The Violins and Bows of Jascha Heifetz

 the Violins and Bows of Jascha Heifetz

 

Tononi

 

Instrument	Year made	Year acquired by Heifetz	Year sold by Heifetz	Details
Carlo Tononi	1736	Purchased in Berlin by his Father from Emil Hermann sometime prior to 1917 (around 1914/1915?)	Never sold, Bequeathed in his will to Sherry Kloss Took it abroad with him during WW2 when he played for the troops	Played on it in 1917 at Carnegie Hall   Left in his will to Sherry Kloss

 

Stradivari

 

Dolphin Stradivarius	1714	1937 For $30,000		Now owned by the Nippon Music Foundation
Stradivarius “Heifetz-Piel”	1734	Loaned to Heifetz from around 1917 then purchased by Heifetz from the owner		Heifetz owned and played this instrument from 1925 to 1950

                           

See W-Vered p76 on how Heifetz acquired his first Strad

Guadagnini

 

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini ‘Piacaenza’

1741

 

Guarnari

 

Guarnerius del Gesu “ex-David”	1742	Purchased in Berlin by his Father from Emil Hermann in 1922-23 Price paid $40,000 (W-Vered, p77)		Previously owned by both Wilhelmj and David who premiered the Mendelssohn Concerto with it. Heifetz preferred instrument   now owned by the San Francisco Legion of Honor Museum   it was bequeathed to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and has been played since 2002 by Alexander Barantschik, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony
Guarnerius   Is this same as the David?	1740			Heifetz bought this in 1920 (which he could afford at the age of 19), and said it was his favorite violin among them all. He held it to his death in 1987.

 

 

Instrument	recording
Dolphin Strad	Mendelssohn Concerto made with Thomas Beecham in 1949
David del Gesu	Most recordings Example:

 

Notes on the David Del-Gesu

 

·       Made by Joseph Guarnari in 1742

·       Heifetz purchased the del Gesù from Emil Hermann in 1922, and performed virtually all his concerts and recordings on this instrument. (A notable exception was the recording of the Mendelssohn Concerto made with Thomas Beecham in 1949 where Heifetz played the ‘Dolphin’ Strad, and instrument he acquired in 1937.)

·       The history of the ‘David’ del Gesù is described in a letter by Alfred Hill dated 25 August 1922:

It was purchased by Ferdinand David of Leipzig, the well-known violinist, from J. B. Vuillaume of Paris, toward the middle of the last century. On his death it passed into the hands of his son, Paul, likewise a musician and teacher of the violin at Uppingham, one of our well-known Public Schools, who is now living in retirement at Oxford. For reasons unknown to us, he had to part with the violin about 1885-7 and the instrument returned to Germany where it passed into the possession of Florian Zajic, an excellent artist who passed the greater part of his career at Strassburg.

The label the instrument bears is not the original but I am sure that it dates from 1739, 40 or 41, and I consider it to be one of the fine existing examples of this period of the maker’s work.

·       The body length of the ‘David’ del Gesù is 13 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ inches. The measurements of the upper, middle and lower bouts are 6 ½”, 4 ½” and 8 ¹⁄₁₆” respectively. 

 

 

 

Reference:

https://www.benningviolins.com/the-violins-of-jascha-heifetz.html

https://www.thestrad.com/from-the-archive-the-david-heifetz-1742-guarneri-del-gesu/7067.article

 

Other types of violin “curiosities”

 

·       The walking stick violin

·       An aluminium violin

·       Tiny quarter-size violin – given to him by his Uncle Nachum when he returned to Russia in 1934, this was the original violin Heifetz played on when his Father first taught him

 

Luthiers

Hans Benning

(there is a youtube interview video)

Hans Benning attended the renowned violin making school in Mittenwald. He restored and maintained several of Jascha Heifetz's instruments during the latter part of his life

Benjamin Koodlach

Was a successful violinist but opted to take over his Father’s violin shop after he died. Koodlach overhauled Heifetz’ Guarnerius del Gesu.

 

Maintenance and care

 

W-Vered p78

When the Del Gesu needed a rest Heifetz would switch to a Strad

Bows

 

Bow	Year acquired	Details
François Tourte		Bequeathed to Sherry Kloss
Nicolaus Kittel		Given to Heifetz by Leopold Auer
Dominique Peccatte
Alfred Lamy
Henryk Kaston

 

Cases

Double case could be very valuable now, see W-Vered p77