Fritz Kreisler

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was born on February 2, 1875, in Vienna, the son of Anna (née Reches) and Samuel Kreisler, a physician. Of Jewish descent, he was baptized at age twelve. A child prodigy, he entered the Vienna Conservatory at seven, studying under Anton Bruckner, Jakob Dont, and Joseph Hellmesberger Jr. Between 1885 and 1887 he attended the Paris Conservatory, where his teachers included Léo Delibes, Lambert Massart, and Jules Massenet. He graduated from Paris with a "Premier Prix" gold medal at age twelve, having competed against forty other players, all of whom were at least twenty years old.

Kreisler made his United States debut at Steinway Hall in New York City on November 10, 1888, embarking on his first American tour that season alongside pianist Moriz Rosenthal. Returning to Austria, he applied for a position with the Vienna Philharmonic but was rejected by concertmaster Arnold Rosé. He subsequently left music to study medicine and served briefly in the army before returning to the violin in 1899, when he performed with the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch. A series of American tours between 1901 and 1903 established his international reputation. During the 1901 tour he met Harriet Lies, a New York-born Vassar graduate and daughter of a German American tobacco merchant. They married the following year, repeating the ceremony three additional times due to legal technicalities. They had no children, and the marriage lasted sixty years, until his death.

In 1910, Kreisler gave the world premiere of Sir Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto, a work commissioned by and dedicated to him. When World War I broke out, he served briefly in the Austrian Army before being honorably discharged after sustaining a wound. He arrived in New York on November 24, 1914, and remained in America for the duration of the war. He returned to Europe in 1924, residing first in Berlin before moving to France in 1938. At the outbreak of World War II he settled permanently in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1943. On April 26, 1941, he was struck by a truck while crossing a street in New York, suffering a fractured skull and remaining in a coma for more than a week. He gave his last public concert in 1947 and continued broadcasting performances for several years afterward. His final recordings were made in 1950.

As a violinist, Kreisler was recognized as one of the foremost practitioners of his era, distinguished by a sweet tone, expressive phrasing, and characteristic use of portamento and rubato. His style drew from the Franco-Belgian school while reflecting the sensibility of pre-war Viennese musical life. On recordings his approach resembles that of his contemporary Mischa Elman, marked by expansive tempi, continuous and varied vibrato, and a melodic treatment of passage-work. Kreisler was also an accomplished pianist, and his piano playing is preserved on Ampico reproducing piano rolls. He owned several antique violins by Antonio Stradivari, Pietro Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Carlo Bergonzi, as well as a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume instrument of 1860 that he frequently lent to the young prodigy Josef Hassid. In 1952 he donated his Giuseppe Guarneri violin to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where it remains in use for performances.

Kreisler composed extensively for the violin, producing encore solos such as "Liebesleid" and "Liebesfreud," cadenzas for the violin concertos of Brahms, Paganini, and Beethoven — his Beethoven cadenzas remain the most frequently performed by violinists today — and a string quartet. He also composed a number of pieces he originally attributed to earlier composers, including Gaetano Pugnani, Giuseppe Tartini, and Antonio Vivaldi. In 1935 he revealed that he himself had written these works, responding to critics by noting that they had already judged the compositions worthy on their merits. He wrote the music for the 1936 film The King Steps Out, directed by Josef von Sternberg and based on the early life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. His Broadway credits as a composer include Apple Blossoms, which premiered in 1919, and Rhapsody. He also composed the operetta Sissy in 1932. Kreisler recorded extensively for Victor/RCA Victor and His Master's Voice, with sessions spanning collaborations with conductors Leo Blech and John Barbirolli and pianists Sergei Rachmaninoff and Franz Rupp, among others.

In his later years Kreisler experienced hearing loss and deteriorating vision due to cataracts. He died in New York City on January 29, 1962, of a heart condition aggravated by age, and was interred in a private mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.