We are indeed fortunate that Fritz Kreisler was still at the peak of his powers when electrical recording arrived in 1925. He was as busy as ever in the year covered by these recordings, using Vuillaume and Guarneri del Gesu violins that he said ‘breathe and pulsate with a million vibrations’. On one of his many successful charity concerts in 1927 The Times commented that Kreisler’s ‘fine-drawn phrases have the delicacy of a spider’s thread, the suppleness of elastic, and the strength of steel’. With wonderful examples of parlando bowing, many demonstrations of beautiful double-stopping, lovely staccato and myriad other subtleties such as delicate rhythmic changes, harmonics and variations in dynamics, these New York and Berlin sessions include classic versions of Kreisler’s best works and a rare unaccompanied movement by Bach.

• Bach, J S: Sonata for solo violin No. 1 in G minor, BWV1001
• Brahms: Hungarian Dances
• Debussy: Petite Suite
• Debussy: Preludes - Book 1
• Falla: La vida breve
• Kreisler: Caprice Viennois, Op. 2
• Kreisler: Drei Walzer (Liebesfreud - Liebesleid - Schon Rosmarin)
• Lehar: Frasquita
• Mendelssohn: Songs without Words, Book 5 (6), Op. 62
• Mendelssohn: Song without Words, Op. 62 No. 1 in G major 'May Breezes'
• Mendelssohn: Song without Words, Op. 62 No. 2 in B flat major
• Mendelssohn: Song without Words, Op. 62 No. 3 in E minor 'Trauermarsch'
• Mendelssohn: Song without Words, Op. 62 No. 4 in G major
• Mendelssohn: Song without Words, Op. 62 No. 5 in A minor 'Venetianisches Gondellied No. 3'
• Mendelssohn: Song without Words, Op. 62 No. 6 in A major 'Spring Song'
• Rimsky Korsakov: 4 Songs, Op. 2
• Tchaikovsky: Morceaux (2), Op. 10