Fritz Kreisler autographed Park Theatre Youngstown progam, January 12, 1922, accompanied by Carl Lamson on a Steinway piano - 4 pages — measures: 5 1/2" x 8" — signed on back cover
"Fritz Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian violinist and composer, one of the most famous of his day.
Kreisler was born in Vienna in Austria. He studied at the conservatoires
there and in Paris, where his teachers included Léo Delibes. He made
his first tour of America in 1888-89, then returned to Austria and
applied for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He was
turned down, and left music to study first medicine, then painting. He
spent a brief time in the army before returning to the violin 1899,
giving a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Arthur Nikisch. It was this concert and a series of American tours from
1901 to 1903 that brought him real acclaim.
In 1910, Kreisler gave the premiere of Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto, a
work dedicated to him. He briefly served in the Austrian Army in World
War I before being honourably discharged after he was wounded. He spent
the remaining years of the war in America, and lived in Berlin from
1924. He moved to France in 1938 but shortly thereafter settled in
America, becoming an American citizen in 1943. He lived in that country
for the rest of his life. He gave his last public concert in 1947 and
broadcasted performances for a few years after that. He died in New York
City in 1962.
Kreisler wrote a number of pieces for the violin, some of them in the
style of other composers. Many of these works were originally ascribed
to earlier composers such as Gaetano Pugnani and Giuseppe Tartini until
Kreisler revealed in 1935 that they were actually by him. When critics
complained, Kreisler answered that critics had already deemed the
compositions worthy. "The name changes, the value remains". He also
wrote operettas (including Apple Blossoms (1919), a string quartet and
cadenzas, including one for the Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto. His
cadenza for Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto is the one most often
employed by violinists today."