A HALF-HOUR WITH A FAMOUS VIOLINIST.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1325, 16 September 1915, Page 37

A HALF-HOUR WITH A FAMOUS VIOLINIST.

(By

Keith Kennedy.)

I had the pleasure of meeting Fritz Kreisler while he was playing in London in 1912. We were both under the same concert agent, a Mr. Phillips, who was formerly a partner in Quinlan’s Agency. One 1 afternoon Mr. Phillips said: “Come along and 1 will introduce you to Kreisler.” So we went to the Queen’s Hall. The concert had already started when we' arrived, so we went in the audience and heard one of Kreisler’s most delightful programmes. The item that fixes itself mostly in my memory was Tarlini’s Devil Trill Sonata. After the concert we went round to the back of the stage. “This is Keith Kennedy, the violinist,” announced Mr. Phillips, as we made our way through a circle of friends surrounding the artist. While we were shaking hands I took a good mental impression of him. Kreisler is a big, well-built man of about 14 stone. He has a very unassuming manner. I told him of my forthcoming tour to South Africa and Australia, and he was very much interested, for at that time a prominent Australian manager was trying to arrange for him to visit that country. While his friends were wrapping up his violin for him he procured for me a lithograph of himself from the front of the hall. “I will decorate my nose,” said he, with a laugh, and essayed to inscribe his autograph on the nose of his portrait. “Do you ever teach?” I asked him. “No,” said he, “for if I did how could I find time to practice? Besides,” he added modestly, “I would be a bad teacher. Kreisler carefully studies psychology and personality in violin playing. He is of a very nervous temperament, but has overcome it by his exceptional will power. We mounted the steps from the dressing-room and said “Auf wieder sehen” at the- stage door. The last I saw of him he was going across Regent Street with his friends, with a small crowd of admirers following behind. Violinists all the world over will be thankful that he will take no more part in the fighting, for, as was recently said, “One Kreisler is worth many Kaisers.”