Joshua Bell, Paul Coker - The Kreisler Album (1996)

Fritz Kreisler, incomparable violinist and prolific composer, was the supreme interpreter of his own pieces; his recordings of them have cast a spell on generations of performers. Joshua Bell succumbed to it as a boy, but avoids the pitfall of trying to imitate Kreisler's style, putting his own stamp on both the original pieces and the so-called baroque arrangements, which Kreisler eventually admitted having written himself. The program, shrewdly chosen to display Kreisler's multifaceted versatility, includes stylized, graceful dances, dreamy reveries, outbursts of joy and passion, parodistic syncopation, and, of course, true Viennese character pieces. Bell's love of the music suffuses every note; he captures mood, character, and expression with flair and impeccable style. His playing, technically brilliant and tonally ravishing, has humor, wit, grace, elegance, and irresistible charm. Sentiment never becomes sentimentality; there is not a trace of schmalz or kitsch. The piano parts, with their sophisticated harmonies and skillful counterpoint, prove that Kreisler was a good composer as well as a fine pianist; Paul Coker plays them with just the right combination of rhythmic steadiness and idiomatic freedom. -- Edith Eisler