Heifetz was a figure aloof – in his distinguished impassive appearance, in the incredible perfection of his playing, and in his generally uncommunicative manner. Those detractors for whom technical perfection is not enough inferred from these characteristics that he was cold. I think they mistook for coldness a degree of discipline and method which no other violinist of our time possessed. With a Heifetz performance, you could be sure that everything, down to the smallest inflection, was calculated, controlled and willed.