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VIOLINISTS AND
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FRANZ LISZT.
GREAT
VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS
CORELLI TO PADEREWSKI
BY
itus
GEORGE T. FERRIS
INTER
D:X
80
FRUCTUS
FOLIO
NEW EDITION
REVISED AND ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1909
Music
ML
305
F39
1909
COPYRIGBT, 1881, 1895,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.
The continuous demand for this series, in-
cluding the five volumes, “Great German Com-
posers," “Great Italian and French Composers,"
“Great Singers,” First and Second Series, and
“Great Violinists and Pianists,” has led to the
revision of the volumes. Nearly twenty years
have passed since the first—"The Great German
Composers - was written, and many changes
liave taken place since then. The attempt has
been made, so far as is consistent with the limits
of space, to bring these little books down to
date, revising the articles where it was needed,
and making addenda in sketches of living or
very recently living composers and artists, who
may be said to represent most fully the achieve-
ments and tendencies of contemporary music.
iv
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.
It need scarcely be said that the obligations of
limit have, even in this revision, excluded sev-
eral subjects fully worthy of association with
the others.
NOT E.
The title of this little book may be mislead-
ing to some of its readers, in its failure to in
clude sketches of many eminent artists 'well
worthy to be classed under such a head. There
has been no attempt to cover the immense field
of executive music, but only to call attention to
the lives of those musical celebrities who are
universally recognized as occupying the most
exalted places in the arts of violin and piano-
forte playing; who stand forth as landmarks in
the history of music. To do more than this,
except in a merely encyclopedic fashion, within
the allotted space, would have been impossible.
The same necessity of limits has also compelled
the writer to exclude consideration of the ca-
reers of noted living performers; as it was
thought best that discrimination should be in
favor of those great artists whose careers have
been completely rounded and finished.
An exception to the above will be noted in
vi
NOTE.
the case of Franz Liszt; but, aside from the fact
that this greatest of piano-forte virtuosos, though
living, bas practically retired from the field of
art, to omit him from such a volume as this
would be an unpardonable omission. In con-
nection with the personal lives of the artists
sketched in this volume, the attempt has been
made, in a general, though necessarily imper-
fect, manner, to trace the gradual development
of the art of playing from its cruder begin-
nings to the splendid. virtuosoism of the pres-
ent time. The sources from which facts have
been drawn are various, and, it is believed,
trustworthy, including French, German, and
English authorities, in some cases the personal
reminiscences of the artists themselves.
To the present edition have been added
sketches of Joachim, the great modern repre-
sentative violinist, and of Rubinstein, Bülow,
and Paderewski among recent pianists. Por-
traits greatly increase the attractions of the
volume.
CONTENTS.
THE VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
PAGE
The Ancestry of the Violin.—The Origin of the Cremona
School of Violin-Making.—The Amatis and Stradiuarii.
-Extraordinary Art Activity of Italy at this period. —
Antonius Stradiuarius and Joseph Guarnerius. -Some-
thing about the Lives of the Two Greatest Violin-Mak-
ers of the World.-Corelli, tlie First Great Violinist.-His
Contemporaries and Associates.-Anecdotes of his Ca-
reer.—Corelli's Pupil, Geminiani.-Philidor, the Com-
poser, Violinist, and Chess-Player.–Giuseppe Tartini.
-Becomes an Outcast from his Family on Account of
his Love of Music.--Anecdote of the Violinist Vera-
cini.-Tartini's Scientific Discoveries in Music. - His AC-
count of the Origin of the Devil's Trill.”—Tartini's
Pupils
9
VIOTTI.
Viotti, the Connecting Link between the Early and Modern
Violin Schools.-His Immense Superiority over his Con-
temporaries and Predecessors.-Other Violinists of his
Time, Giornowick and Boccherini. -Viotti's Early Years.
-His Arrival in Paris, and the Sensation he made.-
His Reception by the Court. Viotti's Personal Pride and
Dignity.-His Rebuke to Princely Impertinence.-The
Musical Circles of Paris.- Viotti's Last Public Concert
in Paris.—He suddenly departs for London.-Becomes
Director of the King's Theatre.—Is compelled to leave
the Country as a Suspected Revolutionist.-His Return
to England, and Metamorphosis into ? Vintner.--Thọ
viii
CONTENTS.
PAGE
French Singer, Garat, finds him out in his London Ob-
scurity.--Anecdote of Viotti's Dinner Party.—He quits
the Wine Trade for his own Profession.-Is made Direc-
tor of the Paris Grand Opéra.—Letter from Rossini.—
Viotti's Account of the “ Ranz des Vaches." —Anecdotes
of the Great Violinist. Dies in London in 1824.-—Viotti's
Place as a Violinist, and Style of Playing.–The Tourté
Bow first invented during his Time.-An Indispensable
Factor in Great Playing on the Violin.-Viotti's Pupils,
and his Influence on the Musical Art
36
LUDWIG SPOHR.
Birth and Early Life of the Violinist Spobr.--He is pre-
sented with his First Violin at six.-The French Emigré
Dufour uses his Influence with Dr. Spohr, Sr., to have
the Boy devoted to a Musical Carecr.–Goes to Bruns-
wick for fulier Musical Instruction.-Spolır is appointed
Kammer-musicus at the Ducal Court.He enters under
the Tuition of and makes a Tour with the Violin Vir-
tuoso Eck.-Incidents of the Russian Journey and his
Return.—Concert Tour in Germany.—Loses his Fine
Guarnerius Violin.-Is appointed Director of the Orches-
tra at Gotha.—He marries Dorette Schiedler, the Brilliant
Harpist.-Spohr's Stratagem to be present at the Erfurt
Musical Celebration given by Napoleon in Honor of the
Allied Sovereigns.-Becomes Director of Opera in Vi-
enna.-Incidents of his Life and Production of Various
Works. First Visit to England.—He is made Director
of the Cassel Court Oratorios.-He is retired with a Pen-
Bion.-Closing Years of his Life.- His Place as Composer
and Executant
58
NICOLO PAGANINI.
The Birth of the Greatest of Violinists.-His Mother's Dream.
-Extraordinary Character and Genius.--Heine's Descrip-
tion of his playing.-Leigh Ilunt on Paganini.-Supersti-
CONTENTS.
ix
PAGE
tious Rumors current during his Life.-
He is believed to
be a Demoniac.—His Strange Appearance. -Early Train-
ing and Surroundings.—Anecdotes of his Youth.–Paga-
nini's Youthful Dissipations.-His Passion for Gambling.
--He acquires his Wonderful Guarnerius Violin.-His
Reform from the Gaming-table.-Indefatigable Practice
and Work as a Young Artist.—Paganini as a Preux
Chevalier.—His Powerful Attraction for Women.-Epi-
sode with a Lady of Rank.-Anecdotes of his Early
Italian Concertizing.–The Imbroglio at Ferrara.—The
Frail Health of Paganini.- Wonderful Success at Milan
whore he first plays One of the Greatest of his Compo-
sitions, “ Le Streghe." —Duel with Lafont.--Incidents
and Anecdotes.-His First Visit to Germany. -Great
Enthusiasm of his Audiences.-Experiences at Vienna,
Berlin, and other German Cities.—Description of Paga-
nini, in Paris, by Castil-Blaze and Fetis.--His English
Reception and the Impression made.- Opinions of the
Critics.-Paganini not pleased with England. -Settles in
Paris for Two Years, and becomes the Great Musical Lion.
-Simplicity and Amiability of Nature.—Magnificent
Generosity to Hector Berlioz.—The Great Fortune made
by Paganini.—His Beautiful Country Seat near Parına.
--An Unfortunate Speculation in Paris.—The Utter Fail-
ure of his Health.-His Death at Nice.-Characteristics
and Anecdotes.—Interesting Circumstances of his Last
Moments.—The Peculiar Genius of Paganini, and his
Influence on Art
89
1
DE BÉRIOT.
De Bériot's High Place in the Art of the Violin and Violin
Music.—The Scion of an Impoverished Noble Family.-
Early Education and Musical Training.–He seeks the
Advice of Viotti in Paris. -Becomes a Pupil of Robrechts
and Baillot successively.-De Bériot finishes and per-
fects his Stylc on his own Model.-Grcat Success in
England.-Artistic Travels in Europe.-Becomes Soloist,
X
CONTENTS.
PAGE
to the King of the Netherlands.—He meets Malibran,
the Great Cantatrice, in Paris.—Peculiar Circumstances
which drew the Couple toward Each Other.—They form
a Connection which only ends with Malibran's Life.-
Sketch of Malibran and her Family.—The Various
Artistic Journeys of Malibran and De Bériot.—Their
Marriage and Mine. de Bériot's Death.-De Bériot be-
comes Professor in the Brussels Conservatoire. — His
Later Life in Brussels.-His Son Charles Malibran de
Bériot.-The Character of De Bériot as Composer and
Player
132
OLE BULL.
