Critiques of Heifetz
Critiques of Heifetz (post still being worked on!) Music critic - Henderson: a Positive Effect Whilst there may have been a number of useless negative reviews about Heifetz, there is at least one example of a review which profoundly affected Heifetz in his younger years and probably affected the quality and seriousness of his playing for the better. This can be found on p148 of Ayke Agus’ book “Heifetz as I knew him” The review was by W.J. Henderson in 1921, music critic by the New York Sun who counselled Heifetz to immerse himself more in the depths of his music. Heifetz recognised the risk of his playing becoming superficial and immediately corrected his course. According to Agus the review had crushed him and he took it particularly hard and he even had suicidal thoughts! This was a good slap in the face and on reflection in the end Heifetz must have been grateful to receive it. Later on he would bemoan the ‘mediocrity’ of this world and his taste remained impeccable, ...
