Fritz Kreisler (violin/piano)
American Portrait
rec. 1919-40(?)
Rhine Classics RH-028 [61]
This is an unusual disc. It presents Fritz Kreisler in a dual role, as violinist, certainly, in a very brief concert but also as pianist in his complete sequence of Ampico piano rolls, made between 1919 and 1927. A long time ago I wrote here a lot on the various Ampico, Duo-Art and other series of piano rolls which were being issued on CD at the time; Dal Sagno and Nimbus, for example, had multi-volumes devoted to them. This Harold Bauer release offers my succinct thoughts on the subject, not that I’m in any way expert. Piano rolls offer severe tests to the listener given the editorial potential, post-performance, of manipulation and they can, given their mechanical nature, hardly reflect any of the true tonal shadings of artists. I’ve always found them a dead-in-the-water system and not even revealing of tempi, given the possibility for manipulation there too. The acid test comes when one lines up a roll against a disc recording. I’ve done that too many times to be able to accept rolls as anything other than indicative and, of course, as entertaining examples of the commercial potential of the systems on the market.
Like Heifetz and Grumiaux, to take elite examples, Kreisler was a most able pianist so it’s pleasurable to have what the disc assures us is his complete series of rolls even though one can’t draw any real conclusions from them. I’m not sure how they’ve been reproduced as there is no mention of this, nor when, nor by whom. They sound to have been competently reproduced but I also know that playback of rolls is dependent on many variables and that failures can lead to real variations in timings, something I’ve noticed on numerous occasions. So, provisionally, these have been done well but they don’t tell us much, if anything, about Kreisler we didn’t already know – other than he was clearly a fine pianist.
The more problematic element is what is said to be a 1940 concert for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt given for the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on 9 November 1940. The date can’t be right. From Roosevelt’s speech it’s clear that America was at war. And from what was said earlier by an announcer, Kreisler is praised for the ‘courage with which he has overcome his recent adversities’ – which can only mean his catastrophic injury when he was hit by a truck in New York, which took place on 26 April 1941. The problem for me is that there seem to be two announcers. The first I don’t recognise but the second sounds to me like Bob Hope, whom Roosevelt mentions by name in his speech for being the favourite performer for servicemen overseas. The evening ends with Roosevelt asking all assembled to toast America’s armed forces.
I’ve been informed that the concert and speech are definitely part of the same programme, but I have my doubts. I think they are two distinct things. The Kreisler portion – the liner notes indicate the inclusion of ‘Kreisler’s speech’ which turns out to be the violinist muttering the pieces he’s playing – hardly a ‘speech’ at all – seems to be from a regular broadcast and I think the applause that ends the recital – a Bell Telephone Hour recital or something similar? – bleeds into the introduction to Roosevelt’s speech.
Kreisler plays La Gitana, Caprice Viennois and Schön Rosmarin with the NBC Symphony – or a section of it – directed by Frank Black. There are inevitable small failings from the great man but he acquits himself reasonably well. These were three pieces he recorded on 15 January 1942, around the time of his tentative comeback after injury, with the Victor Symphony under Charles O’Donnell.
All this leads me to believe that the Kreisler recital comes from some time in 1942 or possibly later. The Press Club audience sounds a very different one to the concert audience and as Roosevelt mentions Sicily in his speech, the date for his speech can’t be earlier than mid-1943 which is when the Sicily landings were undertaken.
What I think, then, is that this is a composite of two different things – a Kreisler concert and a Roosevelt speech – yoked together. Roosevelt does mention his happiness at enjoying ‘the show’ so it’s possible, I suppose, that Kreisler was part of the show, but I am still very dubious about that. Why two announcers in that case? If Hope was the compere, why shouldn’t he have compered the whole show? I understand Rhine acquired a copy of the recital and speech from a collector. Murkier things have happened and I’m happy to be proved wrong.
Despite what some readers think, we reviewers do not have unlimited time, research assistants, and Sherlock Holmes-like deductive abilities. We tend to rely on what’s written on the tin. Maybe someone with greater knowledge can confirm the date of Roosevelt’s speech and also address the question of the Kreisler concert.
Given all the above and the unreliability of piano rolls to tell people anything about a performer’s real art, I’m afraid that this is a rather arcane and odd disc, of only specialised interest to the Kreisler collector.
Jonathan Woolf
Availability: Rhine Classics
Contents & recording details
Complete Ampico piano rolls
Apple Blossoms: “Nancy’s Farewell”
Apple Blossoms: “I’m in Love”
Liebesfreud
Schön Rosmarin
The Old Refrain
Caprice Viennois, Op.2
Toy Soldier’s March
Viennese Melody
Paradise (Alexander Krakauer)
Rêve de Jeunesse (Felix Winternitz)
Polichinelle
Entr’Acte, Op.46/2 (Walter Kramer)
Midnight Bells (Richard Heuberger)
Petite Valse
Fritz Kreisler (piano)
rec. 1919-27, Ampico Recording Piano at Chickering Hall, New York
In concert for President F. D. Roosevelt
La Gitana
Caprice Viennois
Schön Rosmarin
and off-the-record speech by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
NBC Symphony Orchestra/ Frank Black
rec. live, claimed to be 9 November 1940, National Press Club, Washington D.C.