The Birth and Early Life of Ole Bull at Bergen, Norway.-
His Faniily and Connections.--Surroundings of his Boy-
hood.—Early Display of liis Musical Passion.—Learns
the Violin without Aid.—Takes Lessons from an Old
Musical Professor, and soon surpasses his Master.—An-
ecdotes of his Boyhood.—His Father's Opposition to
Music as a Profession.—Competes for Admittance to the
University at Christiania.—Is consoled for Failure by a
Learned Professor:—“Better be a Fiddler than a Preach-
er." —Becomes Conductor of the Philharmonic Society at
Bergen.-His first Musical Journey.--Sccs Spohr.–
Fights a Duel.–Visit to Paris.--He is reduced to Great
Pecuniary Straits.—Strange Adventure with Vidocq, the
Great Detective.—First Appearance in Concert in Paris.
-Romantic Adventure leading to Acquaintance.—First
Appearance in Italy. --Takes the Place of Dc Bériot by
Great Good Luck.--Ole Bull is most enthusiastically re-
ceived. - Extended Concert Tour in Italy and France.
His Début and Success in England. -One Hundred aud
Eighty Concerts in Six Months.-Olc Bull's Gaspar di
Salo Violin, and the Circunstances under which he ac-
quired it.-His Answer to the King of Sweden.-First
Visit and Great Success in America in 1843.–Attempt
to establish a National Theatre --The Norwegian Colony
CONTENTS.
xi
PAGE
in Pennsylvania.—Latter years of Ole Bull.-His Per-
sonal Appearance.- Art Characteristics
150
JOACHIM.
The Most Serious and Sincere of Artists.-The Hater of
Musical Claptrap.-Famous while yet a Boy.-Life in
Berlin.-His Annual Visits to London.--Essential Quali-
ties and Ideals us a Violinist. -- Joachim's Composi-
tions
177
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
I
The Genealogy of the Piano-forte.-The Harpsichord its
Immediate Predecessor.-Supposed Invention of the Pi-
ano-forte.--Silbermann the First Maker.-Anecdote of
Frederick the Great.-The Piano-forte only slowly makes
its Way as against the Clavichord and Harpsichord.
Emanuel Bach, the First Composer of Sonatas for the
Piano-forte.--His Views of playing on the New Instru-
ment.-Haydn and Mozart as Players.-Muzio Clementi,
the Earliest Virtuoso, strictly speaking, as a Pianist.-
Born in Rome in 1752.-Scion of an Artistic Family.-
First Musical Training.-Rapid Development of his Tal-
ents.-Composes Contrapuntal Works at the Age of
Fourteen.- Early Studies of the Organ and Harpsichord.
Goes to England to complete his Studies.-Creates an
Unequaled Furore in London.-John Christian Bach's
Opinion of Clementi. Clementi's Musical Tour.-His
Duel with Mozart before the Emperor.—Tenor of Cle-
menti's Life in England. --Clementi's Pupils. — Trip to
St. Petersburg.-Spohrs Inecdote of Him.-Mercantile
and Manufacturing Interest in the Piano as Partner of
Collard.—The Players and Composers trained under
Clementi.- His Composition.—Status as a Player.-Char-
acter and Influence as an Artist.-Development of the
Technique of the Piano, culminating in Clementi 181
1 1
xji
CONTENTS.
MOSOGELES.
PAGE
Clementi and Mozart as Points of Departure in Piano-forte
Playing.-Moscheles the most Brilliant Climax reached
by the Viennese School.—His Child Life at Prague.-Ex-
traordinary Precocity.- Goes to Vienna as the Pupil of
Salieri and Albrechtsburger.—Acquaintance with Bee-
thoven.—Moscheles is honored with a Commission to
make a Piano Transcription of Beethoven's “Fidelio.”—
His Intercourse with the Great Man.—Concert Tour.---
Arrival in Paris.--The Artistic Circlc into which he is
received.—Pictures of Art-Life in Paris.- London and
its Musical Celebrities.—Career as a Wandering Virtuoso.
-Felix Mendelssohn becomes his Pupil.-- The Mendel-
ssohn Family.--Moscheles's Marriage to a Hamburg
Lady.-Settles in London.-His Life as Teacher, Player,
and Composer.--Eminent Place taken by Moscheles
among the Musicians of his Age.- His Efforts soothe
the Sufferings of Beethoven's Death-bed.–Friendship
for Mendelssohu.--Moscheles becomes connected with
the Leipzig Conservatorium. --- Death in 1870.— Mo-
scheles as Pianist and Composer.—Sympathy with the
Old as against the New School of the Piano.-His Pow-
erful Influence on the Musical Culture and Tendencies
of his Age
200
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
Robert Schumann's Place as a National Composer.—Pe-
culiar Greatness as a Piano-forte Composer.—Born at
Zwickau in 1810.—His Father's Aversion to his Musical
Studies.-Becomes a Student of Jurisprudence in Leip-
zig.- Makes the Acquaintance of Clara Wieck.--Tedium
of his Law Studies.- Vacation Tour to Italy.-Death of
his Father, and Consent of his Mother to Schumano adopt-
ing the Profession of Music.—Becomes Wieck's Pupil.
-Injury to his Hand which prevents all Possibilities of
his becoming a Great Performer,— Devotes himself to
CONTENTS.
xiii
PAGE
Composition.--The Child, Clara Wieck. Remarkable
Genius as a Player. Her Early Training.–Paganini's
Delight in her Genius.—Clara Wieck's Concert Tours.
Schumann falls deeply in Love with her, and Wieck's
Opposition.--His Allusions to Clara in the “ Neue Zeit-
schrift."-Schumann at Vienna.--His Compositions at
first Unpopular, though played by Clara Wieck and
Liszt.-Schumann's Labors as a Critic.—He marries Clara
in 1840.-- His Song Period inspired by his Wife.-Tour
to Russia, and Brilliant Reception given to the Artist
Pair.--The “Neue Zeitschrift” and its Mission. The
Davidsbund.-Peculiar Style of Schumann's Writing.
- He moves to Dresden.- Active Production in Orches-
tral Composition.- Artistic Tour in Holland. He is
seized with Brain Disease. -Characteristics as a Man, as
an Artist, and as a Philosopher:-- Mme. Schumann as
her Husband's Interpreter.--Chopin a Colaborer with
Schumann.--Schumann on Chopin again.—Chopin's Na-
tivity.—Exclusively a Piano-forte Composer.-His Genre
as Pianist and Composer.—A version to Concert-giving.
-Parisian Associations.--New Style of Technique de-
manded by his Works.-Unique Treatment of the Instru-
ment.-Characteristics of Chopin's Compositions.
220
TAALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
Thalberg one of the Greatest of Executants.-Rather a Man of
Remarkable Talents than of Genius.--Moscheles's De-
scription of him.-The Illegitimate Son of an Austrian
Prince.-Early Introduction to Musical Society in Lon-
don and Vienna.-Beginning of his Career as a Virtu-
oso.—The Brilliancy of his Career.—Is appointed Court
Pianist to the Emperor of Austria.--His Marriage. —
Visits to America. Thalberg's Artistic Idiosyncrasy.-
Robert Schumann on his Playing.--His Appearance
and Manner.--Characterization by George William Cur-
tis.—Thalberg's Style and Worth as an Artist.-His
Piano-forte Method, and Place as a Composer for the
xiy
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Piano.-Gottschalk's Birth and Early Years.--He is
sent to Paris for Instruction. Successful Début and
Public Concerts in Paris and Tour through the French
Cities.--Friendship with Berlioz.-Concert Tour to Spain.
-Romantic Experiences.-Berlioz on Gottschalk.-Re-
ception of Gottschalk in America.-Criticism of his
Style.—Remarkable Success of his Concerts.-His Visit
to the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America.-
Protracted Absence.-Gottschalk on Life in the Trop-
ics.-Return to the United States.--Three Brilliant Mu-
sical Years.-Departure for South America.—Trium-
phant Procession through the Spanish-American Cities.
-Death at Rio Janeiro.-Notes on Gottschalk as Man
and Artist
253
FRANZ LISZT.
The Spoiled Favorite of Fortune.—His Inherited Genius.-
Birth and Early Training.–First Appearance in Con-
cert.—Adam Liszt and his son in Paris.--Sensation
made by the Boy's Playing.–His Morbid Religious Suf-
ferings.-Franz Liszt thrown on his own Resources.-
The Artistic Circle in Paris.—Liszt in the Ranks of Ro-
manticism. His Friends and Associates.-Mme. D'A-
goult and her Connection with Franz Liszt.--He retires
to Geneva.—Is recalled to Paris by the Thalberg Furore.
