Fritz Kreisler's String Quartet

I have been listening with great pleasure to Fritz Kreisler's String Quartet in A Minor, played on a recent Naxos transfer by the Kreisler String Quartet. The 1935 recording is expertly transferred by Ward Marston and is Volume 11 of Naxos's admirable survey of all Kreisler's recordings (the concerto recordings are in a separate series on Naxos). First violin is, of course, Fritz himself; the viola player is William Primrose.

The quartet in conventional four movements makes for highly attractive listening. The music is quintessential fin de siècle Viennese (Kreisler was born in 1875). Had the quartet been written by a Moslem or African woman, it would be heard regularly in the current “inclusive” climate. Inevitably, the violin has the lion's share of the action, but with Kreisler playing his own music, all to the good. I have only two other recordings of the work: one by Nigel Kennedy and friends in his pre- pop star guise, and the other by the Fine Arts Quartet in 2010. To my great shame, I can recall neither recording, but Kreisler playing Kreisler is inimitable. Highly recommended. Elsewhere on Volume 11 we can admire Kreisler in the usual short duo pieces. The sound, as usual, is inimitable. What always fascinates me with Kreisler's playing is the way he articulates the music with his right arm (the bow). Most modern violinists concentrate on developing a kind of son filé, a stream of beautiful sound a bit like an oboe. The art of using the bow appears to have been lost.

Favourite Soloists. And Clara Haskil

A violinist friend once asked me to name my favourite violinist. I replied: “playing what music?” He agreed this was a fair answer, because a violinist who plays to perfection in Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert may well not be the same as the one who plays to perfection in Brahms, Elgar, Prokoviev or Shostakovich. With favourite conductors it's the same problem. Furtwängler and Klemperer are the greatest for me, but I don't fancy either conducting Debussy's La Mer, or Berlioz's Symphone Fantastique.

20^th century violinists? Hordes of them, but particularly Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Arthur Grumiaux, and Ginette Neveu. Come the 21^st century things become even more complictated, but I have a soft spot for Renaud Capuçon, Tianwa Yang, Lisa Batiashvili, Arabella Steinbacher, and Alina Ibrabimova. Four women, and one man; I think that's called “inclusive” in current parlance, at least by women.

For pianists, I have less of a problem: be it for Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert or Schuman there is only one favourite candidate. Clara Haskil. I have just been listening to her many CDs, recorded mainly in the 1950s. Mozart piano concertos Nos. 19, 20 and 27. Beethoven's Op 111 piano sonata. 11 Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. The Scarlatti and the Schubert D 960 come on an Archipel CD (recorded 1950 and 1951). A recital in Ludwigsburg in 1953 has Haskil playing Bach, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schumann … and a bonus of Debussy and Ravel (Südwestrundfunk). A wonderful treat. I am currently having a serious weeding-out of my over-inflated collection of recordings. But never anything by Clara Haskil who just sat down and played the music, as it was written and as it should be played. One of a kind. I admired her in duo sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven with Arthur Grumiaux. I admire her as a soloist, or with an orchestra.