Fritz Kreisler (February 2, 1875 - January 29, 1962) was a violinist, one of the most famous of his day. He also composed music.
Kreisler was born in Vienna in Austria. He studied at the conservatoires there and in Paris, where his teachers included Léo Delibes. He made his first tour of America in 1888-89, then returned to Austria and applied for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He was turned down, and left music to study first medicine, then painting. He spent a brief time in the army before returning to the violin 1899, giving a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arthur Nikisch. It was this concert and a series of American tours from 1901 to 1903 that brought him real acclaim.
In 1910, Kreisler gave the premiere of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto, a work dedicated to him. He briefly served in the Austrian Army in World War I before being honourably discharged after he was wounded. He spent the remaining years of the war in America, and lived in Berlin from 1924. He moved to France in 1938 but shortly thereafter settled in America, becoming an American citizen in 1943. He lived in that country for the rest of his life. He gave his last public concert in 1947 and broadcasted performances for a few years after that.
Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, some of them in the style of other composers. Many of these works were originally ascribed to earlier composers such as Gaetano Pugnani and Giuseppe Tartini until Kriesler revealed in 1935 that they were actually by him. He also wrote operettas (including Apple Blossoms (1919)), a string quartet and cadenzas, including one for the Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto. His cadenza for Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto is the one most often employed by violinists today.
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