-Rivalry between the Artists and their Factions.
He commences his Career as Traveling Virtuoso.—The
Blaze of Enthusiasm throughout Europe.-Schumann
on Liszt as Man and Artist.--He ranks the Hungarian
Virtuoso as the Superior of Thalberg.-Liszt's Generosity
to his own Countrymen.—The Honors paid to him in
Pesth.-Incidents of his Musical Wanderings.-He loses
the Proceeds of Three Hundred Concerts.-Contributes
to the Completion of the Cologne Cathedral.-His Con-
nection with the Beethoven Statue at Bonn, and the
Celebration of the Unveiling.–Chorley on Liszt.—Ber-
lioz and Liszt.-Character of the Enthusiasm called out
CONTENTS.
XV
1
:
PAGE
by Liszt as an Artist.—Remarkable Personality as a
Man.-Berlioz characterizes the Great Virtuoso in a Let-
ter.—Liszt ceases his Life as a Virtuoso, and becomes
Chapel-Master and Court Conductor at Weimar.-
Avowed Belief in the New School of Music, and Pro-
duction of Works of this School.-Wagner's Testimony
to Liszt's Assistance.—Liszt's Resignation of his Wei-
mar Post after Ten Years.- His Subsequent Life.--He ,
takes Holy Orders.—Liszt as a Virtuoso and Composer.-
Entitled to be placed among the niost Remarkable Men
of his Age
291
RUBINSTEIN.
**
The Striking Personality of the Man.-His Early Training.
Self-support and Independence. Court Pianist.-
Founding of the Great Russian Conservatory. - The
American Tour.—The Rival of Liszt.—Characteristics
as a Player.--Estimate of Rubinstein as a Composer
331
s
BÜLOW.
A King of Interpreters. — His Peculiar Equipment as a
Player.—Bred to the Law, he becomes a Pianist.-As-
sociation with Liszt and Wagner.—Enthusiastic Propa-
ganda of the Music of the Future.-Bülow in the United
States.--Individual Traits.—His Style and Theory of
the Art of Playing
342
PADEREWSKI.
Transcendent Success of the Polish Artist. — Fame won
through his American Laurels.—Early Education. His
Attempts in Composition.-Secret of his Fascination as
Player.—The Most Genial and Sympathetic of Execu-
tants
348
.
PORTRAITS.
FACING
PAGE
Franz Liszt .
Frontispiece
Nicolo Paganini.
89
.
Ole Bull
150
331
Anton Gregorievitch Rubinstein
Ignace Jan Paderewski
348
2
THE
GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
The Ancestry of the Violin.-- The Origin of the Cremona School
of Violin-Making.--The Amatis and Stradiuarii.-Extraor-
dinary Art Activity of Italy at this period.-Antonius Stra-
diuarius and Joseph Guarnerius.—Something about the Lives
of the Two Greatest Violin-Makers of the World.--Corelli, the
First Great Violinist.-His Contemporaries and Associates.-
Anecdotes of his Career.—Corelli's Pupil, Geminiani.--Pbili-
dor, the Composer, Violinist, and Chess- Player.–Giuseppe
Tartini.—Becomes an Outcast from his Family on Account of
his Love of Music. --Anecdote of the Violinist Veracini.-
Tartini's Scientific Discoveries in Music.—His Account of the
Origin of the “Devil's Trill.”Tartini's Pupils.
I.
THE ancestry of the violin, considering this
as the type of stringed instruments played with
a bow, goes back to the earliest antiquity; and
innumerable passages might be quoted from
the Oriental and classical writers illustrating the
important part taken by the forefathers of
10
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
the modern violin in feast, festival, and religious
ceremonial, in the fiery delights of battle, and
the more dulcet enjoyments of peace.
But it
was not till the fifteenth century, in Italy, that
the art of making instruments of the viol class
began to reach toward that high perfection which
it speedily attained. The long list of honored
names connected with the development of art in
the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centu-
ries is a mighty roll-call, and among these the
names of the great violin-makers, beginning with
Gaspard de Salo, of Brescia, who first raised a
rude craft to an art, are worthy of being included.
From Brescia came the masters who established
the Cremona school, a name not only immortal
in the history of music, but full of vital signifi-
cance ; for it was not till the violin was perfected,
and a distinct school of violin-playing founded,
that the creation of the symphony, the highest
form of music, became possible.
The violin-makers of Cremona came, as we
have said, from Brescia, beginning with the Ama-
tis. Though it does not lie within the province
of this work to discuss in any special or techni-
cal sense the history of violin-making, something
concerning the greatest of the Cremona masters
will be found both interesting and valuable as
preliminary to the sketches of the great players
which make up the substance of the volume.
The Amatis, who established the violin-mak-
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
11
ing art at Cremona, successively improved, each
member of the class stealing a march on his pred-
ecessor, until the peerless masters of the art,
Antonius Stradiuarius and Joseph Guarnerius del
Jesú, advanced far beyond the rivalry of their
contemporaries and successors. The pupils of the
Amatis, Stradiuarius, and Guarnerius settled in
Milan, Florence, and other cities, which also be-
came centers of violin-making, but never to an
extent which lessened the preëminence of the
great Cremona makers. There was one signifi-
cant peculiarity of all the leading artists of this
violin-making epoch: each one as a pupil never
contented himself with making copies of his mas-
ter's work, but strove incessantly to strike out
something in his work which should be an out-
come of his own genius, knowledge, and investi-
gation. It was essentially a creative age.
Let us glance briefly at the artistic activity
of the times when the violin-making craft leaped
so swiftly and surely to perfection. If we turn
to the days of Gaspard di Salo, Morelli, Magini,
and the Amatis, we find that when they were
sending forth their fiddles, Raphael, Leonardo da
Vinci, Titian, and Tintoretto were busily painting
their great canvases.
While Antonius Stradi-
uarius and Joseph Guarnerius were occupied with
the noble instruments which have immortalized
their names, Canaletto was painting his Vene-
tian squares and canals, Giorgio was superintend-
12
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ing the manufacture of his inimitable maiolica,
and the Venetians were blowing glass of marvel-
ous beauty and form. In the musical world,
Corelli was writing his gigues and sarabandes,
Geminiani composing his first instruction book
for the violin, and Tartini dreaming out his
“Devil's Trill”; and while Guadognini (a pu-
pil of Antonius Stradiuarius), with the stars of
lesser magnitude, were exercising their calling,
Viotti, the originator of the school of modern
violin-playing, was beginning to write his con-
certos, and Boccherini laying the foundation of
chamber music.
Such was the flourishing state of Italian art
during the great Cremona period, which opened
up a mine of artistic wealth for succeeding gener-
ations. It is a curious fact that not only the
violin but violin music was the creature of the
most luxurious period of art; for, in that golden
age of the creative imagination, musicians con-
temporary with the great violin-makers were writ-
ing music destined to be better understood and
appreciated when the violins then made should
have reached their maturity.
There can be no doubt that the conditions
were all highly favorable to the manufacture of
great instruments.
There were many composers
of genius and numerous orchestras scattered over
Italy, Germany, and France, and there must have
been a demand for bow instruments of a high
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
13
order. In the sixteenth century, Palestrina and
Zarlino were writing grand church music, in
which violins bore an important part. In the
seventeenth, lived Stradella, Lotti, Buononcini,
Lulli, and Corelli. In the eighteenth, when vio-
lin-making was at its zenith, there were such
names among the Italians as Scarlatti, Geminiani,
Vivaldi, Locatelli, Boccherini, Tartini, Piccini,
Viotti, and Nardini; while in France it was the
epoch of Lecler and Gravinies, composers of vio-
lin music of the highest class.
Under the stimu-
lus of such a general art cultus the makers of the
violin must have enjoyed large patronage, and
the more eminent artists have received highly
remunerative prices for their labors, and, correla-
tive to this practical success, a powerful stimulus
toward perfecting the design and workmanship
of their instruments. These plain artisans lived
quiet and simple lives, but they bent their whole
souls to the work, and belonged to the class of
minds of which Carlyle speaks : “In a word, they
willed one thing to which all other things were
made subordinate and subservient, and therefore
they accomplished it. The wedge will rend rocks,
but its edge must be sharp and single; if it be
double, the wedge is bruised in pieces and will
rend nothing.”
II.
So much said concerning the general condi-
tions under which the craft of violin-making
14
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
reached such splendid excellence, the attention
of the reader is invited to the greatest masters of
the Cremona school.
