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Valentina Crespi

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Valentina Crespi
Valentina Crespi, from a 1915 newspaper
Born1892-03-14
Milan, Italy
Diedafter 1959
Other namesValentine Crespi, Valentina Crispi
OccupationsViolinist, composer, violin teacher

Valentina Crespi (March 14, 1892[1] – after 1959[2]) was an Italian-American violinist and composer, based in New York City in the 1910s and 1920s.

Early life and education

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Crespi was described as being from Milan,[3] the daughter of Lucrezia Crespi, and a "protegee of the Queen of Roumania".[4][5] She trained with Armand Parent [fr]in Paris,[6] and with Jenő Hubay in Budapest.[7]

Career

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Crespi was a "celebrated violinist"[8][9] who toured in the United States, Canada,[10] and Europe. She played Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D at the Promenade Concerts in London in 1912.[11] "Her technique is excellent and she gave the work with intelligence and artistic insight of no small order for a young violinist", reported the Musical News of her Proms appearance.[12] She also played at Bechstein Hall in 1912[13] and 1914.[14] In 1914, a British collector gave Crespi a manuscript of a "secret exercise" written by Niccolò Paganini, along with a letter in Paganini's hand.[15][16]

A young woman with dark hair, seated, holding a violin
Valentina Crespi with her violin, from a 1917 publication

Crespi lived in New York City in the 1910s and 1920s.[17][18] She performed at a "socialst musical festival" in Carnegie Hall in 1914.[19] She gave concerts in Maine[20] and Michigan in 1915.[21][22] In 1916 she played at a benefit for the Italian Red Cross the Biltmore Hotel,[23][24] and for the Humanitarian Cult at Carnegie Hall.[25] In March 1919, she was part of the musical ensemble for an Irish music festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[26] In late 1921, she performed at New York's Aeolian Hall,[27] and in a radio concert.[28] She toured American Midwestern states[29] in 1922 and 1923,[30][31][32] and at the University of South Dakota in 1927.[33] One of her last American performances was for the Mozart Verein in Port Chester, New York, late in 1929.[34]

Publications

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Crespi was also a composer, who wrote music to accompany silent films,[35] and published musical compositions,[36] including:

  • "Steluta" and "Variations on a Roumanian Air" (1915)[37]
  • Frills and Furbelows (1917)[38]
  • Thoughts (No. 35) (1917)[39]
  • Memories (No. 50) (1917)[40]
  • Serenata (No. 105) (1917)[41]

Personal life

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Crespi spent the summer of 1922 in Rigi Kaltbad, Switzerland with her American accompanist, Susie Kirk-Schneider, and the two young Kirk-Schneider children.[42][43] Crespi became a naturalized United States citizen in 1925.[1] She moved to Switzerland with Kirk-Schneider in 1930.[44] On Christmas night in 1939, she was shot and seriously wounded by Kirk-Schneider's 23-year-old son, known as Robert Kirk, at their home in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland.[45][46]

When Susie Kirk died in Switzerland in 1960, from cancer, Valentine Crespi inherited Kirk's jewelry, cars, horses, cattle, and Swiss dairy farm.[2] She owned a 1699 Stradivarius, known as the Crespi;[47] it was sold to the Fridart Foundation in Geneva in 1960.[48] In October 2025, the Crespi violin was loaned to Australian musician Christian Li.[49]

