Talk:Jascha Heifetz

message: I just rewrote this section in the hope of providing something with more coherence and resonance.  I had previously added the stuff about portamento and the Perlman quote but it seems other people came along and chipped away at this paragraph until it had all but disintegrated into dust.  If you feel so moved to edit further try at least to leave the content in a coherent state and not looking like it was written by a committee otherwise my confidence in this whole wiki enterprise will begin to waver.
--Julian Brown 07:06, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Technique and Tonality 

message: The stuff about Heifetz and Strauss is worthy of note, but should it really take up so much of the article?  If this were a full-length biography, it would be OK, but as it stands it unbalances the article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.135.247.23 (talk • contribs).
: I agree that it takes up too much of the article, but its a dramatic story and an interesting read! So I suggest keeping it while trying to expand the rest of the article a bit. Paradiso 14:15, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unbalances the article 

message: Yes, everything you said happened did happen. But to take up 50% of an article about Heifetz and a couple of concerts in Israel is both demeaning to a great artist and unproportional to his almost 70 year long career. It deserves at the most a passing reference and should not made so important. Most people thinking about Jascha Heifetz think about him as a Master Violinist, attaining the pinnacle of his art, and this should be the main focus of this article.
--Luckybeargod 02:24, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)
: I agree with you. More on music, less on politics and religion. This is supposed to be an encyclopedia here, not a platform to express your own views. --k72ndst 02:03, Feb 14, 2006 (UTC)
::I removed what was previously at the very top of this page because it was outrageously POV. --Todeswalzer|Talk 02:47, 26 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Heifetz had nothing to do with Nazi/Jew relations. 

message: *As per user Smedley Hirkum, we should work at expanding and improving the article. We also should format it into sections.
My suggestions are:
* Prodigy;
* Recording Artist (explaining his recording);
* Touring Career ( explaining his concerts including the problem in Israel);
* Entertainment - including 3 movies, TV shows etc;
* Discography;
* Appeared in;
* References
**Footnotes
**Further Reading
Capitalistroadster 04:33, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Expansion and Improvement

message: Currently, there are two copies of the same portrait floating around: :commons:Image:Heifetz.jpg and :Image:Heifetz.jpg.jpeg. Both claim that the picture is in the Public Domain, but the evidence presented to support that assertion is rather thin. It looks like a promo shot made in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Does anyone know more? Algae 11:21, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Picture of Heifetz

message: I thought I knew a lot about JH, but I'd never heard he played piano.  24.226.90.180, I'm not doubting you, but can you provide a source for this so I can read more about it?  Cheers  JackofOz 09:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Heifetz the pianist

message: It was definitely something I learned in Music School (Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory) that Jascha Heifetz was an excellent pianist; Fritz Kreisler was as well.  
I have to say I am not clear about the first comments on the discussion page.  How is it that the Berlin Philharmonic deserves the title "infamous"?  Yes, they existed in Nazi Berlin during the war (and before and after), but it seems to me that to categorically attach a negative stigma to that very well respected organization lacks any neutral purpose.  Although it seems clear that Richard Strauss in the very least was not anti-Nazi, but I am not sure why a JEWISH violinist (Heifetz) can be summarily indicted on the basis of playing music by one of the most well renowned composers of the time (indeed of any time).  After all, does the accusation make the charge true?  Does being attacked by a possibly unstable individual make the person attacked guilty of whatever fancy the attacker believes is a legitimate reason justifying his actions?  
There are many people who have led lives that do not come close to living up to any standard of ethics or morality who nonetheless have made incredible artistic contributions to society.  It is a tribute the amazing nature of art that this can be so.  To name a few people who created great works of art and yet could be considered artists in their fields and have made invaluable contributions to art.  Should we ban their works?  Doesn't this just give their extremist views more creedence (speaking more about the racists/fascists then the pedophiles :)).  I think Heifetz is to be commended for understanding this difference.  Heifetz is probably the greatest violinist of all time, and certainly did not contribute to the Holocaust, should we be so quick to judge his actions?  Intolerance works all ways.  You cannot stop intolerance by being so narrow minded as to allow your specific view of tolerance to be the only acceptable one. Krininaleni 20:12, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agreed with you until you started talking like a crazy man. --Smedley Hirkum 23:02, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't see why the fact that he was a Jew is relevant enough to be in the intro.--Karljoos (talk) 20:00, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jascha Heifetz deserves our respect

message: Concerning "digital recordings" by Heifitz: Did JH actually make any digital recordings? He died in 1987, far into the age of digital recording, but I thought he'd retired before this technology was much-used. Perhaps I need further study on this matter, but I'm broaching the subject here where its answer is well-known.
--71.50.109.84 23:47, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Just one minor correction: Denon did launch the digital PCM recording system commercially in 1972 , so technically it would have been possbible. Yet Heifetz did not record for Denon ... --FordPrefect42 22:07, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Digital recordings? 

