Masterclass (Rec 1926 - 1939) [3 CD set]

He made 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 Orchestra. He was turned down, and left music to first study medicine and then painting. He spent a brief time in the army before returning to the violin in 1899, giving a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arthur Nikisch. It was this concert and a series of American tours from 1901 to 1903 that brought him real acclaim. In 1910, Kreisler gave the premier of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto, a work dedicated to him. Elgar made several attempts to get him to record the concerto, but received no response. It was then given to the fifteen year old Yehudi Menuhin to record, which became a historic recording. Kreisler 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. At the outbreak of World War II, he settled once again in the United States, becoming a naturalised citizen in 1943. He lived in that country for the rest of his life. He gave his last public concert in 1947. Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, some of them in the style of other composers. Many of these works were originally ascribed to earlier composers such as Gaetano Pugnani, Giuseppe Tartini and Antonio Vivaldi until Kreisler revealed in 1935 that they were actually by him. When the critics complained, Kreisler answered that critics had already deemed the compositions worthy: "The name changes, the value remains". He also wrote operettas including Apple Blossoms in 1919, a string quartet and cadenzas, including one for the Brahms Violin Concerto. His cadenza for Beethoven's Violin Concerto is the one most often employed by violinists today. Fritz Kreisler died on 29th January, 1962 in New York City.