Now available from Amadeus Press...

465 pp, 19 b/w photos, 1 line drawing, 4 music examples, 6 x 9", hardcover

ISBN: 1-57467-037-9

$34.95, plus shipping and handling

Publication Date: September 1998

Available from Amadeus Press, LLC, 512 Newark Pompton Turnpike, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 Telephone: (973) 835-6375, (800) 321-3408. http://www.amadeuspress.com/ and email at publicity@amadeuspress.com

Violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler was a most beloved musician, bringing to the musical stage a grace and warmth that were unmatched during his prime. Born in 1875, he was the last, best ambassador of 19th century Vienna to a 20th century world. He had a middling career as a prodigy, never attaining the celebrity of a Heifetz or a Menuhin, and he even abandoned the violin for several years while exploring other pursuits. Yet Kreisler was to become a highly influential musician among string players the world over.

Because he had no formal instruction on the violin past the age of twelve, Kreisler was able to develop a completely personal style that made him a true original. He introduced to violin playing one significant technical innovation—the continuous vibrato, which gave his playing an almost vocal eloquence—but his greatest contributions as a violin virtuoso were the more intangible qualities of his playing, a charismatic mix of sincerity and charm.

His gift for storytelling, however, led to a scandal in the musical world, when he admitted in mid-career to having authored compositions that he had been presenting for years as arrangements of long-lost works by 18th-century composers. In typical Kreisler fashion, he had claimed to have discovered the pieces in the libraries of ancient monasteries.