Picture the most austere classical violinist of the 20th century driving a converted electric Renault through Los Angeles in 1967 wearing a gas mask to protest smog. This episode maps the life of Jascha Heifetz, from his father testing his reactions to chords as an infant in Vilna, through Leopold Auer's brutally disciplined class at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, to a Carnegie Hall debut in October 1917 that left rival musicians sweating.

The conversation examines the mechanics behind his sound, including gut strings, a rapid nervous vibrato, and intense portamento, and why some critics dismissed it as silk underwear music while Itzhak Perlman called it an emotional tornado. It also covers his struggles to share the spotlight in the Million Dollar Trio, a pop song written for Bing Crosby under the alias Jim Hoyle, the 1953 Israel tour wh ...