For decades Fritz Kreisler duped his audiences into thinking that many of his works for violin and piano were arrangements of compositions by other composers such as Stamitz, Vivaldi, Couperin, Dittersdorf or Porpora. Only a handful of friends and fellow musicians who knew the nature of this charming and casually relaxed violinist, knew these were actually the works of Kreisler himself. It was only when he was aged sixty he publicly and freely admitted he concealed most of his own works behind the names of 17th and 18th century masters. Kreisler is today regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.
Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, including the ‘Liebesleid’ and ‘Liebesfreud’ arranged for piano and strings on this recording, that are frequently performed by violinists today as ‘encore’ solos.
The three works presented here are performed by one of the world’s leading ensembles, Budapest Strings.
