Monday 19 March 2012

Fritz Kreisler plays Kreisler Tambourin chinois 1910


Fritz Kreisler, composer as well as virtuoso. This is Kreisler's op 3 Tambourin chinois, from 1910. In fact the recording was made in 1910 too, so what we have is avant garde new music, new technology and a composer experimenting with an alien musical form. Sounds familiar? Sounds nothing like Chinese music to me, but that doesn't matter at all. Kreisler is enjoying himself writing perfumed exotica. Evidently the piece meant a lot to him. Twenty five years later, he records it again with a different pianist, much sharper. Please see my numerous other posts on composers playing their own music, eg Mahler plays Mahler, Grieg plays Grieg and even Brahms !

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