“The instrument on which he played
Was in Cremona's workshops made,
By a great master of the past,
Ere yet was lost the art divine;
Fashioned of maple and of pine,
That in Tyrolean forests vast
Had rocked and wrestled with the blast.
"Exquisite was it in design,
A marvel of the lutist's art,
Perfect in each minutest part;
And in its bollow chamber thus
The maker from whose hand it came
Had written his unrivaled name,
'Antonius Stradivarius.""
The great artist whose work is thus made the
subject of Longfellow's verse was born at Cre-
mona in 1644.
His renown is beyond that of all others, and
his praise has been sounded by poet, artist, and
musician. He has received the homage of two
centuries, and his name is as little likely to be de-
throned from its special place as that of Shake-
speare or Homer. Though many interesting par-
ticulars are known concerning his life, all attempt
has failed to obtain any connected record of the
principal events of his career. Perhaps there is
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
15
no need, for there is ample reason to believe that
Antonius Stradiuarius lived a quiet, uncheckered,
monotonous existence, absorbed in his labor of
making violins, and caring for nothing in the
outside world which did not touch his all-beloved
art. Without haste and without rest, he labored
for the perfection of the violin. To him the
world was a mere workshop. The fierce Italian
sun beat down and made Cremona like an oven,
but it was good to dry the wood for violins.
On the slopes of the hills grew grand forests of
maple, pine, and willow, but he cared nothing for
forest or hillside except as they grew good wood
for violins. The vineyards yielded rich wine, but,
after all, the main use of the grape was that it fur-
nished the spirit wherewith to compound varnish.
The sheep, ox, and horse were good for food, but
still more important because from them came
the hair of the bow, the violin strings, and the
glue which held the pieces together. It was
through this single-eyed devotion to his life-work
that one great maker was enabled to gather up all
the perfections of his predecessors, and stand out
for all time as the flower of the Cremonese school
and the master of the world. George Eliot, in
her poem, “The Stradivari,” probably pictures
his life accurately :
“That plain white-aproned man, who stood at work,
Patient and accurate full fourscore years,
Cherished his sight and touch by temperance;
16
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
And since keen sense is love of perfectness,
Made perfect violins, the needed paths
For inspiration and high mastery."
M. Fetis, in his notice of the greatest of violin
makers, summarizes his life very briefly. He tells
us the life of Antonius Stradiuarius was as tran-
quil as his calling was peaceful. The year 1702
alone must have caused him some disquiet, when
during the war the city of Cremona was taken by
Marshal Villeroy, on the Imperialist side, retaken
by Prince Eugene, and finally taken a third time
by the French. That must have been a parlous
time for the master of that wonderful workshop
whence proceeded the world's masterpieces, though
we may almost fancy the absorbed master, like
Archimedes when the Romans took Syracuse, so
intent on his labor that he hardly heard the din
and roar of battle, till some rude soldier disturbed
the serene atmosphere of the room littered with
shavings and strewn with the tools of a peace-
ful craft.
Polledro, not many years ago first violin at
the Chapel Royal of Turin, who died at a very
advanced age, declared that his master had known
Stradiuarius, and that he was fond of talking
about him. He was, he said, tall and thin, with
a bald head fringed with silvery hair, covered with
a cap of white wool in the winter and of cotton
in the summer. He wore over his clothes an
apron of white leather when he worked, and, as
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
14
he was always working, his costume never varied.
He had acquired what was regarded as wealth in
those days, for the people of Cremona were accus-
tomed to say
“ As rich as Stradiuarius.” The
house he occupied is still standing in the Piazza
Roma, and is probably the principal place of in-
terest in the old city to the tourists who drift
thitherward. The simple-minded Cremonese have
scarcely a conception to-day of the veneration
with which their ancient townsman is regarded
by the musical connoisseurs of the world. It was
with the greatest difficulty that they were per-
suaded a few years ago, by the efforts of Italian
and French musicians, to name one street Stradi-
uarius, and another Amati. Nicholas Amati, the
greatest maker of his family, was the instructor
of Antonius Stradiuarius, and during the early
period of the latter artist the instruments could
hardly be distinguished from those of Amati.
But, in after-years, he struck out boldly in an ori-
ginal line of his own, and made violins which,
without losing the exquisite sweetness of the
Amati instruments, possessed far more robustness
and volume of tone, reaching, indeed, a combina-
tion of excellences which have placed his name
high above all others. It may be remarked of all
the Cremona violins of the best period, whether
Amati, Stradivarius, Guarnerius, or Steiner, that
they are marked no less by their perfect beauty
and delicacy of workmanship than by their charm
18
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
of tone. These zealous artisans were not con-
tent to imprison the soul of Ariel in other form
than the lines and curves of ideal grace, exqui-
sitely marked woods, and varnish as of liquid
gold. This external beauty is uniformly charac-
teristic of the Cremona violins, though shape
varies in some degree with each maker. Of the
Stradiuarius violins it may be said, before quitting
the consideration of this maker, that they have
fetched in latter years from one thousand to five
thousand dollars. The sons and grandsons of
Antonius were also violin-makers of high repute,
though inferior to the chief of the family.
The name of Joseph Guarnerius del Jesú is
only less in estimation than that of Antonius
Stradiuarius, of whom it is believed by many he
was a pupil or apprentice, though of this there is
no proof. Both his uncle Andreas and his cousin
Joseph were distinguished violin-makers, but the
Guarnerius patronymic has now its chiefest glory
from that member known as 66 del Jesú.” This
great artist in fiddle-making was born at Cremona
in the year 1683, and died in 1745. He worked in
his native place till the day of his death, but in
his latter years Joseph del Jesú became dissipated,
and his instruments fell off somewhat in excel-
lence of quality and workmanship. But his chef
d'oeuvres yield only to those of the great Stradi-
uarius in the estimation of connoisseurs. Many
of the Guarnerius violins, it is said, were made in
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
19
prison, where the artist was confined for debt,
with inferior tools and material surreptitiously
obtained for him by the jailer's daughter, who
was in love with the handsome captive. These
fruits of his skill were less beautiful in workman-
ship, though marked by wonderful sweetness and
power of tone. Mr. Charles Reade, a great violin
amateur as well as a novelist, says of these “pris-
on” fiddles, referring to the comical grotesque-
ness of their form: “Such is the force of genius,
that I believe in our secret hearts we love these
impudent fiddles best, they are so full of chic.”
Paganini's favorite was a Guarnerius del Jesú,
though he had no less than seven instruments of
the greatest Cremona masters. Spohr, the cele-
brated violinist and composer, offered to exchange
his Strad, one of the finest in the world, for a
Guarnerius, in the possession of Mr. Mawkes, an
English musician.
Carlo Bergonzi, the pupil of Antonius Stradi-
uarius, was another of the great Cremona makers,
and his best violins have commanded extraor-
dinary prices. He followed the model of his mas-
ter closely, and some of his instruments can
hardly be distinguished in workmanship and tone
from genuine Strads. Something might be said,
too, of Jacob Steiner, who, though a German
(born about 1620), got the inspiration for his in-
struments of the best period so directly from Cre-
mona that he ought perhaps to be classified with
20
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
the violin-makers of this school. His famous
violins, known as the Elector Steiners, were made
under peculiar circumstances. Almost heart-
broken by the death of his wife, he retired to a
Benedictine monastery with the purpose of taking
holy orders. But the art-passion of his life was
too strong, and he made in his cloister-prison
twelve instruments, on which he lavished the
most jealous care and attention.
These were
presented to the twelve Electors of Germany, and
their extraordinary merit has caused them to rank
high among the great violins of the world. A
volume might be easily compiled of anecdotes
concerning violins and violin-makers. The vicis-
situdes and changes of ownership through which
many celebrated instruments have passed are full
of romantic interest. Each instrument of the
greatest makers has a pedigree, as well authen-
ticated as those of the great masterpieces of paint-
ing, though there have been instances where a
Strad or a Guarnerius has been picked up by some
strange accident for a mere trifle at an auction.
There have been many imitations of the genuine
Cremonas palmed off, too, on the unwary at a
high price, but the connoisseur rarely fails to
identify the great violins almost instantly. For,
,
aside from their magical beauty of tone, they are
made with the greatest beauty of form, color, and
general detail. So much has been said concerning
the greatest violin-makers, in view of the fact
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
21
that coincident with the growth of a great school
of art-manufacture in violins there also sprang
up a grand school of violin-playing ; for, indeed,
the one could hardly have existed without the
other.
III.
