BACH: Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041; Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV 1042; Double Violin Concerto in D Minor; MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major “Turkish” – Jascha Heifetz, violin/Alfred Wallenstein, Franz Waxman, Malcolm Sargent – Naxos

Naxos Historical 8.111288,  70:50 (Not Distributed in the USA) ****:

Mark Obert-Thorn restores classic inscriptions 1946-1953 by violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz (1900-1987), whose name remains synonymous with technical–if not stylistic– perfection. Heifetz recorded the two Bach concertos only once: 6 December 1953, at Republic Pictures Studios in Hollywood. In the music of Bach, which Heifetz considered essential to his repertory, he could exhibit a degree of stinginess along with his otherwise grateful effects, as in his playing only three trills in the Andante of the A Minor Concerto, leaving several passages bare. The sheer fluency of the readings makes us gasp, but the Russian-based pedagogy of his style sounds mannered by contemporary standards.  The motoric drive, as in the E Major first movement, becomes stolidly mechanical, despite the etude-like execution of all figures.

That Heifetz can project a suave cantabile, courtesy of high elbow and elastic, even gratuitous, bow pressure on his 1742 Guarnerius del Gesu, finds ample testimony in the Adagio of the E Major Concerto, like a brilliantly keen knife parting the thinnest of veils. The last movement of the E Major obviously woke up conductor Alfred Wallenstein, and he adds a distinct panache rather lacking else. In order to accompany himself in the Double Concerto (14, 19 October 1946 and released on RCA LM 1051), Heifetz relied on over-dubbing techniques, listening to his first matrices on headphones while realizing the second part. The musical flow in the outer movements proceeds naturally, albeit quite quickly, as is Heifetz’s wont. For tender serenity and musical sweetness, the Largo movement does make strong points, and even the trills sound lavish in context. [1946 – that would be over-dubbing using 78s – must have been a bear to do!…Ed.]

Mozart, too, remained high in the Heifetz vocabulary, though in the concertos he favored only the D Major and the A Major.  This version of the Turkish Concerto (29-30 May 1951) recorded at Abbey Road, London, is the second of Heifetz’s three inscriptions of this brilliant display piece. Heifetz, who often created his own cadenzas for concertos, adopted those by Joseph Joachim for the first two movements of the A Major. The level of excitement becomes palpable when Heifetz enters for the Allegro aperto, with his penchant for altering the rubato inter- and intra- phrases. While Sargent’s conducting tends to the four-square, Mozart’s youthful elan carries the day in spite of conductional stiffness in the joints. The cadenza allows Heifetz double-stops and raspy changes of registration.  Pearly sweet vibrancy of tone marks the Adagio, the Heifetz calling-card. Incredible quicksilver applications of the light bow for the janissary figures in the Turkish Rondo, a menuet with aspirations of a vocal scherzo for The Abduction of the Seraglio. It all passes too fast for the connoisseur, so the only recourse is to play the disc again.

— Gary Lemco