Kathleen Parlow (violin) - The Rosary (Nevin-Parlow) (1928)

Kathleen Parlow plays her own arrangement of 'The Rosary, with piano (probably by Raymond Bauman) and organ, recorded in New York on 4 May 1928.
From Wikipedia: Kathleen Parlow (September 20, 1890 in Fort Calgary, Alberta - August 19, 1963 near Toronto, Ontario) was a child prodigy with her outstanding technique with a violin, which earned her the nickname 'the lady of the golden bow'....
Parlow's mother, Minnie, took her to live in San Francisco when Kathleen was four years old. Minnie Parlow bought her daughter a half-sized violin in San Francisco, and Kathleen began receiving lessons...
To become a top professional violinist and to begin a concert career, Parlow followed the normal route for North Americans and moved to Europe. Kathleen and her mother arrived in London on January 1, 1905... The Parlows decided to seek out Elman's teacher, Leopold Auer. Minnie and Kathleen Parlow had arrived in London with $300 raised by their church in San Francisco, which was not sufficient to get them to St. Petersburg, where Auer was a professor... The pair travelled to Russia, and in October 1906, Kathleen Parlow became the first foreigner to attend the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In her class of forty-five students, Parlow was the only female.
At 17, having spent a year at the conservatory, Parlow began to put on public performances. She gave solo performances in both St. Petersburg and Helsinki... Soon after, Kathleen Parlow made her professional debut in Berlin, and then began a tour of Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. In Norway she performed for King Haakon and Queen Maud, of whom she would become a favourite...
Parlow travelled Europe with her mother performing for five years. Auer remained a strong influence on Parlow, who referred to him as 'Papa Auer'...
In November 1910, Kathleen Parlow returned to North America for a tour... Her performances were lauded by provincial premieres, and both mother and daughter Parlow were pleased by her positive reception in western Canada.
Parlow returned to England with her mother in 1911 for further concerts. Her mother would remain her constant travelling companion, well into adulthood... Parlow maintained a heavy touring schedule, crossing and recrossing the Atlantic to tour both Europe and North America. She participated in a benefit concert for survivors of the Titanic, and made her first recording at the request of Thomas Edison. She signed with Columbia Records to produce recordings...
During the war, Parlow toured neutral nations of Europe such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. She returned to North America for a tour in the spring of 1916. She returned to England, but the increasing difficulty of travel kept her there until 1919...
Parlow continued touring, returning to Europe, but in 1926 she took a break... To renew her career, she traveled to Mexico for concerts. There she was praised by critics, but her financial situation remained poor...
In 1929, she was appointed to the faculty of Mills College in Oakland, California... While at Mills College she began to play in string quartets, in which she played violin, and in 1935 she formed the South Mountain Parlow Quartet.
In 1936, Parlow accepted a position at the Juilliard School of Music. She remained there until World War II... She wrote to Sir Ernest MacMillan about a permanent position with the Royal Conservatory of Music, and obtained one in 1941...
She became a regular performer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as well, bringing additional income. In Toronto, she organised the Canadian Trio...
Parlow started her third string quartet in 1942, called the Parlow String Quartet...They remained together for 15 years. During this time, Parlow remained the head of the quartet, but the other performers were occasionally replaced.
As Parlow's career began to decline, her financial situation became progressively worse, and Godfrey Ridout and other friends of hers established a fund to support her. In October 1959, she was appointed head of the College of Music of the University of Western Ontario, which provided much needed income. She died on August 19, 1963, and her will set up the Kathleen Parlow Scholarship for stringed instrument players at the University of Toronto, with the money from her estate and $40,000 from the sale of her violin...
I transferred this side from Edison 52392.

[@georgejohnson1498]

Certainly that captures the dreamy mood of the music to perfection!
I cannot imagine any modern violinist playing this with such effortless calmness and sweet expression. Everything is either too earnest or sometimes is just plain ugly sounding these days. This is so genial and sweet.
Thank you for a very out of the way piece of music, so captivatingly played.
Best wishes from George

[@vintagesounds3878]

@@georgejohnson1498 Thanks George!

[@hartmutlindemann9735]

I totally agree with your description and it is a pity that the recent Biddulph release doesn't include her later electric recordings (like this one.) The sound of her earlier acoustic recordings doesn't do her playing justice.

[@vintagesounds3878]

@@hartmutlindemann9735 Thank you! Yes, the electrics are certainly worthwhile.