Jascha Heifetz - Behaves Badly

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THE VIOLINIST OF THE CENTURY' (Part 3)
- Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987)

By Christopher M. Wright

Superstar Behaves Badly

Heifetz enjoyed spectacular success as a concert artist. With his money, he bought a four-acre estate in luxurious Beverly Hills, California (near Hollywood) with a swimming pool, tennis court, and a specially designed octagonal music studio (nonparallel walls make for better acoustics).

But he did not become a wealthy man by accident. In fact, he was quite insistent when it came to money. After arriving in America, his mother quickly realized that the deal that brought them there - $500 a concert - was not enough to buy a house in New York. So she called the management firm and demanded more money or her son would soon 'suffer an illness'. Heifetz started canceling recitals claiming he was unable to play. The firm caved in and coughed up more money.

Heifetz ultimately commanded higher concert fees than Fritz Kreisler, Artur Rubinstein and Sergei Rachmaninoff, earning $10,000 per appearance - serious money in those days. He also demanded $30,000 a year to teach two days a week at the University of Southern California. This was on top of his $100,000 a year retainer from his record label, RCA Victor.

He was less successful when it came to human relations. He was married and divorced twice, each marriage lasting 16 years. There was a time when his son Jay would not talk to him.

One of his friends, Rudy Polk, testified in court for Heifetz during the first divorce. Polk played the violin and made his living in various ways including business investments. Polk convinced Heifetz and others to invest in a new film production company which lost a lot of money. Other investors like Artur Rubinstein let the matter drop but Heifetz suspected Polk of manipulating the funds. He invited Polk over for a card game, after having secretly arranged for the police to search Polk's residence while the game was in progress! No wrong-doing was ever proven. The incident capsulizes the importance this individual, Jascha Heifetz, placed on money.

Heifetz also had problems with conductors and musicians. He pressed his ideas regarding repertoire and interpretation on them, even to the point of canceling performances when his demands were not met.

One time, he performed in New York with conductor Guido Cantelli. After agreeing in rehearsal to Cantelli's tempo for the Mendelssohn concerto, Heifetz took off at his usual fast clip during the concert, speeding up during the second and third movements and finishing two measures ahead of the conductor and orchestra. His father went backstage to chastise him for his juvenile behavior

Heifetz often clashed with big-name conductors and preferred to work with second-tier conductors like Cantelli because he could more easily impose his musical ideas on them. His difficulty with conductors is said to be a factor in his gradual withdrawal from the concert stage. He eventually gave up orchestral works altogether.

For his 70th birthday celebration, Heifetz was to appear on a one-hour program on the NBC television network. Heifetz chose to record the program in France where he was offered an orchestra without a conductor. During the taping, Heifetz stopped the Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch twice to upbraid the concertmaster and first violinist in front of the audience for not getting it right. There was long applause after the piece was finished and Heifetz was called back to the stage five times. He refused to play an encore, however, saying he'd had enough concertizing in his life. Backstage, someone said to him, "But, Maestro, you played so beautifully!" Heifetz replied, "That's your problem, not mine." Hmm....

He was also said to be contemptuous of his students, driving some away by, among other things, brooking no musical interpretation not his own. As an educator, Heifetz was the polar opposite of his own teacher, Leopold Auer, who encouraged students to find and express their individuality.

In 1953, on his fourth tour to Israel, Heifetz played the Richard Strauss violin sonata in recital, despite a last-minute plea from the Israeli Minister of Education. Strauss was 'that Nazi composer' to Israelis and his music was unofficially banned along with that of Richard Wagner. This was not even 10 years since the Holocaust, but a completely insensitive Heifetz was defiant and went ahead with his plans. "The music is above these factors," Heifetz said. "I will not change my program. I have the right to decide on my repertoire." The Strauss piece was followed by dead silence, no applause. The incident caused quite a stir in all the Israeli papers.

The scene was repeated in other Israeli cities. In Jerusalem, the police blocked off and controlled access to the concert hall. Anonymous threats were received warning Heifetz not to play the Strauss in Jerusalem. Right when the Strauss was finished, the lights in the concert hall went out. Somebody removed all the fuses from the electrical box. It took 10 minutes to get the recital going again.

Later that night, as he was leaving his hotel, Heifetz was struck in the right arm by a tall man with an iron bar. Heifetz shouted to his companions who were following him, "Shoot that man, he tried to kill me." One companion was indeed carrying a gun because of the threats against Heifetz, but the assailant was never found. Heifetz told the press he intended to play the Strauss again. More threats came in over the phone, including one to the 'Voice of Israel' radio: "This is 'The Hebrew Youth' - inform Heifetz that if he wants to save his left hand, he should leave Israel immediately." Heifetz omitted the Strauss from his next program with no explanation. Then his right arm began to hurt, his last concert was canceled, and he left Israel, not to return until 1970.

Balancing the Scales

Before you make your final judgment about Heifetz the man, consider:

He bought a custom-built electric car in 1966, the first on West Coast, out of concern for the environment after experiencing the legendary smog in Los Angeles.

He sponsored an American violin-making contest for which he got very little credit. He also commissioned music from promising young composers, including Sir William Walton who granted Heifetz the liberty to edit the score when Walton was called into military service in 1939. True to his perfectionist character, Heifetz lavished attention on the score, even to the point of writing tiny crescendos on single notes.

Heifetz entertained the troops and played at army hospitals during World War II, making a point of dining with the soldiers instead of the officers. He also made a symbolic gesture of donating his famous aluminum violin so it could be turned into scrap to support the war effort. At the ceremony, Fiorello La Guardia, New York's mayor at the time, cleverly announced that he would auction the violin and buy aluminum with the proceeds.

Heifetz started his own musicians' union when he concluded that the existing union was corrupt and had ties to the Mafia. His own union never became as powerful and a strike by the existing union made orchestras unavailable for recording in the United States. During this time, Heifetz recorded some albums abroad which stand out in his discography because they are mostly shorter pieces in a popular vein.

Jascha Heifetz left a discography with over 300 entries. He recorded primarily for RCA, but also for Angel, Decca, CBS and others. In later years, he kept up with his teaching, then withdrew from the public eye, preferring instead the quiet of his beach house in Malibu, California. The 'Violinist of the Century' died December 10, 1987 at the age of 86.

Other Installments:
Part 1 - Biography
Part 2 - Musical Values
Part 3 (final installment) - Superstar Behaves Badly (above)

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