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Kreisler

Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) was an Austrian-born violinist and composer whose warm tone, continuous vibrato, and aristocratic phrasing helped define the sound of twentieth-century violin playing. For much of his career he published pieces attributed to Baroque and Classical masters, claiming to have found the manuscripts in monastery libraries; programmes for decades paired the Praeludium and Allegro "by Pugnani" with his own Liebesleid and Liebesfreud. When he admitted in 1935 that the attributed works were entirely his own, the critical world was embarrassed and fascinated in equal measure. Elgar dedicated his Violin Concerto to Kreisler, who gave the world premiere in 1910.

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