THE first great performer on the violin whose
career had any special significance, in its connec-
tion with the modern world of musical art, was
Archangelo Corelli, who was born at Fusignano,
in the territory of Bologna, in the year 1653. Co-
relli's compositions are recognized to-day as types
of musical purity and freshness, and the great
number of distinguished pupils who graduated
from his teaching relate him closely with all the
distinguished violinists even down to the present
day. In Corelli's younger days the church had a
stronger claim on musicians than the theatre or
concert-room. So we find him getting his earli-
est instruction from the Capuchin Simonelli, who
devoted himself to the ecclesiastical style. The
pupil, however, yielded to an irresistible instinct,
and soon put himself under the care of a clever
and skillful teacher, the well-known Bassani.
Under this tuition the young musician made
rapid advancement, for he labored incessantly in
the practice of his instrument.
At the age of
twenty Corelli followed that natural bent which
carried him to Paris, then, as now, a great art
capital ; and we are told, on the authority of Fetis,
22
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
that the composer Lulli became so jealous of his
extraordinary skill that he obtained a royal man-
date ordering Corelli to quit Paris, on pain of the
Bastille.
In 1680 he paid a visit to Germany, and was
specially well received, and was so universally ad-
mired, that he with difficulty escaped the impor-
tunate invitations to settle at various courts as
chief musician. After a three years' absence
from his native land he returned and published
his first sonatas. The result of his assiduous la-
bor was that his fame as a violinist had spread all
over Europe, and pupils came from distant lands
to profit by his instruction. We are told of his
style as a solo player that it was learned and ele-
gant, the tone firm and even, that his playing was
frequently impressed with feeling, but that during
performance "his countenance was distorted, his
eyes red as fire, and his eyeballs rolled as if he
were in agony.
For about eighteen years Co-
relli was domiciled at Rome, under the patronage
of Cardinal Ottoboni. As leader of the orchestra
at the opera, he introduced many reforms, among
them that of perfect uniformity of bowing. By
the violin sonatas composed during this period, it
is claimed that Corelli laid the foundation for the
art of violin-playing, though it is probable that
he profited largely by those that went before him.
It was at the house of Cardinal Ottoboni that
Corelli met Handel, when the violent temper of
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
23
the latter did not hesitate to show itself. Corelli
was playing a sonata, when the imperious young
German snatched the violin from his hand, to
show the greatest virtuoso of the age how to play
the music. Corelli, though very amiable in tem-
per, knew how to make himself respected. At
one of the private concerts at Cardinal Ottoboni's,
he observed his host and others talking during
his playing. He laid his violin down and joined
the audience, saying he feared his music might
interrupt the conversation.
In 1908, according to Dubourg, Corelli ac-
cepted a royal invitation from Naples, and took
with him his second violin, Matteo, and a violon-
cellist, in case he should not be well accompanied
by the Neapolitan orchestra. He had no sooner
arrived than he was asked to play some of his
concertos before the king. This he refused, as
the whole of his orchestra was not with him, and
there was no time for a rehearsal. However, he
soon found that the Neapolitan musicians played
the orchestral parts of his concertos as well as his
own accompanists did after some practice ; for,
having at length consented to play the first of his
concertos before the court, the accompaniment
was so good that Corelli is said to have exclaimed
to Matteo: “Si suona a Napoli !"_“They do
play at Naples !” This performance being quite
successful, he was presented to the king, who af-
terward requested him to perform one of his sona
3
24
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
tas; but his Majesty found the adagio "so long
and so dry that he got up and left the room (!), to
the great mortification of the eminent virtuoso."
As the king had commanded the piece, the least
he could have done would have been to have wait-
ed till it was finished. If they play at Naples,
they are not very polite there," poor Corelli must
have thought! Another unfortunate mishap also
occurred to him there, if we are to believe the
dictum of Geminiani, one of Corelli's pupils, who
had preceded him at Naples. It would appear
that he was appointed to lead a composition of
Scarlatti's, and on arriving at an air in C minor
he led off in C major, which mistake he twice re-
peated, till Scarlatti came on the stage and showed
him the difference. This anecdote, however, is
so intrinsically improbable that it must be taken
with several “grains of salt.” In 1712 Corelli's
concertos were beautifully engraved at Amster-
dam, but the composer only survived the publi-
cation a few weeks. A beautiful statue, bearing
the inscription "Corelli princeps musicorum,” was
erected to his memory, adjacent that honoring
the memory of Raffaelle in the Pantheon. Не
accumulated a considerable fortune, and left a
valuable collection of pictures. The solos of Co-
relli have been adopted as valuable studies by the
most eminent modern players and teachers.
Francesco Geminiani was the most remarkable
of Corelli's pupils. Born at Lucca in 1680, he
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
25
finished his studies under Corelli at Rome, and
spent several years with great musical éclat at
Naples. In 1714 he went to England, in which
country he spent many years.
His execution was
of great excellence, but his compositions only
achieved temporary favor. His life is said to
have been full of romance and incident. Gemi-
niani's connection with Handel has a special mu-
sical interest. The king, who arrived in England
in September, 1714, and was crowned at West-
minster a month later, was irritated with Handel
for having left Germany, where he held the posi-
tion of chapel-master to George, when Elector of
Brunswick, and still more so by his having com-
posed a Te Deum on the Peace of Utrecht, which
was not favorably regarded by the Protestant
princes of Germany. Baron Kilmanseck, a Han-
overian, and a great admirer of Handel, under-
took to bring them together again. Being in-
formed that the king intended to picnic on the
Thames, he requested the composer to write some-
thing for the occasion. Thereupon Handel wrote
the twenty-five little concerted pieces known un-
der the title of " Water Music.' They were exe-
cuted in a barge which followed the royal boat.
The orchestra consisted of four violins, one tenor,
one violoncello, one double-bass, two hautboys,
two bassoons, two French horns, two flageolets,
one flute, and one trumpet. The king soon rec-
ognized the author of the music, and his resent-
26
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ment against Handel began to soften. Shortly
after this Geminiani was requested to play some
sonatas of his own composition in the king's pri-
vate cabinet ; but, fearing that they would lose
much of their effect if they were accompanied in
an inferior manner, he expressed the desire that
Handel should play the accompaniments. Baron
Kilmanseck carried the request to the king, and
supported it strongly. The result was that peace
was made, and an extra pension of two hundred
pounds per annum settled upon Handel. Gemi-
niani, after thirty-five years spent in England,
went to Paris for five years, where he was most
heartily welcomed by the musical world, but re-
turned across the Channel again to spend his
latter years in Dublin. It was here that Mat-
thew Dubourg, whose book on “ The Violin and
Violinists” is a perfect treasure-trove of anec-
dote, became his pupil.
Another remarkable violinist was an intimate
friend of Geminiani, a name distinguished alike
in the annals of chess-playing and music, André
Danican Philidor. This musician was born near
Paris in 1726, and was the grandson of the haut-
boy-player to the court of Louis XIII. His father
and several of his relations were also eminent
players in the royal orchestras of Louis XIV and
Louis XV. Young Philidor was received into
the Chapel Royal at Versailles in 1732, being then
six years old, and when eleven he composed a
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
27
motette which extorted much admiration. In the
Chapel Royal there were about eighty musicians
daily in attendance, violins, hautboys, violas, dou
ble-basses, choristers, etc.; and, cards not being
allowed, they had a long table inlaid with a num-
ber of chess-boards, with which they amused their
leisure time. When fourteen years old Philidor
was the best chess-player in the band. Four years
later he played at Paris two games of chess at the
same time, without seeing the boards, and after-
ward extended this feat to playing five games
simultaneously, which, though far inferior to the
wonderful feats of Morphy, Paulsen, and others
in more recent years, very much astonished his
own generation Philidor was an admirable vio-
linist, and the composer of numerous operas which
delighted the French public for many years.
He
died in London in 1759.
There were several other pupils of Corelli who
achieved rank in their art and exerted a recogniz-
able influence on music. Locatelli displayed ori-
ginality and genius in his compositions, and his
studies, “ Arte di Nuova Modulazione,” was stud-
ied by Paganini. Another pupil, Lorenzo Somis,
became noted as the teacher of Lecler, Pugnani
(the professor of Viotti), and Giardini. Visconti,
of Cremona, who was taught by Corelli, is said to
have greatly assisted by his counsels the construc-
tive genius of Antonius Stradiuarius in making
his magnificent instruments,
28
THE GREAT ,VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
IV.
The name of Giuseppe Tartini will recur to
the musical reader more familiarly than those
previously mentioned. He was the scion of a
noble stock, and was born in Istria in 1692.
Originally intended for the law, he was entered at
the University of Padua at the age of eighteen for
this profession, but his time was mostly given to
the study of music and fencing, in both of which
he soon became remarkably proficient, so that he
surpassed the masters who taught him. It may
be that accident determined the future career of
Tartini, for, had he remained at the university,
the whole bent of his life might have been differ-
ent. Eros exerted his potent sway over the young
student, and he entered into a secret marriage,
that being the lowest price at which he could win
his bourgeois sweetheart. Tartini became an out-
cast from his family, and was com pelled to fly and
labor for his own living. After many hardships,
he found shelter in a convent at Assisi, the prior
of which was a family connection, who took com-
passion on the friendless youth. Here Tartini
set to work vigorously on his violin, and prose-
cuted a series of studies which resulted in the
"Sonata del Diavolo" and other remarkable com-
positions. At last he was reconciled to his family
through the intercession of his monastic friend,
and took his abode in Venice that he might have
the benefit of hearing the playing of Veracini, a
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
29
great but eccentric musician, then at the head of
the Conservatario of that city. Veracini was nick-
named “Capo Pazzo,” or “mad-head," on ac-
count of his eccentricity. Dubourg tells a curious
story of this musician : Being at Lucca at the
time of the annual festival called “Festa della
Croce," on which occasion it was customary for
the leading artists of Italy to meet, Veracini put
his name down for a solo. When he entered the
choir, he found the principal place occupied by a
musician of some rank named Laurenti. In
reply to the latter's question,
66 Where are you
going ?” Veracini haughtily answered, “To the
place of the first violinist.” It was explained by
Laurenti that he himself had been engaged to fill
that post, but, if his interlocutor wished to
play a solo, he could have the privilege either at
high mass or at vespers. Evidently he did not
recognize Veracini, who turned away in a rage,
and took his position in the lowest place in the
orchestra. When his turn came to play his con-
certo, he begged that instead of it he might play
a solo where he was, accompanied on the violon-
cello by Lanzetti. This he did in so brilliant and
unexpected a manner that the applause was loud
and continued, in spite of the sacred nature of
the place; and whenever he was about to make a
close, he turned toward Laurenti and called out:
'Cosi se suona per fare il primo violino "_"This
is the way to play first violin."
30
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
}
Veracini played upon a fine Steiner violin.
The only master he ever had was his uncle An-
tonio, of Florence; and it was by traveling all
over Europe, and by numerous performances in
public, that he formed a style of playing peculiar
to himself, very similar to what occurred to Pa-
ganini and the celebrated De Bériot in later years.
It does not appear certain that Tartini ever took
lessons from Veracini; but hearing the latter play
in public had no doubt a very great effect upon
him, and caused him to devote many years to the
careful study of his instrument. Some say that
Veracini's performance awakened a vivid emula-
tion in Tartini, who was already acknowledged to
be a very masterly player. Up to the time, how-
ever, that Tartini first heard Veracini, he had
never attempted any of the more intricate and
difficult feats of violin-playing, as effected by the
management of the bow. An intimate friendship
sprang up between the two artists and another
clever musician named Marcello, and they devoted
much time to the study of the principles of violin-
playing, particularly to style and the varied kinds
of bowing. Veracini's mind afterward gave way,
and Tartini withdrew himself to Ancona, where
in utter solitude he applied himself to working
out the fundamental principles of the bow in the
technique of the violin-principles which no suc-
ceeding violinist has improved or altered. Tar-
ţini, cven while absorbed in music, did not neglect
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
31
the study of science and mathematics, of which he
was passionately fond, and in the pursuit of which
he might have made a name not less than his
reputation as a musician. It was at this time
that Tartini made a very curious discovery, known
as the phenomenon of the third sound, which
created some sensation at the time, and has since
given rise to numerous learned discourses, but
does not appear to have led to any great practical
result. Various memoirs or treatises were written
by him, and that in which he develops the nature
of the third sound is his - Tratto di Musica se-
condo la vera scienza dell' Armonia.” In this
and others of his works, he appears much devoted
to theory, and endeavors to place all his practical
facts upon a thoroughly scientific basis. The
effect known as the third sound consists in the
sympathetic resonance of a third note when the
two upper notes of a chord are played in perfect
tune. “If you do not hear the bass,” Tartini
would say to his pupils, “the thirds or sixths
which you are playing are not perfect in intona-
tion.”
At Ancona, Tartini attained such reputation
as a player and musician that he was appointed,
in 1721, to the directorship of the orchestra of the
church of St. Anthony at Padua. Here, according
to Fetis, he spent the remaining forty-nine years
of his life in peace and comfort, solely occupied
with the labors connected with the art he loved,
32
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
!
His great fame brought him repeated offers from
the principal cities of Europe, even London and
Paris, but nothing could induce him to leave his
beloved Italy. Though Tartini could not have
been heard out of Italy, his violin school at Padua
graduated many excellent players, who were widely
known throughout the musical world. Tartini's
compositions reached no less than one hundred
and fifty works, distinguished not only by beauty
of melody and knowledge of the violin, but by
soundness of musical science. Some of his sona-
tas are still favorites in the concert-room. Among
these, the most celebrated is the “ Trille del Dia-
volo," or “Devil's Sonata," composed under the
following circumstances, as related by Tartini him-
self to his pupil Lalande :
“One night in 1713," he says, “I dreamed that
I had made a compact with the devil, who prom-
ised to be at my service on all occasions. Every-
thing succeeded according to my mind ; my wishes
were anticipated and desires always surpassed by
the assistance of my new servant. At last I
thought I would offer my violin to the devil, in
order to discover what kind of a musician he was,
when, to my great astonishment, I heard him play
à solo, so singularly beautiful and with such supe-
rior taste and precision, that it surpassed all the
music I had ever heard or conceived in the whole
course of my life. I was so overcome with sur-
prise and delight that I lost my power of breath-
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
33
ing, and the violence of this sensation awoke me.
Instantly I seized my violin in the hopes of re-
membering some portion of what I had just heard,
but in vain! The work which this dream sug-
gested, and which I wrote at the time, is doubt-
less the best of all my compositions, and I still
call it the “Sonata del Diavolo'; but it sinks so
much into insignificance compared with what I
heard, that I would have broken my instrument
and abandoned music altogether, had I possessed
any other means of subsistence."
Tartini died at Padua in 1770, and so much
was he revered and admired in the city where he
had spent nearly fifty years of his life, that his
death was regarded as a public calamity. He used
to say of himself that he never made any real prog-
l'ess in music till he was more than thirty years
old; and it is curious that he should have made a
great change in the nature of his performance at
the age of fifty-two. Instead of displaying his
skill in difficulties of execution, he learned to pre-
fer grace and expression. His method of playing
an adagio was regarded as inimitable by his con-
temporaries ; and he transmitted this gift to his
pupil Nardini, who was afterward called the great-
est adagio player in the world. Another of Tar-
tini's great éleves was Pugnani, who before com-
ing to him had been instructed by Lorenzo Somis,
the pupil of Corelli. So it may be said that Pugna-
ni united in himself the schools of Corelli and
34
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Tartini, and was thus admirably fitted to be the
instructor of that grand player, who was the first
in date of the violin virtuosos of modern times,
Viotti.
Both as composer and performer, Pugnani was
held in great esteem throughout Europe. His first
meeting with Tartini was an incident of consider-
able interest. He made the journey from Paris to
Padua expressly to see Tartini, and on reaching
his destination he proceeded to the house of the
great violinist.
Tartini received him kindly, and evinced some
curiosity to hear him play. Pugnani took up his
instrument and commenced a well-known solo,
but he had not played many bars before Tartini
suddenly seized his arm, saying, “Too loud, my
friend, too loud !” The Piedmontese began again,
but at the same passage Tartini stopped him again,
cxclaiming this time, “Too soft, my good friend,
too soft!" Pugnani therefore laid down the vio-
lin, and begged of Tartini to give him some lessons.
He was at once received among Tartini's pupils,
and, though already an excellent artist, began his
musical education almost entirely anew. Many
anecdotes have been foisted upon Pugnani, some
evidently the creation of rivals, and not worth re-
peating. Others, on the contrary, tend to enlighten
us upon the character of the man. Thus, when
playing, he was so completely absorbed in the mu-
sic, that he has been known, at a public concert, to
THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
35
room.
walk about the platform during the performance of
a favorite cadenza, imagining himself alone in the
Again, at the house of Madame Denis,
when requested to play before Voltaire, who had
little or no music in his soul, Pugnani stopped
short, when the latter had the bad taste to con-
tinue his conversation, remarking in a loud, clear
voice, “M. de Voltaire is very clever in making
verses, but as regards music he is devilishly ig-
norant." Pugnani's style of play is said to have
been very broad and noble, “characterized by that
commanding sweep of the bow, which afterward
formed so grand a feature in the performance of
Viotti.” He was distinguished as a composer as
well as a player, and among his numerous works
are some seven or eight operas, which were very
successful for the time being on the Italian stage.
VIOTTI.
Viotti, the Connecting Link between the Early and Modern Violin
Schools.--His Immense Superiority over his Contemporaries
and Predecessors.-Other Violinists of his Time, Giornowick
and Boccherini. -Viotti's Early Years—His Arrival in Paris,
and the Sensation he made.- His Reception by the Court.
Viotti's Personal Pride and Dignity.—His Rebuke to Princely
Impertinence.-The Musical Circles of Paris.–Viotti's Last
Public Concert in Paris. He suddenly departs for London.-
Becomes Director of the King's Theatre.—Is compelled to
leave the Country as a Suspected Revolutionist.—His Return to
England, and Metamorphosis into a Vintner. — The French
Singer, Garat, finds him out in his London Obscurity.--An-
ecdote of Viotti's Dinner Party.—He quits the Wine Trade for
his own Profession.--Is made Director of the Paris Grand
Opéra. -Letter from Rossini.–Viotti's Account of the “Ranz
des Vaches." -Anecdotes of the Great Violinist.—Dies in Lon-
don in 1824.–Viotti's Place as a Violinist, and Style of Play-
ing:- The Tourté Bow first invented during his Time.—An
Indispensable Factor in Great Playing on the Violin.-Viotti's
Pupils, and his Influence on the Musical Art.
I.
In the person of the celebrated Viotti we rec-
ognize the link connecting the modern school of
violin-playing with the schools of the past. He
was generally hailed as the leading violinist of
his time, and his influence, not merely on violin
music but music in general, was of a very pal-
pable order: In him were united the accom-
VIOTTI.
37
lic eye.
plishments of the great virtuoso and the gifts of
the composer. At the time that Viotti's star shot
into such splendor in the musical horizon, there
were not a few clever violinists, and only a gen-
ius of the finest type could have attained and
perpetuated such a regal sway among his contem-
poraries. At the time when Viotti appeared in
Paris the popular heart was completely captivated
by Giornowick, whose eccentric and quarrelsome
character as a man coöperated with his artistic
excellence to keep him constantly in the pub-
Giornowick was a Palermitan, born in
1745, and his career was thoroughly artistic
and full of romantic vicissitudes. His style was
very graceful and elegant, his tone singularly
pule. One of the most popular and seductive
tricks in his art was the treating of well-known
airs as rondos, returning ever and anon to his
theme after a variety of brilliant excursions in a
way that used to fascinate his hearers, thus antici-
pating some of his brilliant successors.
Michael Kelly heard him at Vienna.
was a man of a certain age," he tells us, “but in
the full vigor of talent. His tone was very power-
ful, his execution most rapid, and his taste, above
all, alluring. No performer in my remembrance
played such pleasing music.” Dubourg relates
that on one occasion, when Giornowick had an-
nounced a concert at Lyons, he found the people
rather retentive of their money, so he postponed
66 He
38
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
the concert to the following evening, reducing
the price of the tickets to one half. A crowded
company was the result. But the bird had flown !
The artist had left Lyons without ceremony, to-
gether with the receipts from sales of tickets.
In London, where he was frequently heard be-
tween 1792 and 1796, he once gave a concert
which was fully attended, but annoying to the
player on account of the indifference of the audi-
ence and the clatter of the tea-cups; for it was then
the custom to serve tea during the performance,
as well as during the intervals. Giornowick
turned to the orchestra and ordered them to
cease playing. “These people," said he, “know
nothing about music; anything is good enough
for drinkers of warm water. I will give them
something suited to their taste.” Whereupon he
played a very trivial and commonplace French
air, which he disguised with all manner of mere-
tricious flourishes, and achieved a great success.
When Viotti arrived in Paris in 1779, Giornowick
started on his travels after having heard this new
rival once.
A distinguished virtuoso and composer, with
whom Viotti had already been thrown into con-
tact, though in a friendly rather than a compet-
itive way, was Boccherini, who was one of the
most successful early composers of trios, quar-
tets, and quintets for string instruments. Dur-
ing the latter part of Boccherini's life he basked
VIOTTI.
39
in the sunlight of Spanish royalty, and composed
nine works annually for the Royal Academy of
Madrid, in which town he died in 1806, aged
sixty-six. A very clever saying is attributed to
him. The King of Spain, Charles IV, was fond
of playing with the great composer, and was very
ambitious of shining as a great violinist ; his
cousin, the Emperor of Austria, was also fond of
the violin, and played tolerably well. One day
the latter asked Boccherini, in a rather straight-
forward manner, what difference there was be-
tween his playing and that of his cousin Charles
IV. " Sire," replied Boccherini, without hesi-
tating for a moment, “ Charles IV plays like a
king, and your Majesty plays like an empe-
ror.
Giovanni Battista Viotti was born in a little
Piedmontese village called Fontaneto, in the year
1755. The accounts of his early life are too con-
fused and fragmentary to be trustworthy. It
is pretty well established, however, that he stud-
ied under Pugnani at Turin, and that at the age
of twenty he was made first violin at the Chapel
Royal of that capital. After remaining three
years, he began his career as a solo player, and,
after meeting with the greatest success at Berlin
and Vienna, directed his course to Paris, where
he made his debut at the “ Concerts Spirituels.”
+
40
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
II.
FETIS tells us that “ the arrival of Viotti in
Paris produced a sensation difficult to describe.
No performer had yet been heard who had at-
tained so high a degree of perfection, no artist
had possessed so fine a tone, such sustained ele-
gance, such fire, and so varied a style. The fancy
which was developed in his concertos increased
the delight he produced in the minds of his audi-
tory. His compositions for the violin were as su-
perior to those which had previously been heard as
his execution surpassed that of all his predecessors
and contemporaries. Giornowick's style was full
of grace and suave elegance; Viotti was charac
terized by a remarkable beauty, breadth, and dig:
nity. Lavish attentions were bestowed on him
from the court circle. Marie Antoinette, who was
an ardent lover and most judicious patron of mu-
sic, sent him her commands to play at Versailles.
The haughty artistic pride of Viotti was signally
displayed at one of these concerts before royalty.
A large number of eminent musicians had been
engaged for the occasion, and the audience was a
most brilliant one. Viotti had just begun a con-
certo of his own composition, when the arrogant
Comte d'Artois made a great bustle in the room,
and interrupted the music by his loud whispers
and utter indifference to the comfort of any one
but himself. Viotti's dark eyes flashed fire as
he stared sternly at this rude scion of the blood
VIOTTI.
41
royal. At last, unable to restrain his indigi.ation,
he deliberately placed his violin in the case, gath-
ered up his music from the stand, and withcrew
from the concert-room without ceremony, leaving
the concert, her Majesty, and his Royal High-
ness to the reproaches of the audience. This
scene is an exact parallel of one which occurred
at the house of Cardinal Ottoboni, when Corelli
resented in similar fashion the impertinence of
some of his auditors.
Everywhere in artistic and aristocratic circles
at the French capital Viotti's presence was eager-
ly sought. Private concerts were so much the
vogue in Paris that musicians of high rank found
more profit in these than in such as were given
to the miscellaneous public. A delightful artistic
rendezvous was the hotel of the Comte de Balck,
an enthusiastic patron and friend of musicians.
Here Viotti's friend, Garat, whose voice had so
great a range as to cover both the tenor and bary-
tone registers, was wont to sing; and here young
Orfila, the brilliant chemist, displayed his mag-
nificent tenor voice in such a manner as to attract
the most tempting offers from managers that
he should desert the laboratory for the stage.
But the young Portuguese was fascinated with
science, and was already far advanced in the ca-
reer which made him in his day the greatest of
all authorities on toxicological chemistry. The
most brilliant and gifted men and women of
42
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Paris haunted these reunions, and Viotti always
appeared at his best amid such surroundings.
Another favorite resort of his was the house of
Mme. Montegerault at Montmorency, a lady who
was a brilliant pianist. Sometimes she would
seat herself at her instrument and begin an im-
provisation, and Viotti, seizing his violin, would
join in the performance, and in a series of ex-
temporaneous passages display his great powers
to the delight of all present.
He evinced the greatest distaste for solo play-
ing at public concerts, and, aside from charity
performances, only consented once to such an ex-
hibition of his talents. A singular concert was
arranged to take place on the fifth story of a
house in Paris, the apartment being occupied by
a friend of Viotti, who was also a member of the
Government. “I will play," he said, on being
urged, “but only on one condition, and that is,
that the audience shall come up here to us--we
have long enough descended to them ; but times
are changed, and now we may compel them to
rise to our level”; or something to that effect.
It took place in due course, and was a very bril-
liant concert indeed. The only ornament was a
bust of Jean Jacques Rousseau. A large number
of distinguished artists, both instrumental and
vocal, were present, and a most aristocratic audi-
A good deal of Bocelierini's music was
performed that evening, and though many of the
ence.