message: I don't quite get the point of the "Kreutzer" anecdote given in the Miscellaneous section. Who is this "R. Kreutzer" meant to be? – But, what's worse: the story is unsourced, and no proof for it can be found on the web. Delete? --FordPrefect42 23:39, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yup, I agree... I just took it out.  If a cite can be found it could go back.  Antandrus  (talk) 00:19, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

text: Does not sound very plausible. Fritz Kreisler was a violinist himself, not a pianist ... But if the story can be properly referenced, why not? --FordPrefect42 13:25, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I was aware that Kreisler was a decent pianist.  The piano accompaniments to his short compositions betray someone who knew the piano not just through theory.  --  JackofOz 09:31, 16 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  R. Kreutzer 

message: I'm new to editing in Wiki, but I just thought I could comment about the debut of Heifetz. According to a book "Violin Mastery, " Heifetz said in an interview: "My first appearance in public took place in an overcrowded auditorium of the Imperial Music School in Vilna, Russia, when I (he) was not quite five. I played the Fantaisie Pastorale with piano accompaniment. Later, at the age of six, I played the Mendelssohn Concerto in Kovno to a full house." 88.192.204.65 20:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Heifetz's debut 

message: Can someone add the correct IPA pronunciation of his name?--Geremia (talk) 07:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  IPA Pronunciation 

message: "widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's preeminent violinists and one of the greatest violinists of all time."
Surely a sentence like that should have some reference supporting it?--83.88.93.176 (talk) 15:19, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: It's just POV. I've never seen this kind of statement in the Britannica and I don't think it has a place here.--Karljoos (talk) 19:59, 5 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Weasel phrase? 

message: User 74.243.219.178 has twice revised the lead to note that Heifetz was not only a violin virtuoso, but also a "master". I removed this once, because I had no idea how a violin master differed from a virtuoso. 74.243.219.178's insistence in including this word suggests that he or she believes the word adds important information. 74.243.219.178, could you please tell us on this talk page what you are trying to say? Thanks. --Ravpapa (talk) 07:05, 8 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  What is a violin master? 

message: I have not seen the 1920 NYT review that claims that this was Heifetz's first appearance in the US. But if it does make that claim, it is wrong. Heifetz's 1917 tour is well-documented in all his biographies (that I have read) and in contemporary newspaper reports. So I would suggest removing the reference to the NYT review, as it is only misleading. --Ravpapa (talk) 09:19, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: A moment later: Ah, I understand the source of the confusion. The NYT review is of Heifetz's appearance in Queens Hall in London, not in New York. It was indeed his first British tour. So I am removing the reference. --Ravpapa (talk) 09:22, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed the POV statement. It doesn't belong. (As for the claim that he was the best of all time, what about Paganini himself?) Triplestop x3 11:39, 3 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Heifetz's US debut 

message: User 68.239.8.157 has added a valuable citation to records of Heifetz's birth. 68.239.8.157, if you are still there, can you tell us where you found this information? Did you actually look it up in Salt Lake City, or read it in a secondary source? Because it needs a footnote. --Ravpapa (talk) 15:31, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure what happened here because this information is now in a footnote, but there are several problems with the sentence and footnote. First, Polotsk is NOT Vilnius. These probably refer to two different guberniyas in the Russian empire. Was his family registered in Polotsk because they had ancestors there? Second, reference to Lithuania as occupied by the Russian Empire during that period is problematic: the word is not neutral and reflects a national bias; and it would be as correct to say the city was in Russian-occupied Poland. A more neutral approach might be to say Vilnius was/is in Lithuania, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time. That avoids a lengthier treatment of the joint Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, the Republic and the three partitions, which are covered in other articles. Hypatea (talk) 11:36, 1 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Heifetz's birth date 

