Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler

Discover the story of legendary musician Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987), the first truly modern violin virtuoso. This documentary portrays an artist for whom only perfection would do through vintage performances, master classes and Heifetz’ previously unseen home movies.

Jascha Heifetz, a child prodigy violin player, was taught to present himself passively to better focus attention on the music. This does not mean the music played by one of the world's greatest violinists didn't resonate with passion, as experts and fellow musicians attest to in this excerpt from American Masters - Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler. Watch archival footage of Heifetz playing.

Itzhak Perlman reminisces about his first encounter as a teenager with the world-famous violinist Jascha Heifetz. Perlman was a student at Juilliard and Heifetz stopped in at his class to hear him play. After performing, Perlman and his teacher Ivan Galamian thought Heifetz had heard enough. Instead, Heifetz asked Perlman to play scales for him --- a rudimentary exercise in training.

Jascha Heifetz not only had a daily ritual of raising the U.S. flag at his home. He also toured extensively for the USO during World War II. Ayke Agus, his accompanist and longtime companion, shares that the world famous violinist considered one of his greatest performances a concert for a single soldier during World War II.

Emmy- and Peabody-winning filmmaker Peter Rosen describes his three key assets for making the documentary Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler: the home movies by Heifetz that Rosen discovered; a set provided by Heifetz's reconstructed music studio; and the person of musician Ayke Agus, Heifetz's student, accompanist and longtime companion.

"After I came to America, my one aim, it seems, was to enjoy myself," said the violinist whose fame grew with his Carnegie Hall debut and first audio recordings made in 1917. Heifetz bought a large home in Narragansett, a car, and camera equipment with which he pursued his beloved hobby of filmmaking. He allowed himself to socialize and have fun, something that was lacking in his childhood.

Jascha Heifetz traveled to Japan in 1923, weeks after the earthquake on September 1 that devastated Tokyo, Yokohama and the Kanto region, with casualties near 143,000. He gave outdoor performances there and also gave benefit concerts to benefit Japan. He was a forerunner among musicians to do relief work. This is film outtake from Jascha Heifetz: God's Fiddler, featuring Heifetz' own film footage.

In 1923 violinist Jascha Heifetz was in Mexico City and realized he didn't have any work by a Mexican composer on his program. While in a cafe, he heard a musician sing a popular song written by Manuel Ponce called "Estrellita" (My Little Star). He took notes on his napkin, and composed an arrangement for violin and piano based on it. "Estrellita" became one of his favorite encore songs.