Kreisler, Fritz

1875

Austrian violinist, who began his musical career as an infant prodigy of wonderful talent, and after many years of musical inactivity has now regained the international reputation of his childhood as a virtuoso of maturer years. He was born at Vienna, where his father was a wellknown physician. The child's talent appeared very early, and his father, who was himseif something of a musician, gave him all possible musical advantages. When the boy was seven he played at a concert for children at Vienna, and then began studying at the Vienna Conservatory, at which he was the youngest child ever entered. When he was ten he won the first violin prize there. He then went to the Paris Conservatory, where he was the pupil of Massart and Delibes, and after two years' study won a gold medal in a competition of forty, all the other competitors being a number of years older than himself. In 1889 he toured America with Moritz Rosenthal. Then for a time almost entirely abandoning musical pursuits, he tried several other branches of work, including art, medicine and military life. After serving in the army for a year his desire for a musical career returned. He soon regained his mastery of the violin, and appeared at Berlin in 1889, playing selections from Paganini and Vieuxtemps, and in the same year came again to America. He appeared at London in 1901 at a Richter concert, and in 1904 was given a gold medal by the Philharmonic Society. His playing appeals more to musicians than to the general public, and he has become widely known for his interpretation of the classic music. His technique and style are very original, and he is said to be almost as excellent a performer on the piano as he is on the violin.