michael Rabin, and the Bruch concerto of Jascha Heifetz, you'd have close to perfection for my ears!

[BorisG]

History says Heifetz violin, Rubinstein piano, Casals cello.

[Keemun]

As the French would say: "Eh ca, alors!" (too complicated to do accents on my travelling laptop). Heifetz: thin, scatchy and squeaky"?

Thin (adjective): somewhat feeble, shrill, and lacking in resonance.
Scratchy (adjective): causing or liable to cause a slight grating noise.
Squeaky (adjective): squeaking; tending to squeak.

These newbies should be confined to other areas of the site.

Ah yes, I see how your additional 5 months of GMG membership qualify you to your opinion, but not me to mine.  How silly of me.   

One wonders why Virgil Thomson called Heifetz's playing "silk underwear music".

Indeed, one does wonder.  "Silk underwear music" makes me think of Barry White.   

[prémont]

Certainly not Heifetz. I tend to chose Wolfgang Schneiderhan or Arthur Grumiaux.

[Mark]

... or Arthur Grumiaux.

Just been listening to he and Haskil in the Beethoven Piano Sonatas - beautiful playing.

[George]

Just been listening to he and Haskil in the Beethoven Piano Sonatas - beautiful playing.

So you're not waiting till Christmas? 

[Larry Rinkel]

One wonders why Virgil Thomson called Heifetz's playing "silk underwear music".

It wasn't intended as a compliment. "He is like Sarah Bernhardt," for whom "first-class plays got in her way." "Of his Mozart, the less said the better." He "is at his best in short encore pieces."

[Mark]

So you're not waiting till Christmas? 

Shhhhh! The wife's asleep and she's left the set unattended down here by the PC. What else could I do but make MP3s of all three Violin Sonata discs?

[George]

Shhhhh! The wife's asleep and she's left the set unattended down here by the PC. What else could I do but make MP3s of all three Violin Sonata discs?

0:)

[Harry Collier]

Heifetz was the greatest violinist of the 20th century; ask any violinist! And Kreisler was the Emperor of the Violin when Heifetz was the King. But Kreisler turned 50 in 1925, so his best playing belongs to an earlier era.

Anyone who doesn't agree with the general admiration of Heifetz: buy the recent remastering of the Bruch 1st concerto, Bruch Scottish Fantasia and the 5th Vieuxtemps violin concerto and just listen to the playing! No violinist on earth can play the slow movement of the Vieuxtemps with the finesse and colour that Heifetz brings to it.