We are indeed fortunate that Fritz Kreisler was still at the peak of his powers when electrical recording arrived in 1925. He was as busy as ever in the year covered by these recordings, using Vuillaume and Guarneri del Gesù violins that he said ‘breathe and pulsate with a million vibrations’. On one of his many successful charity concerts in 1927 The Times commented that Kreisler’s ‘fine-drawn phrases have the delicacy of a spider’s thread, the suppleness of elastic, and the strength of steel’. With wonderful examples of parlando bowing, many demonstrations of beautiful double-stopping, lovely staccato and myriad other subtleties such as delicate rhythmic changes, harmonics and variations in dynamics, these New York and Berlin sessions include classic versions of Kreisler’s best works and a rare unaccompanied movement by Bach.