Reviews | RH-028 | FRITZ KREISLER | American portrait

17 August 2025 | Jean-Charles Hoffelé | ARTAMAG' - Focus - Le disque du jour | RARETÉS KREISLER

Fritz Kreisler, pianist? Those who know will not be surprised, the piano was his hobby!, and he used it first to accompany his singer friends, a constant source of inspiration for the cantabile of his bow.

Ampico asked him for arrangements of his "trinkets" for the piano alone, much more than simple commentaries on the original accompaniments, so that he could engrave them on rolls, an ideal vehicle for entering middle-class American homes and, as an immediate effect, increasing sales of his scores.

The existing rolls have become rare, the material assembled here as best as possible by Emilio Pessina from documents lent by Urs Joseph Flury. But it's a marvel to hear the lively style, the keyboard between spice and sugar that Kreisler brings to life with such dexterity and humor, three-quarters of an hour of pure pleasure in a sound that is inevitably excellent for recordings from the 1920s, captured in stereo on a beautiful piano that, sadly, isn't mentioned! Listen to the Spanish dance of the Entr'acte, what charm! It's making Kreisler present in the play to better enchant us.

Rhine Classics adds the echo of a White House concert, broadcast from the NBC studio in 1940, with an introduction by the announcer and a few words from the violinist. At the end, a few memories in the form of anecdotes and tributes, spoken by Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself. The bow is no longer as perfect, but the style remains as impeccable as ever.

A fascinating booklet, accompanied by beautiful illustrations, as always with this publisher.

July 2025 | Christoph Schlüren | FONO FORUM - 07/25 p.66 | Rhine Classics' Historical Anthologies

[...] Fritz Kreisler, surprisingly, can be heard as an exquisite pianist, performing ten of his delicacies (plus Heuberger, Krakauer, Winternitz, and Kramer), in New York cylinder recordings from 1919-27! This is a magnificent opportunity to study his authentic agogics and dynamic agility. And then, too, on the violin, in 1940 with the National Symphony Orchestra for the POTUS with La Gitana, Caprice viennois, and Schön Rosmarin – and with this irresistibly declamatory, singing playing, one cannot help but immediately grasp how unmistakably unique, timelessly youthful, and natural Kreisler captivated his audiences for half a century. [...]

11 November 2024 | Stephen Greenbank | MusicWeb International

It presents Austrian-born American violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler in the multiple roles of violinist, pianist and composer. Kreisler was an excellent pianist and his playing is preserved on Ampico piano rolls, recorded at Chickering Hall, New York between 1919 and 1927. All of the recordings are of his own compositions. Here, his exquisite phrasing, pacing and refined musicality are very much in evidence. Apparently, his piano-playing was greatly admired by other musicians. Paderewski is known to have said, “I’d be starving if Fritz had taken up the piano. How beautifully he plays!”, and Louis Kaufman, enchanted by Kreisler’s pianism at a party later wrote “Kreisler played with the same engaging charm and beauty of tone on the piano as he did on the violin. There can be few great pianists who would not have envied his singing and expressive legato on the piano.”  [SG]

This is an unusual disc. It presents Fritz Kreisler in a dual role, as violinist, certainly, in a very brief concert but also as pianist in his complete sequence of Ampico piano rolls, made between 1919 and 1927.  [JW]