Naxos and Fritz Kreisler

Lovers of violin playing owe a big debt of thanks to the Naxos company that, decade after decade has chronicled violinists past and present. The company has been especially generous with retrospective issues of Fritz Kreisler – I now have seventeen Naxos CDs of Kreisler recordings. The latest is Volume 9 of the complete recordings, and covers the years 1927-8 and features 24 tracks, mostly of Kreisler with a pianist (usually Carl Lamson), plus four tracks with his brother Hugo, and Michael Raucheisen in Berlin (1927).

These are recordings that used the new electric recording techniques, an enormous advance on the old acoustic recordings. Excellent transfers and sound renovation by Ward Marston. The playing of the 52 year old Kreisler remains as genial and fascinating as ever, with his inimitable rubato, vibrato and varied bowing technique, not to mention his singing double stops. Of the 24 tracks on this CD, there is not even one I would rather hear played by another violinist. No one before or since has played Dvorak's well-known Humoresque better than Kreisler in this 1927 recording. There are two versions of Massenet's Méditation from Thaïs on this CD, both from 2^nd February 1928. I prefer the second take, since the phrasing is a little less stilted, to my ears. Kreisler and Heifetz completely dominated their epoque and still represent the gold standard by which all violinists are judged.