Heifetz:
live recordings:
Work by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Gounod, Novacek
Comedy skit with Jack Benny

Jascha Heifetz was an exclusive RCA Victor artist for half a century and recorded virtually the entire violin repertoire. This album, now released on Biddulph Recordings, contains all the known works that Heifetz never recorded commercially. All of the recordings were originally radio broadcasts, most of them for the programme ‘The Bell Telephone Hour’. Heifetz made his debut on ‘The Telephone Hour’ on 27 April 1942 and continued to perform into the 1950s. In addition to concerts in which he was accompanied by the Bell Telephone Orchestra under the direction of Donald Voorhees, there are several works with piano accompaniment or even solo. The works on this album range from the classical masters J. S. Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to 20th century originals such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Karol Szymanowski. It also contains virtuoso works by violinists who also composed themselves, such as Ottokar Nováček, Henri Vieuxtemps, Jenő Hubay and Fritz Kreisler, Heifetz's own transcriptions of the American national anthem ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and works by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Two of the tracks on this CD show an unexpected side to the normally unflappable violinist. The first is an improvised sample of the popular hit song ‘Mairzy Doats’ (Mares Eat Oats) from the 1940s. And the CD ends with a complete command performance programme in which Heifetz can be heard in a sketch with the American comedian Jack Benny.