Fritz Kreisler was the greatest violinist of his generation. A child prodigy, he read music before he was five and finished his studies at twelve. After his studies, he ran from theatre to theatre, from Berlin to Moscow, from Rome to London, unanimously admired and celebrated. Looking at his destiny from the threshold of our century, he seems like a character from another time, spiritual and melancholic, a willing vehicle for a certain idea of Europe – who will go and grow old on the New Continent, after 1933…
To relax, to exercise his fingers – to impress the gallery and seduce the salon audience, too – Kreisler composed small pieces throughout his life, all of virtuosity, elegance and fantasy. In other words, they are concentrates of charm. Pastiches in the style of old composers (Prelude and Allegro in the style of Pugnani), tributes to great figures of the musical tradition (Rondino on a Theme by Beethoven), variations on popular tunes (Londonderry Air, La Gitana) or simple manifestations of the spirit of the age (Liebesleid, Tambourin Chinois…), these works all shine with a delightful art of worldly conversation. Never boring, they seduce, amuse, impress, entertain – and, in the end, move with their profound sincerity.
To complement this champagne-flavoured lightness, Sergej Krylov and Beatrice Magnani offer us Stravinsky’s Divertimento for violin and piano, an adaptation of his ballet The Fairy’s Kiss composed in 1928 after themes from Tchaikovsky’s youth. An enchantment!
"Divertimento" pour violon et piano / I. Stravinsky
Caprice viennois / F. Kreisler
La Précieuse / F. Kreisler
La Gitana / F. Kreisler
Londonderry Air / F. Kreisler
Tambourin chinois / F. Kreisler
Dancing Doll / F. Kreisler
Rondino sur un thème de Beethoven / F. Kreisler
Trois anciennes danses viennoises : Liebesfreud, Schön Rosmarin, Liebesleid / F. Kreisler
Prélude et Allegro "dans le style de Pugnani" / F. Kreisler
Ferme-Asile
Promenade des Pêcheurs 10
1950 Sion
Switzerland