message: Hi, I've just recently started contributing to Wikipedia, and thought I'd wander over here to see what I might be able to add. I did a couple little things:
* I just updated the reference to Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler, and named it so we can refer to it repeatedly in the future.
* I added a reference to Ayke's book (Heifetz As I Knew Him) on the Wartime sentence where it mentions his piano playing.
* I added a link to Arthur Vered's fan site to the External links section. 
=== Some Suggestions: ===
==== Family life revision 1 ====
===== Description =====
A small addition for my uncle Bob Heifetz, so all three of Heifetz's children have a mention.  Also, I suggest a tiny reference to my father Robert Byrne.
===== Proposal =====
Heifetz's son Jay is a professional ... [omitting existing middle section of Jay's description -rb] ... Fremantle, Western Australia.  His son Bob (1933-2001, ) was an Urban Studies and Planning professor, peace activist and a charter sailor based out of San Francisco Harbor.  Heifetz's daughter, Josefa Heifetz (formerly Josefa Heifetz Byrne), is a lexicographer, author of The Word Lover's Dictionary (formerly Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary).  She was married for 18 years to Robert Byrne, a Hall of Fame billiards instructor.
==== Family life revision 2 ====
I suppose we could also expand the sentence about middle grandson Danny (3 of 5) into a longer sentence enumerating all 5 of us.
==== Other Suggestions: ====
* How about we add Arthur Vered's biography (Jascha Heifetz [1986]) to the References section?
* How about we change the References section to Notes, and then have a new References section for general bibliographic reference?
* How about a Discography section?  We could limit it to the two massive box sets, the 65 CD set from 1994, and the 103 CD set from 2011.  You need both of them (or at least the 2011 set plus the Decca Recordings, which are part of the 1994 set, but not the 2011 set) to have everything he ever recorded.
* How about a section called Notable Performances?  It could include the one in front of 25,000 at age 12 in Russia, then the US premiere at 17, maybe a blurb about his extensive traveling the world equivalent to 5 round trips to the moon (!) done mostly before jet air travel was in full-swing.  Finally, his last public performance could be mentioned here, along with a nod to the recording done in Paris for the TV special shown in the US, and later released on 12" Laser Video Disc. [I have one of these.  -rb]
* How about a section called Transcriptions?  He published about 100 of them.
* I'm writing an article on Ayke Agus, Heifetz's last piano accompanist, and I'll link it back here once it goes live.
* Once Dario Sarlo's Ph.D thesis is published, we should include it in the References section.
** Same goes for Dario's English translation of the Russian biography of Heifetz covering his first 17 years.
Russellbyrne (talk) 09:07, 27 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Russell Heifetz Byrne (grandson #1 of 5) here, ready to contribute 

message: ==== Family life revision 1 ====
===== Description =====
A small addition for my uncle Bob Heifetz, so all three of Heifetz's children have a mention.  Also, I suggest a tiny reference to my father Robert Byrne.
===== Proposal =====
Heifetz's son Jay is a professional ... [omitting existing middle section of Jay's description -rb] ... Fremantle, Western Australia.  His son Bob (1933-2001, ) was an Urban Studies and Planning professor, peace activist and a charter sailor based out of San Francisco Harbor.  Heifetz's daughter, Josefa Heifetz (formerly Josefa Heifetz Byrne), is a lexicographer, author of The Word Lover's Dictionary (formerly Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary).  She was married for 18 years to Robert Byrne, a Hall of Fame billiards instructor.
==== Family life revision 2 ====
I suppose we could also expand the sentence about middle grandson Danny (3 of 5) into a longer sentence enumerating all 5 of us.
==== Other Suggestions: ====
* How about we add Arthur Vered's biography (Jascha Heifetz [1986]) to the References section?
* How about we change the References section to Notes, and then have a new References section for general bibliographic reference?
* How about a Discography section?  We could limit it to the two massive box sets, the 65 CD set from 1994, and the 103 CD set from 2011.  You need both of them (or at least the 2011 set plus the Decca Recordings, which are part of the 1994 set, but not the 2011 set) to have everything he ever recorded.
* How about a section called Notable Performances?  It could include the one in front of 25,000 at age 12 in Russia, then the US premiere at 17, maybe a blurb about his extensive traveling the world equivalent to 5 round trips to the moon (!) done mostly before jet air travel was in full-swing.  Finally, his last public performance could be mentioned here, along with a nod to the recording done in Paris for the TV special shown in the US, and later released on 12" Laser Video Disc. [I have one of these.  -rb]
* How about a section called Transcriptions?  He published about 100 of them.
* I'm writing an article on Ayke Agus, Heifetz's last piano accompanist, and I'll link it back here once it goes live.
* Once Dario Sarlo's Ph.D thesis is published, we should include it in the References section.
** Same goes for Dario's English translation of the Russian biography of Heifetz covering his first 17 years.
Russellbyrne (talk) 09:07, 27 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some Suggestions: 

