Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler |
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Fritz Kreisler (February 2, 1875–January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born violin virtuoso and orchestral composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own. Although he was a violinist of the Franco-Belgian school, his style is nonetheless reminiscent of the gemütlich (cozy) lifestyle of pre-war Vienna; he is sometimes held to have been one of those responsible for popularizing continuous vibrato.
Biography
Kreisler was born in Vienna to a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother; he was baptised at age twelve. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory and in Paris, where his teachers included Anton Bruckner, Léo Delibes, Jakob Dont, Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Joseph Massart, and Jules Massenet. He made his United States debut at Steinway Hall in New York City on November 10, 1888, and his first tour of the United States in 1888-89 with Moriz Rosenthal, then returned to Austria and applied for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic. He was turned down by the concertmaster Arnold Rosé. Hearing a recording of the Rosé Quartet, it is easy to hear why - Rosé was sparing in his use of vibrato, and Kreisler would not have blended successfully with the orchestra's violin section.[citation needed] As a result, he left music to study medicine. He spent a brief time in the army before returning to the violin in 1899, giving a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch. It was this concert and a series of American tours from 1901 to 1903 that brought him real acclaim.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-10568%2C_Fritz_Kreisler_mit_Hund.jpg/220px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-10568%2C_Fritz_Kreisler_mit_Hund.jpg)
In 1910, Kreisler gave the premiere of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto, a work commissioned by and dedicated to him. He briefly served in the Austrian Army in World War I before being honourably discharged after he was wounded. He spent the remaining years of the war in America. He returned to Europe in 1924, living first in Berlin, then moving to France in 1938. Shortly thereafter, at the outbreak of World War II, he settled once again in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1943. He lived in that country for the rest of his life. He gave his last public concert in 1947 and broadcast performances for a few years after that.
On April 26, 1941, he was involved in the first of two traffic accidents that marked his life. Struck by a truck while crossing a street in New York, he fractured his skull, and was in a coma for over a week.[1] Towards the end of his life, he was in another accident while traveling in an automobile, and spent his last days blind and deaf from that accident, but he "radiated a gentleness and refinement not unlike his music," according to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen who visited him frequently during that time (Kreisler and his wife were converts to Catholicism). He died in New York City in 1962 and was interred in a private mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY.
Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, including solos for encores, such as "Liebesleid" and "Liebesfreud". Some of Kreisler's compositions were pastiches in an ostensible style of other composers, originally ascribed to earlier composers such as Gaetano Pugnani, Giuseppe Tartini, Jacques Marnier Companie, and Antonio Vivaldi. When Kreisler revealed in 1935 that they were actually by him and critics complained, Kreisler answered that critics had already deemed the compositions worthy: "The name changes, the value remains" he said. He also wrote operettas including Apple Blossoms in 1919 and Sissy in 1932, a string quartet and cadenzas, including ones for the Brahms D major violin concerto, the Paganini D major violin concerto, and the Beethoven D major violin concerto. His cadenza for the Beethoven concerto is the one most often employed by violinists today.
He performed and recorded his own version of the first movement of the Paganini D major violin concerto. This version is rescored and in some places reharmonised. The orchestral introduction is completely rewritten in some places. The overall effect is of a late nineteenth century work.
Kreisler owned several antique violins by luthiers Antonio Stradivari, Pietro Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Carlo Bergonzi, most of which eventually came to bear his name.
He also owned a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin of 1860, which he often used as his second fiddle[2], and which he often loaned to the young prodigy Josef Hassid.
On recordings, Kreisler's style bears a resemblance to that of Mischa Elman, with a tendency toward expansive tempi, a continuous and varied vibrato, expressive phrasing and a melodic approach to passage work. Kreisler employs considerable use of portamento and rubato. The two violinists' styles are less similar in works of the standard repertoire, such as Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.
A trip to a Kreisler concert is recounted in Siegfried Sassoon's 1928 autobiographical novel Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man.
Work
Compositions
Recordings
Kreisler's work has been reasonably well represented on both LP and CD reissues. Original masters were made on RCA Victor and HMV. His final recordings were made in 1950. As usual with remasterings of 78rpm originals, the sound quality varies widely - worn sources, excessive signal processing are common. Recent British EMI re-releases are generally pleasant sounding. The RCA/Victor reissues on LP suffer from aggressive low pass filtering of otherwise exceptional source material. Angel/EMI reissues on LP (Great Recordings of the Century series) are quite muddy. The 4CD album currently available as Membran Q222141-444 features a cross section of his repertoire, but has audio compromised by extremely invasive DSP.
- Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043, with Efrem Zimbalist (second violin), and a string quartet. rec. 1915.
- Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61, with Leo Blech, Berlin Opera Orchestra. rec 1926.
- Beethoven Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61, with John Barbirolli, London Symphony Orchestra. rec 1936.
- Beethoven Sonata No. 8 in G major, Op. 30, No. 3, with Sergei Rachmaninoff, pF. rec. 1928.
- Beethoven Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, with Franz Rupp, pf. rec 1936.
- Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 with John Barbirolli, London Symphony Orchestra, rec. 1936.
- Grieg Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45, with Sergei Rachmaninoff, pf. rec 1928.
- Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, with Leo Blech, Berlin Opera Orchestra. rec 1926.
- Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, with Landon Ronald, London Symphony Orch. rec. 1934?
- Mozart Violin Concerto in D Major, K. 218, with Landon Ronald, London Symphony Orch, rec. 1924.
- Paganini Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 6 (recomposed by Kreisler), with Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orch, rec 1936.
- Schubert Sonata No. 5 in A Major, D. 574, with Sergei Rachmaninoff, pF. rec 1928.
- attrib. Vivaldi, RV Anh. 62 (composed by Kreisler) Violin Concerto in C Major, with Donald Voorhees, RCA Victor Orchestra, rec. 1945.
Broadway
- Apple Blossoms (1919) - operetta - co-composer
- Continental Varieties (1934) - revue - featured composer for "Caprice Viennois" and "La Gitana"
- Reunion in New York (1940) - revue - featured composer for "Stars in Your Eyes"
- Rhapsody (1944) - musical - composer.
References
- ^ Life magazine, May 12, 1941 (pp. 32-33)
- ^ Second Fiddle by Philip Kass
- Kreisler, Fritz (1915). Four Weeks in the Trenches. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 1161448.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Fritz Kreisler at AllMusic
- Fritz Kreisler at the Internet Broadway Database
- Works by Fritz Kreisler at Project Gutenberg
- Free scores by Fritz Kreisler at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- video Fritz Kreisler:Praeludium und Allegro,Violino e Orchestra
- An assembled edition of original pieces and arrangements for violin and piano by Fritz Kreisler. From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
- Fritz Kreisler String Quartet in a minor Soundbites & discussion of work
- 1875 births
- 1962 deaths
- 20th-century classical composers
- American classical violinists
- American composers
- Austrian Americans
- Austrian classical violinists
- Austrian composers
- Austrian immigrants to the United States
- Forgers
- Musical hoaxes
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- Opera composers
- People from Leopoldstadt
- Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists