Two years later, aged 10, he played for Joseph Joachim in Berlin (making his début at "Beethoven Halle" on 17 May 1903) and subsequently became known as a child prodigy virtuoso.

[3] He became one of the pre-eminent violinists in Europe in the 1910s and 1920s, at one point touring with Béla Bartók as his piano accompanist.

[5] He also spent time composing, and wrote a number of virtuosic salon pieces for the violin.

His career steadily faltered after the First World War, as he grew tired of constant touring and wanted to concentrate more on conducting.

By the 1930s, he was about to embark on that dream, but it suddenly curtailed in 1935, when he became seriously ill with a pulmonary embolism that grew through much of his life.