Jascha Heifetz: Early Years in Russia

Notes

411 Author’s Preface 1. Galina Kopytova, “Pervye shagi geniia: Iasha Kheifets [First steps of a genius: Jascha Heifetz],” Sovetskaia muzyka, no. 8 (1991): 91–95. 2. Deems Taylor, “Jascha, That’s My Baby,” New York Times, July 16, 1939. 3. Studio recordings of Heifetz, three films about him (1950, 1953, 1970), the 1938 movie They Shall Have Music, and the 1962 master class films all served as material for Pavel Sedov’s 2002 dissertation at the Moscow Conservatory entitled, “Iskusstvo Iashi Kheifetsa v kontekste muzykal’no-ispolnitel’skoi kul’tury XX veka [The Art of Jascha Heifetz in the Context of Musical Performance Culture of the 20th Century].” 1. Early Roots of the Heifetz Family 1. Herbert Axelrod, Heifetz, 3rd ed. (Neptune City, NJ: Paganiniana, 1990), 19. 2. This certificate and the employment documents of Aron Heifetz are preserved in the personal archive of Aleksandr Nemirovsky (Moscow). This source is henceforth described as the Nemirovsky Archive. 3. Shmuila Elyevich Heifetz, Imperial Warsaw University certificate, Nemirovsky Archive. 4. As context for currency values around this time in Russia, the following list is a selection of professions and their average annual wages in 1913: school teachers, 750 rubles; professors, no less than 2,000 rubles; doctors, 500–2,000 rubles; engineers, upward of 800 rubles; lawyers, upward of 2000 rubles; industrial workers, 240 rubles. In 1913 a chicken cost 0.45 rubles, boots for men cost between 2.50 and 6 rubles, and a NOTES 412 Notes to Pages 5–13 man’s coat could cost between 10 and 55 rubles. The exchange rate in 1913 was 2 rubles to 1 U.S. dollar. 5. “A vunderkind bay yidn,” Gut-morgn (Odessa), no. 474, 1911. 6. “A vunderkind,” Der Fraynd (Warsaw), August 14, 1911. 7. Natan Heifetz, Personal Employment Record, December 12, 1943, Nemirovsky Archive. 8. An example from one mistake-filled letter in equivalent English: “I’ve very rarely have to correspond in Russian, simply to say because I even completely never learned it.” 9. Lev Nikolaevich Raaben, Zhizn’ zamechatel’nykh skripachei [The Lives of Remarkable Violinists] (Moscow, Leningrad: Muzyka, 1967), 222. 10. Natan Heifetz, three pages of handwritten personal memoirs, December 12, 1943, Moscow, Nemirovsky Archive. 11. Moisei Iakovlevich Beregovskii, Evreiskaia narodnaia instrumental’naia muzyka [Jewish Folk Instrumental Music] (Moscow: Sovetskii kompozitor, 1987), 18. 12. “A vunderkind bay yidn.” 13. “Teaching Service Record for Heifetz, Aron Ilyich, educational worker of the Vitebsk Province of the Polotsk District 6th School,” June 23, 1923, Nemirovsky Archive. 14. Beregovskii, Evreiskaia narodnaia instrumental’naia muzyka. Original typewritten source in KR RIII, f. 45, op. 1, no. 5, l. 88. 15. Nicole Hirsch, “Jascha Heifetz, l’empereur du violon,” Musica Disques, no. 102, September 1962, 4. 16. Josefa Heifetz, stenogram of notes from phone conversations with Anna Sharfstein -Koch, Nov. 29 and Dec. 13, 1992 and Jan. 10, 1993, p1. 17. Ruvin Heifetz-Chaya Sharfstein wedding invitation, Nemirovsky Archive. 18. E. Iu. Petri and Iu. M. Shokal’skii, eds. Bol’shoi vsemirnyi nastol’nyi atlas Marksa [Marx Big World Table Atlas], 2nd ed. (St. Petersburg, 1910), no. 20 (Borovukh); Official Index of Railroad, Ship and other Passenger Services (St. Petersburg, 1911), 57 (Barovukh ); Atlas of Railroads of the USSR (Moscow, 1988), 32 (Baravukh). 19. Samuel Chotzinoff, “Jascha Heifetz: The Early Years; Recollections of the celebrated violinist’s early career (A selection by Robin Chotzinoff from the unpublished memoirs ‘Till Death Us Do Part’),” Strad, December 1988, 968. 20. Obituaries, Musical America (January 25, 1947), 26. 21. “A vunderkind bay yidn.” 2. 1901–1906: Vilnius 1. The original name of the street was derived from the Russian term zhid, or “Jew,” and meant “Jewish Street.” Over time, zhid took on a derogatory and anti-Semitic connotation in the Russian language. The term yevrei, or “Hebrew,” became the accepted, non-derogatory term to refer to Jews in Russian. This is the source of the street’s newer 413 Notes to Pages 14–18 name. Zhid remains an acceptable term without derogatory connotations in several other related Slavic languages. 2. The Vilnius register of Jewish births in 1901, LVIA, f. 728, op. 4, d. 77, l. 22 ob.–23. First reproduced in Genrikh Agranovsky, “The Childhood Years of the King of Violinists ,” Jerusalem of Lithuania, January 2001, 7–8. Notarized certification of the register is located in the TsGIA SPb, f. 361, op. 1, d. 4276, l. 2. 3. Jascha Heifetz, The Heifetz Collection, RCA...