The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-05
M E N /, w 0 N E N
 A N D T H 1 N C 5

. AnerlCd.
 |
 The generally accepted tradition that youthful prodigies rarely if ever full
 they reach maturity has little basis in fact. Because a great ado is made
 every few years over the failure of prodigy, the public is Inclined to forget l that nearly all the greatest musicians showed from their earliest years dis tinct and remarkable talent 1 When Fritz Kreisler first came to
 this country as a prodigy at the age of the lot of an attractive boy with great talent, but the wise heads alf
 maintained that he was being burnt" out and would amount to nothing ETwelve years later he returned to America and before his first perform ance in New York his coming was re- ceived with the usual skepticism. It was quickly discovered. however. that the wonderful boy had become a very great artist and today ranks as the greatest vioiinist of our time Some one has said that genius is a capacity for hard work" If This be true. then kreisler is q genius, for he has made himself one of if not the greatest violinists of the day. It was not until 1899 that he definitely made up his mind to give himself to his vio- lin, but when he dedicated his life to the king of instruments he was willing to pay the price of success by never be-. ing idle. He had obstacles to overcome and he set about with determination to master the violin.
 
 Other violinists there arc who may have a larger tone. Other violinists there are who may rejoice more in the technical fireworks of violin playing,
 but there is none today who so com
 pines the classic pose with the fire of
 romanticism. Whether Kreisler plays an old Italian concerto by Vivaldi or the "Chaconne" by Bach, or the Concerto" by Beethoven, or the Concerto" by Tschaikowsky, he is always supreme, a final authority in the interpretation of the works of such different periods | The repertoire of the violin is sur
 the piano, for example, and those who l have gone to violin recitals in the past and have had to content themselves with parts or the whole of concertos with piano accompaniment and with unaccompanied Bach pieces, realize that they were not the most stirring of mu- | sical events.
 | Kreisler who is deep student of l years ago. and he decided to mark out a new path for himself,
 Buried in libraries and musical col 1 lections in Italy and France were vast quantities of music by composers long | forgotten, who flourished particularly 1 in Italy, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries At that time the violin was more generally cultivated music was written for it. For years
 Kreiser gave a great part of his time | to hunting up and going over this, sep arating the wheat from the chaff. As a result of his search he unearthed
 much very beautiful music which was gramme.
 1 To kreisler is due entirely the splen- ep1 of ho tnir of modern violinists. For years violinists had been going along content to play the hackneyed works of modern violin 1 fliterature, forgetting or ignoring the wonderful literature that Italy gave to 1 the world through the seventeenth and ian music, which is as beautifully writ
 ten for the violin as the best Italian composers have written for the voices.
 Kreisler sought out and revived. | Moreover he made a number of ar engagements of smaller compositions by modern composers with the result that his recital programmes became model
 which all other violinists are following. |
 and Dvorak and others whom the cen
 turies divide appearing in juxtaposi-
 tion great piquancy is given to the | slighter portions of programmes which invariably include works of major im-
 portance, and so the critics who as a
 rule look askance upon arrangements,
 are dsarmed.
 |
 | l have never heard Kreisler play, and only know him through his reputation, which is worldwide. Up to the begin
 ming of the war he was one of the few
 violinists who under any conditions and
 circumstances could fill the largest
 halls of London. Paris, Petrograd and Vienna. His hold on the musical pub
 lie of Europe was unique. He attracted
 not merely the general public. but the
 connoisseur. for while he has all the
 brilliancy that the general public de-
 mands, underlying his art is the sound
 est and solidest muscianship | krcislers father. a famous physician
 and surgeon of Vienna, urged his son
 he has always held to the opinion that ] for himself had he studied medicine.
 As matter of fact. Fritz spent a year studying medicine during his period of
 storm and stress when. after astonish-
 ing the world as prodigy he became
 uncertain whether he wanted to make
 music his profession.
 l ] It is known also that painting had
 charm for him. and that he seriously