A Titan Who Is Virtually Forgotten - A Violinist of Rare Gifts...
The other day I decided to look back among the 700-odd blogs comprising a part of my last twelve years of personal endeavor, and, to my horror, I found that I had overlooked my writing about one of the 20th century's most gifted violinists. and one of my youth's heroes.
During my teen years, both Vladimir Horowitz and Jascha Heifetz were at the top of my beloved 'heap' of favorites, followed closely by Artur Rubinstein, Arturo Toscanini, Robert Casadesus, etc.
Whenever Horowitz or Heifetz visited my home town and appeared at Eastman Theater, I was among the fortunate in their audiences. Their particularized uniqueness of the moment always created that period of breathlessness and expectation, never to be forgotten.
A violinist a generation after Heifetz appeared whom I regret I have never seen, primarily due to timing and the exigencies germane to my acquiring the training I was seeking. However, the few recordings I have heard and the written and voiced experiences of those who were his followers and admirers which I have become aware of convincing me that he must have been, on his better days, one who could almost never be equaled I DO recall, as a student, after hearing some of his Beethoven and Paganini, asking myself if " this man REALLY does overwhelm me precisely as did Heifetz?"
Seemingly, a combination of his political beliefs(he was a staunch Communist and did much of his magic within Mother Russia, let alone some illnesses and an ultimate fatal heart attack) have created, the reason it seems to me, why he is not as well recalled as, say, a Heifetz.
But! Listen to this man - there are recordings that attest to a greatness worthy of remembrance...
His name? Leonid Kogan.
During my teen years, both Vladimir Horowitz and Jascha Heifetz were at the top of my beloved 'heap' of favorites, followed closely by Artur Rubinstein, Arturo Toscanini, Robert Casadesus, etc.
Whenever Horowitz or Heifetz visited my home town and appeared at Eastman Theater, I was among the fortunate in their audiences. Their particularized uniqueness of the moment always created that period of breathlessness and expectation, never to be forgotten.
A violinist a generation after Heifetz appeared whom I regret I have never seen, primarily due to timing and the exigencies germane to my acquiring the training I was seeking. However, the few recordings I have heard and the written and voiced experiences of those who were his followers and admirers which I have become aware of convincing me that he must have been, on his better days, one who could almost never be equaled I DO recall, as a student, after hearing some of his Beethoven and Paganini, asking myself if " this man REALLY does overwhelm me precisely as did Heifetz?"
Seemingly, a combination of his political beliefs(he was a staunch Communist and did much of his magic within Mother Russia, let alone some illnesses and an ultimate fatal heart attack) have created, the reason it seems to me, why he is not as well recalled as, say, a Heifetz.
But! Listen to this man - there are recordings that attest to a greatness worthy of remembrance...
His name? Leonid Kogan.
posted by LH at
11:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home