What makes a great violinist?  Technical command?  Expression?  Aura?  The answer is: they all do.  Austrian-born violinist & composer, Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), captured the hearts of not only music aficionados and listeners, but other accomplished violinists as well.

“He is noted for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound, which was immediately recognizable as his own.” 

In 1910, Kreisler  premiered  Elgar’s Violin Concerto, one which was commissioned by and dedicated to him.  After the war, he moved to America where he gave his last public concert in 1947.  With the introduction of radio and recording, Fritz Kreisler broadcast performances and made few recordings which still survive today. 

On April 26, 1941, Kreisler met with tragedy & was involved in the first of two traffic accidents which deeply affected  his life. Struck by a truck while crossing a street in New York, he fractured his skull, and was in a coma for over a week.

Kreisler wrote quite a few pieces for the violin, including solos for encores, such as “Liebesleid” and “Liebesfreud”. Some of Kreisler’s compositions were written in the style of other composers such as Gaetano Pugnani, Giuseppe Tartini, Jacques Marnier Companie, and Antonio Vivaldi. His cadenza for the Beethoven violin concerto is the one most often played by violinists today.

“He performed and recorded his own version of the first movement of the Paganini D major violin concerto. This version is rescored and in some places reharmonised. The orchestral introduction is completely rewritten in some places. The overall effect is of a late nineteenth century work.”

“Kreisler owned several antique violins by luthiers Antonio Stradivari, Pietro Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Carlo Bergonzi, most of which eventually came to bear his name.”

“He also owned a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin of 1860, which he often used as his second fiddle, and which he often loaned to the young prodigy Josef Hassid.”

Fritz Kreisler continued to perform despite the unfortunate accident he’d experienced.  In one of his last live concerts, his wife watched and listened in ”great pain” while the once brilliant violinist performed. 

Towards the end of his life, he was in another accident while traveling in an automobile, and spent his last days blind and deaf from that accident, but he ‘radiated a gentleness and refinement not unlike his music.’”

Source:  Wikipedia