DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

600 KEEISLER KEETSCHMER
the ' Non piii niesta ' variations of Paganini. In
the same year lie revisited the United States.
Strangeljf enough it was tlie American public
which first perceived in him the quality of
greatness which is now universally attributed
to him. In the course of this tour, which
extended to the spring of 1901, he occasionally
took part in pianoforte trios with Hoffmann
and Gerardy, as well as in concertos and solos.
Since then he has twice returned to America,
his total visits to that country numbering, up
to the present date, four. His appearances in
all the continental musical centres have also
been very numerous. In London he made his
debut at a Richter Concert on jVIay 12, 1901.
Since then his visits to England have been
frequent. On May 19, 1904, he was iiresented
at a Philharmonic Coucert with the gold medal
of the society, an honour richly deserved. His
greatest glory is that his playing appeals
with especial strength to the musicians among
his audiences. The general public has not
taken to him to the same extent, though, had
he chosen, he might easily have developed into
a popular player. Indeed, in the earlier stages
of his career his programmes indicated the
ambition to become a Paganini player, a role
he is technically quite competent to fill. But
since the resumption of his nuisical career in
1899 he has continuously developed as an
interpretative artist, and now unites his dazzling
technique with higher musical qualities, taking,
among the younger players of to-day, quite
the foremost place as an interpreter of the
great classical concertos. His style of jjlaying
cannot, however, be described as academic. It
is full of glow and high courage, above all
intensely individual, his readings and even his
methods of fingering being quite his own. His
programmes are more varied than those of any
modern violinist, thanks to his own arrangements
of certain pieces, ancient and modern,
for violin solo. With Porpora and Chaniinade,
Pugnani and Dvorak, and others whom the
centuries divide, appearing in juxtaposition,
great piquancy is given to the slighter portions
of programmes which invarialjly include works
of major importance, and so the critics, who
as a rule look askance upon arrangements, are
disarmed. But he has done little in the way
of original composition beyond the writing of
cadenzas to certain of the concertos, and to
Tartini's 'II Trillo del Diavolo.' Nor has he
challenged criticism as a leader of string
quartets. He is said to he hardly less
accomplished as a pianist than as a violinist,
and with his capacity for development bids fair
to Ijecome one of the most remarkable figures in
the annals of modern music. He has successively
played upon a Stradivari of rather small
pattern, a Gagliano, and now upon a Joseph
Guarneri del Gesii, formerly the property of
August Wilhelmj. w. w. c.
KREISLERIANA, a set of 8 pieces for piano
solo, dedicated to Chopin and forming op. 1 6 of
Schumann's works. Kreisler is the capellmeister
in Hoffmann's Fantasiestiicke in Callots
Manier, so much admired by Schumann. [See
BoHNER and Hoffmann, e.t.a.] The pieces
were written in 18.38, after the Phantasiestticke
(op. 12) and Novelletten (op. 21), and before
the Arabeske (op. 18).^ They are full of
energy, variety, and character, and like the
Novelletten are cast in the so-called Lied and
Rondo forms. Schumann has added to the
title 'Phantasien fiir das PF. ' The Kreisleriana
were published by Haslinger of Vienna shortly
after Schumann's visit there (18.38-39). G.
KREISSLE VON HELLBORN, Heinrich,.
horn in Vienna, 1812, Dr. juris, Imperial-finance-
Secretary at Vienna, and Member of the Direc-
tion of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, finds-
a place here for his lives of Schubert, viz.
F. Schubert, eine biografische Skizze, von Heinrich
von Kreissle (small 8vo, Vienna, 18&1), a preliminary
sketch ; and Franz Schubert (8vo,
Vienna, Ceroid, 1865), a complete and exhaustive
biography, with a portrait. The latter
has been translated in full by Mr. Arthur Duke
Coleridge, The Life of Franz Schubert . . .
with an Ap-pendix, by George Grove (giving a
thematic catalogue of the nine symphonies, and
mentioning other works still in MS.), 2 vols.,
8vo, London, Longmans, 1869. It has also
been condensed by Mr. E. Wilberforce, 8vo,
London, Allen, 1866.
Kreissle died April 6, 1869, aged sixty-six,
much beloved for his amiability and modesty,
and for his devotion to the subject of his
biography. c. r. p.
KRETSCHMER, Edmund, organist and
dramatic composer, born August 31, 1830, at
Ostritz in Saxony, where his father, the rector
of the school, gave him his early musical education
; studied composition under Julius Otto,
and the organ under Johann Schneider at Dres-
den, where he became organist of the Catholic
church in 1854, and to the court in 1863. He
founded several 'Gesangvereine,' and in 1865
his composition, 'Die Geisterschlacht,' gained
the prize at the first ' German Sangerfest,' in
Dresden. Three years later he took another
prize in Brussels for a mass. His opera ' Die
Folkunger, ' in five acts, libretto by Mosenthal,
was produced at Dresden, June 1875. It was
well received and had a considerable run, but
has since disappeared ; nor ' has Heinrich der
Loewe,' to his own libretto (produced at Leip-
zig, 1877) met with more permanent favour,
though it was given on many German stages
with success. The music is correct, and shows
both taste and talent, but no invention or
dramatic power. His vocal part-writing has
little life ; and his duets, terzets, finales, etc.
are too much like part-songs. [Another opera,
1 WaiielewBky, 181.