What Did They Play? by Isabel Dammann

PART I: Fritz Kreisler (b. 1875 – d. 1962) and his Violins

“The violinist should not be accused of inconstancy; he must follow the call of a siren voice – the voice of the magic piece of wood that dominates his destiny. It is the voice of an enchantress which he must obey.” -Fritz Kreisler, 1908[1]

Many musicians have a primary instrument they play that becomes synonymous with their musical voice – Fritz Kreisler was not one of these musicians. Throughout his life as a performer, Kreisler bought, played and sold dozens of instruments, including numerous Stradivari and Guarneri violins. Some became favorites, while others were merely visitors in his collection.

As a young child, Fritz Kreisler listened to his father play violin in an amateur string quartet. Wanting to participate, he made himself a toy violin, and he’d pretend to play during their rehearsals: “Soon I made myself a would-be violin out of a cigar box over which I stretched shoe strings; and I’d pretend I was playing right…”[2] Noticing his keen interest in the instrument, Kreisler’s father got him a small violin and bow and began to give him lessons. By age eight, Kreisler was given a half-sized Thir violin from the Vienna Conservatory, and at age ten he won a ¾-sized Amati as first prize in the Austrian State competition. As a 13-year-old, Kreisler won 1^st prize at the Paris Conservatorie, and was gifted a full-size Gand-Bernadel as well leant the c. 1708 “Davidov” Stradivarius. Upon returning home, Kreisler’s father gave him a beautiful Giovanni Grancino violin that he played for eight years.

One morning, Kreisler visited an old architect friend in Vienna, who said, “Fritz, here is an old, battered violin that you can have, perhaps make some use of, by giving it away to someone who needs it.” Upon returning home, Kreisler realized it was a genuine Nicol Gagliano, “of entrancing tone and quality”. As Kreisler recalls, “It became the best beloved of my violins until within three years ago. It traveled with me on my concert tours in almost every large city in Europe and America.”[3]

Around the turn of the century, Kreisler bought the c. 1735 ‘Mary Portman’ Guarneri del Gesu from the dealer George Hart for only $10,000. It was not long, however, before another instrument stole Kreisler’s affections: the c. 1734 ‘Hart’ Guarneri del Gesu (now referred to as the ‘Hart, Kreisler c. 1734’), then owned by the collector John Adams. Kreisler recalls:

Then one day as I entered the rooms of Mr. Hart I heard a Voice, liquid, pure, penetrating, whose divine sweetness pierced my soul as a knife with the anguish of longing…That this divine Voice should be doomed to silence under the glass case of a collector was to me a tragedy that rent my heart… Finally he took it from his case, saying, ‘Play’ … When I had finished, he said: ‘I have no right to it; keep it; it belongs to you. Go out into the world and let it be heard’… This time I shall be faithful until the end, for I do not delude myself that I shall ever hear a voice more beautiful than that of my last beloved, my ‘Hart’ Guarnerius.[4]

It is likely that Fritz Kreisler played this violin for his first five recordings in Berlin in 1904, as well as using it for recordings he made in New York and London between 1910-1916. He premiered the Elgar Concerto on this instrument in 1910 and sold it in 1917[5].

In 1908, Kreisler bought the c. 1726 ‘Greville’ Stradivarius from Kempton Adams, who prepared a detailed brochure especially for Kreisler about the instrument. However, he only had it for a year or two before selling it to Lyon & Healy of Chicago. Around this time, Kreisler also purchased the c. 1732 Guarneri del Gesu, as well as the c. 1733 Stradivari known as the ‘Huberman, Kreisler’ from Alfred Hill, which quickly became his new favorite. Kreisler played the ‘Huberman, Kreisler’ Strad on his 1926-1927 concerto recordings (Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven) with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra conducted by Leo Blech, and his 1928 sonatas with Sergei Rachmaninoff on piano. Hill bought the violin back in 1936 and shortly after sold it to Bronislaw Huberman[6].

“Hill offered me some fine instrument from time to time and suggested that I take it home and even use it for concert purposes. As I like to give my violins a rest, I gladly accepted the offer. No sooner had I used such an instrument in a public performance, however, than Hill was able to sell it for a much higher price because somehow the impression got around that I liked it so much that I even preferred it to my own violin.” -Fritz Kreisler[7]

(To be continued…)

[1] Louis P. Lochner, Kreisler (Neptune City, NJ: Paganiniana Publications, Inc), 349.

[2] Tully Potter, “Kreisler’s Violins,” Tarisio, February 1^st 2017, https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/kreislers-violins/

[3] Lochner, Kreisler, 349.

[4] Lochner, Kreisler, 350.

[5] Potter.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Lochner, Kreisler, 351