# Alfredo Campoli



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Have you heard of him?
Do you like his playing?

I just want to know what you think of Alfredo Campoli, personally I really like him.

Here is a recording of him playing.






What do you think?

I would also like some opinions on Michael Rabin.


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## ShropshireMoose (Sep 2, 2013)

Alfredo Campoli was, in my opinion, one of the finest violinists of the 20th century. I was fortunate to see him three times- and for nothing! This was in the early 1980s at Walsall Town Hall. In those days (not so long ago, yet now so many aspects of it seem almost historic!) the council gave a free concert once a month, usually a local choral society, or some wunderkind from Birmingham School of Music would be on the bill of fare. However, the day I finished taking my O levels in 1980, a poster appeared on the music room board stating that Alfredo Campoli would be the guest artist that month, so the following Wednesday, I duly raced to Walsall Town Hall, and was entranced by some superb violin playing- my programmes are not to hand, so I cannot recall all that he played on that occasion, but he finished with a group of pieces by Kreisler that were simply spellbinding. He revisited Walsall again in 1982 and 1983. On each occasion I managed to get back stage and meet him, and as a person he was as charming as his playing of those lovely Kreisler pieces. I have, over the years collected most of his classical recordings and a good many of the salon records he made when younger. I, personally feel that he is the finest player of Kreisler, next to Kreisler himself. His recording of Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole is, I think the finest on record, and so many others will stand comparison with any of the more renowned greats of the last century. His championing of many British works is sadly underrepresented in his recorded output, but his performance of the Bliss Concerto remains the benchmark, and it was wonderful to recently have his live performance of the Moeran Concerto released on the Divine Art label. A wonderful violinist indeed.


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