Even by 1971 television standards this is amateurishly put together, the visual elements matched only by RCA’s dismal presentation. This is the same programme that appeared on an Amati video a few years back which at least had the grace to explain to the uninitiated exactly who Heifetz was and why he merits our attention. Those of us who worship at the shrine might feel he deserves better from RCA.

So what do we get? Well, exactly what it says on the tin: Heifetz in performance with his long-suffering accompanist Brooks Smith playing some favourite encores in front of a small audience in ORTF Studio 102, Paris, followed by the Bach Chaconne filmed the following day. True, inserted before and after these sections is footage of Heifetz at home in California teaching, playing table tennis, paddling in the sea and showing off the (full-size) electric motor car he developed. A voice-over utters a string of clichés interspersed with some wry comments of the violinist abstracted from an interview of unknown provenance and recorded through a pillow.

Though RCA does not tell you, the Bruch Scottish Fantasy was recorded three days later in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and for the concert, in which he is both soloist and conductor with the National Orchestra of France, Heifetz plays a 1742 Guarnerius that belonged to Ferdinand David, the instrument on which the first performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto was played. The Bruch was an old Heifetz favourite but some uncertain ensemble and sloppy phrasing might be the reason why his classic recording of the work with Sargent is preferred for the ‘bonus CD’ which bizarrely, with the addition of Hora Staccato with Emanuel Bay, otherwise contains exactly the same performances as the DVD.

Still, all Heifetz fans will want to acquire this DVD if only to ponder anew how such an unpleasant man could play the violin with such incomparable beauty and produce feelings of such joy and wonder in his fellow travellers.