Is there a lover of chamber music unfamiliar with Franz Kneisel's name?
It may be doubted. After earlier European triumphs the gifted Roumanian
violinist came to this country (1885), and aside from his activities in
other directions--as a solo artist he was the first to play the Brahms
and Goldmark violin concertos, and the César Franck sonata in this
country--organized his famous quartet. And, until his recent retirement
as its director and first violin, it has been perhaps the greatest
single influence toward stimulating appreciation for the best in chamber
music that the country has known. Before the Flonzaley was, the Kneisels
were. They made plain how much of beauty the chamber music repertory
offered the amateur string player; not only in the classic
repertory--Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Spohr; in Schubert, Schumann,
Brahms; but in Smetana, Dvořák and Tschaikovsky; in César Franck,
Debussy and Ravel. Not the least among Kneisel's achievements is, that
while the professional musicians in the cities in which his organization
played attended its concerts as a matter of course, the average music
lover who played a string instrument came to them as well, and carried
away with him a message delivered with all the authority of superb
musicianship and sincerity, one which bade him "go and do likewise," in
so far as his limitations permitted. And the many excellent professional
chamber music organizations, trios, quartets and _ensembles_ of various
kinds which have come to the fore since they began to play offer
eloquent testimony with regard to the cultural work of Kneisel and his
fellow artists.
[Illustration: FRANZ KNEISEL, with signature]
A cheery grate fire burned in the comfortable study in Franz Kneisel's
home; the autographed--in what affectionate and appreciative
terms--pictures of great fellow artists looked down above the book-cases
which hold the scores of those masters of what has been called "the
noblest medium of music in existence," whose beauties the famous quartet
has so often disclosed on the concert stage. And Mr. Kneisel was
amiability personified when I asked him to give me his theory of the
perfect string _ensemble_, and the part virtuosity played in it.
"THE ARTIST RANKS THE VIRTUOSO IN CHAMBER MUSIC"
"The artist, the _Tonkünstler_, to use a foreign phrase, ranks the
virtuoso in chamber music. Joachim was no virtuoso, he did not stress
technic, the less important factor in _ensemble_ playing. Sarasate was a
virtuoso in the best sense of the word; and yet as an _ensemble_ music
player he fell far short of Joachim. As I see it 'virtuoso' is a kind of
flattering title, no more. But a _Tonkünstler_, a 'tone-artist,' though
he must have the virtuoso technic in order to play Brahms and Beethoven
concertos, needs besides a spiritual insight, a deep concept of their
nobility to do them justice--the mere technic demanded for a virtuoso
show piece is not enough.