References

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  1. 1 2 Birth date and birth place as given in Crespi's 1925 petition for United States citizenship, via Ancestry.
  2. 1 2 "Soap Heiress Has $900,000 Trust Estate". Chicago Tribune. 1960-06-04. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-10-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Mrs. Herman Lewis Presents (advertisement)". The Musical Monitor. 6 (1): 36.
  4. ↑ "Music in Montreal". Musical Canada. 8 (8): 208. December 1913.
  5. ↑ "Kissed a Queen But Didn't Know Whom She Saluted". The Montreal Star. 1913-12-08. p. 23. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Lettre de Paris". La Vie Musicale: 211. February 16, 1910.
  7. ↑ "Valentina Crespi (advertisement)". Musical America: 182. October 16, 1915.
  8. ↑ Clarke, Mrs Ida Clyde Gallagher (1924). Women of Today. Women of Today Press. p. 170.
  9. ↑ "Valentina Crespi (advertisement)". Musical Field: 10. October 1922.
  10. ↑ "Miss Crespi in Montreal". The Violin World. 23 (4): 57. May 15, 1915.
  11. ↑ "Promenade Concerts". Musical News: 247. September 28, 1912.
  12. ↑ "London Concerts". Musical News: 340. October 26, 1912.
  13. ↑ "Valentine Crespi's Concert". The Musical Standard: 32. July 27, 1912.
  14. ↑ "Violin Recitals". The Musical Times: 473. July 1, 1914.
  15. ↑ Kirkendale, Warren (1965). "Segreto Comunicato da Paganini". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 18 (3): 394–407. doi:10.2307/830707. ISSN 0003-0139.
  16. ↑ Bromfield, Louis (1922-05-27). "Paganini's Secret Exercise Falls to Young Violinist". Musical America. 36 (5): 5 – via Internet Archive.
  17. ↑ "Ocean Travelers". The New York Times. September 20, 1922. p. 17. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  18. ↑ Musical America's Guide: A Digest of the Musical Resources of the United States and Canada. Musical America Company. 1927. p. 195.
  19. ↑ "Saluted the Red Flag; Children in Slimly Attended Socialist Musical Festival". The New York Times. April 12, 1914. p. 32. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  20. ↑ "Brilliant Artists in Bangor Soon". The Bangor Daily News. 1915-02-06. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-10-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Noted Artist Appears in Concert Here Tonight". Battle Creek Enquirer. 1915-09-23. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "Valentina Crespi in Montreal Benefit Concert". Musical America. 21 (19): 5. 1915-03-13 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ↑ "Valentina Crespie to Play at the Biltmore". Musical Courier: 53. December 23, 1915.
  24. ↑ "Valentina Crespi to Play for Italian Red Cross Benefit". Musical Courier: 49. February 17, 1916.
  25. ↑ "Artists Who Have Appeared for the Cult". The Humanitarian: 47. January 1917.
  26. ↑ "Brooklyn Music". The New York Times. March 30, 1919. p. 48. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  27. ↑ "Valentina Crespi, Violinist, Plays". The New York Times. November 17, 1921. p. 22. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  28. ↑ "Music Notes". The New York Times. December 21, 1921. p. 29. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  29. ↑ "Valentina Crespi Completes Tour". Musical Courier. 86 (23): 38. 1923-06-07 – via Internet Archive.
  30. ↑ "Dumesnil and Crespi Appear Here Tonight". The Muskegon Chronicle. 1922-11-24. p. 10. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ↑ "Valentina Crespi Gives Excellent Violin Concert". The Fargo Forum, Daily Republican, and Moorhead Daily News. 1923-04-14. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ↑ "Famed Artists Coming to City in New Course". Journal and Courier. 1923-02-06. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ↑ University of South Dakota (1928). Catalogue of the University of Dakota. p. 173.
  34. ↑ "Society to Mark Diamond Jubilee; Eighty Male Voices to Help Verein Program". The Daily Item. 1929-11-01. p. 18. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ↑ Preston Leonard, Kendra (2024-04-01). "Imagining Women's Archives of Silent Film Music". Feminist Media Histories. 10 (2–3): 61–86. doi:10.1525/fmh.2024.10.2-3.61. ISSN 2373-7492. Archived from the original on 2024-10-05. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  36. ↑ "Composer Biography: Valentina Crespi". The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. Archived from the original on 2025-10-16. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  37. ↑ "New Publications". Musical Courier: 38. August 26, 1915.
  38. ↑ "Frills and Furbelows (Crespi, Valentina)". IMSLP. Archived from the original on 2025-08-14. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  39. ↑ "Thoughts (Crespi, Valentina)". IMSLP. Archived from the original on 2025-08-13. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  40. ↑ "Memories (Crespi, Valentina)". IMSLP. Archived from the original on 2025-06-19. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  41. ↑ "Serenata (Crespi, Valentina)". IMSLP. Archived from the original on 2025-08-15. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  42. ↑ "Valentina Crespi to Summer in Switzerland". Musical Courier. 84 (26): 46. 1922-06-29 – via Internet Archive.
  43. ↑ "Ocean Travelers". The New York Times. 1922-09-20. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-27.
  44. ↑ "Hastings Youth Found Guilty, Will Be Deported by Swiss". The Herald Statesman. 1940-12-19. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  45. ↑ "Held in Shooting; Son of American widow wounds mother's companion". Buffalo Courier Express. 1940-01-01. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-10-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  46. ↑ "Swiss to Expell American; Kirk Also Gets 5-Month Term for Shooting Mother's Companion". The New York Times. December 19, 1940. p. 10. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-10-26.
  47. ↑ "Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1699, the 'Crespi'". Tarisio. Retrieved 2025-10-27.
  48. ↑ Rattray, David (2000-12-13). Masterpieces of Italian Violin Making (1620-1850): Important Stringed Instruments from the Collection at the Royal Academy of Music. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4616-6960-9.
  49. ↑ "VC Artist Christian Li Loaned 1699 "Crespi" Stradivari Violin". The Violin Channel. 2025-10-23. Archived from the original on 2025-10-26. Retrieved 2025-10-27.
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