message: * How about we add Arthur Vered's biography (Jascha Heifetz [1986]) to the References section?
* How about we change the References section to Notes, and then have a new References section for general bibliographic reference?
* How about a Discography section?  We could limit it to the two massive box sets, the 65 CD set from 1994, and the 103 CD set from 2011.  You need both of them (or at least the 2011 set plus the Decca Recordings, which are part of the 1994 set, but not the 2011 set) to have everything he ever recorded.
* How about a section called Notable Performances?  It could include the one in front of 25,000 at age 12 in Russia, then the US premiere at 17, maybe a blurb about his extensive traveling the world equivalent to 5 round trips to the moon (!) done mostly before jet air travel was in full-swing.  Finally, his last public performance could be mentioned here, along with a nod to the recording done in Paris for the TV special shown in the US, and later released on 12" Laser Video Disc. [I have one of these.  -rb]
* How about a section called Transcriptions?  He published about 100 of them.
* I'm writing an article on Ayke Agus, Heifetz's last piano accompanist, and I'll link it back here once it goes live.
* Once Dario Sarlo's Ph.D thesis is published, we should include it in the References section.
** Same goes for Dario's English translation of the Russian biography of Heifetz covering his first 17 years.
Russellbyrne (talk) 09:07, 27 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other Suggestions: 

message: The list of pupils has been turning into a catchall - with no way of knowing which were actually Heifetz students and which were not.  Per discussions in the Claudio Arrau and other article talk pages, I have trimmed the list, deleting any names which currently lack an article in English Wikipedia. This article is a biographical one on Heifetz and not an excuse for alleged pupils to promote themselves.THD3 (talk) 14:02, 25 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Pupils

message: William2001 added a weasel word template to the article. I am assuming he was objecting to the lead sentence which (quite modestly) says Heifetz was considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. The statement was, in fact, unsupported by citations in the article. I have added three (in the Technique and Timbre section), and have removed the tag.
William, if you were objecting to something else, please post to the talk page and we can find supporting documentation. Thanks, --Ravpapa (talk) 16:56, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: OK. Thanks. :-) William2001 (talk) 23:57, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Considered greatest violinist 

message: Anyone who knows that Jim Hoyl was a Heifetz pseudonym will not mind landing in the Wartime section of the article; those who don't are entitled to be livid at being sent to the beginning of a section that doesn't mention the pseudonym. I changed that Rdr's target accordingly.--Jerzy•t 02:48, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jim Hoyl 

message: The link titled Richard Strauss and the Nazis points to the top of the article on Richard Strauss.  There is a section in that article about this topic and it is the first place in the article that the word Nazi is used.  Perhaps this link should be changed to go directly to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss#Strauss_in_Nazi_Germany.Wcomm (talk) 07:20, 3 October 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: This doesn't seem like the kind of thing that needs bringing up on the Talk page. Why don't you just go ahead and make the change?—Jerome Kohl (talk) 07:24, 3 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  See also 

message: The "In Popular Culture" section is a vast wasteland.173.72.63.96 (talk) 03:28, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: C'mon

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: "Fellow violinist Mischa Elman in the audience asked 'Do you think it's hot in here?', whereupon the pianist Leopold Godowsky, in the next seat, replied, 'Not for pianists.'"
Does this belong in the article? I can't think of any reason it does. Deletion proposed, and if no one objects I may do it myself. Bret Sterling (talk) 18:32, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Not hot for pianists? 

message: Heifetz had two children by his first marriage, See:
https://jaschaheifetz.com/about/biography/#:~:text=Heifetz%20was%20married%20twice%2C%20to,%2C%20Jay%2C%20with%20his%20second.
"Heifetz was married twice, to Florence Vidor from 1928 to 1946, and to Frances Spiegelberg from 1947 to 1963. Both marriages ended in divorce. He had two children, Josefa and Robert, with his first wife, and one, Jay, with his second. " P0M (talk) 20:19, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  He had 3 children