VIOTTI.
43
titled personages had mounted to the fifth floor
for the first time in their lives, so complete was
the success of the concert that not one descended
without regret, and all were warm in their praise
of the performances of the distinguished violinist.
What the cause of Viotti's sudden departure
from Paris in 1790 was, it is difficult to tell.
Perhaps he had offended the court by the inde-
pendence of his bearing ; perhaps he had ex-
pressed his political opinions too bluntly, for he
was strongly democratic in his views; perhaps he
foresaw the terrible storm which was gathering
and was soon to break in a wrack of ruin, chaos,
and blood. Whatever the cause, our violinist
vanished from Paris with hardly a word of fare-
well to his most intimate friends, and appeared
in London at Salomon's concerts with the same
success which had signalized his Parisian début.
Every one was delighted with the originality and
power of his playing, and the exquisite taste that
modified the robustness and passion which en-
tered into the substance of his musical concep-
tions.
Viotti was one of the artistic celebrities of
London for several years, but his eccentric and
resolute nature did not fail to involve him in sey-
eral difficulties with powerful personages.
He
became connected with the management of the
King's Theatre, and led the music for two years
with signal ability. But he suddenly received an
44
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
order from the British Government to leave Eng-
land without delay. His sharp tongue and out-
spoken language were never consistent with courtly
subserviency. We can fancy our musician shrug-
ging his shoulders with disdain on receiving his
order of banishment, for he was too much of a cos-
mopolite to be disturbed by change of country.
He took up his residence at Schönfeld, Holland,
in a beautiful and splendid villa, and produced
there several of his most celebrated compositions,
as well as a series of studies of the violin school.
III.
THE edict which had sent Viotti from England
was revoked in 1801, and he returned with com-
mercial aspirations, for be entered into the wine
trade. It could not be said of him, as of another
well-known composer, who attempted to conduct
a business in the vending of sweet sounds and
the juice of the grape simultaneously, that he
composed his wines and imported his music ; for
Viotti seems to have laid music entirely aside for
the nonce, and we have no reason to suspect that
his port and sherry.were not of the best. Atten-
tion to business did not keep him from losing a
large share of his fortune, however, in this mer-
cantile venture, and for a while he was so com-
pletely lost in the London Babel as to have passed
out of sight and mind of his old admirers. The
French singer, Garat, tells an amusing story of
VIOTTI.
45
his discovery of Viotti in London, when none of
his Continental friends knew what had become of
him.
In the very zenith of his powers and height of
his reputation, the founder of a violin school which
remains celebrated to this day, Viotti had quitted
Paris suddenly, and since his departure no one had
received, either directly or indirectly, any news of
him. According to Garat, some vague indications
led him to believe that the celebrated violinist had
taken up his residence in London, but, for a long
time after his (Garat's) arrival in the metropolis,
all his attempts to find him were fruitless. At
last, one morning he went to a large export house
for wine. It had a spacious courtyard, filled with
numbers of large barrels, among which it was not
easy to move toward the office or counting-house.
On entering the latter, the first person who met
his gaze was Viotti himself.
Viotti was sur-
rounded by a legion of employees, and so ab-
sorbed in business that he did not notice Garat.
At last he raised his head, and, recognizing his
old friend, seized him by the hand, and led him
into an adjoining room, where he gave him a
hearty welcome. Garat could not believe his
senses, and stood motionless with surprise.
“I see you are astonished at the metamorpho-
sis," said Viotti; “it is certainly drôle—unex-
pected ; but what could you expect ? At Paris I
was looked upon as a ruined man, lost to all my
46
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
friends; it was necessary to do something to get
a living, and here I am, making my fortune !"
“But,” interrupted Garat, “have you taken
into consideration all the drawbacks and annoy-
ances of a profession to which you were not
brought up, and which must be opposed to your
tastes ?”
“I perceive," continued Viotti, “that you
share the error which so many indulge in. Com-
mercial enterprise is generally considered a most
prosaic undertaking, but it has, nevertheless, its
seductions, its prestige, its poetical side. I assure
you no musician, no poet, ever had an existence
more full of interesting and exciting incidents
than those which cause the heart of the merchant
to throb. His imagination, stimulated by success,
carries him forward to new conquests ; his clients
increase, his fortune augments, the finest dreams
of ambition are ever before him."
“But art!” again interrupted his friend;
the art of which you are one of the finest repre-
sentatives—you can not have entirely abandoned
it?"
“ Art will lose nothing,” rejoined Viotti,
"and you will find that I can conciliate two
things without interfering with either, though
you doubtless consider them irreconcilable. We
will continue this subject another time ; at pres-
ent I must leave you ; I have some pressing busi-
ness to transact this afternoon. But come and
VIOTTI.
47
dine with me at six o'clock, and be sure you do
not disappoint me.”
Garat, who relates this conversation, tells us
that at the appointed time he returned to the
house. All the barrels and wagons that had
encumbered the courtyard were cleared away,
and in their place were coroneted carriages, with
footmen and servants. A lackey in brilliant liv-
ery conducted the visitor to the drawing-room on
the first floor. The apartments were magnifi-
cently furnished, and glittered with mirrors,
candelabra, gilt ornaments, and the most quaint
and costly bric-à-brac. Viotti received his guests
at the head of the staircase, no longer the plod-
ding man of business, but the courtly, high-bred
gentleman. Garat's amazement was still further
increased when he heard the names of the other
guests, all distinguished men. After an admi-
rably cooked dinner, there was still more admirable
music, and Viotti proved to the satisfaction of his
French friend that he was still the same great
artist who had formerly delighted his listeners
in Paris.
The wine business turned out so badly for our
violinist that he was fain to return to his old and
legitimate profession. Through the intervention
of powerful friends in Paris, he was appointed
director of the Grand Opéra, but he became
discontented in a very onerous and irritating po-
sition, and was retired at his own request with a
48
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
pension. An interesting letter from the great
Italian composer Rossini, who was then first try-
ing his fortune in the French metropolis, written
to Viotti in 1821, is pleasant proof of the esti-
mate placed on his talents and influence :
“ MOST ESTEEMED SIR : You will be sur-
prised at receiving a letter from an individual
who has not the honor of your personal ac-
quaintance, but I profit by the liberality of feel-
ing existing among artists to address these lines
to you through my friend Hérold, from whom I
have learned with the greatest satisfaction the
high, and, I fear, somewhat undeserved opinion
you have of me. The oratorio of 'Moïse,' com-
posed by me three years ago, appears to our
mutual friend susceptible of dramatic adaptation
to French words; and I, who have the greatest
reliance on Hérold's taste and on his friendship
for me, desire nothing more than to render the
entire work as perfect as possible, by composing
new airs in a more religious style than those
which it at present contains, and by endeavor-
ing to the best of my power that the result shall
neither disgrace the composer of the partition,
nor you, its patron and protector. If M. Viotti,
with his great celebrity, will consent to be the
Mecænas of my name, he may be assured of the
gratitude of his devoted servant,
"GIOACCHINO ROSSINI.
VIOTTI.
49
“P. S.-In a month's time I will forward you
the alterations of the drama 'Moïse,' in order that
you may judge if they are conformable to the
operatic style. Should they not be so, you will
have the kindness to suggest any others better
adapted to the purpose.
IV.
VIOTTI, though in many respects proud, reso-
lute, and haughty in temperament, was simple-
hearted and enthusiastic, and a passionate lover of
nature. M. Eymar, one of his intimate friends,
said of him, “Never did a man attach so much
value to the simplest gifts of nature, and never did
a child enjoy them more passionately.” A mod-
est flower growing in the grass of the meadow, a
charming bit of landscape, a rustic fête, in short,
all the sights and sounds of the country, filled him
with delight. All nature spoke to his heart, and
his finest compositions were suggested and in-
spired by this sympathy. He has left the world
a charming musical picture of the feelings ex-
perienced in the mountains of Switzerland. · It
was there he heard, under peculiar circumstances,
and probably for the first time, the plaintive
sound of a mountain-horn, breathing forth the
few notes of a kind of “Ranz des Vaches."
66 The “Ranz des Vaches' which I send you,"
he says in one of his letters, “is neither that with
which our friend Jean Jacques has presented us,
50
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
nor that of which M. De la Bord speaks in his
work on music. I can not say whether it is
known or not; all I know is, that I heard it in
Switzerland, and, once heard, I have never for-
gotten it. I was sauntering along, toward the de-
cline of day, in one of those sequestered spots. ...
Flowers, verdure, streamlets, all united to form a
picture of perfect harmony. There, without be-
ing fatigued, I seated myself mechanically on a
fragment of rock, and fell into so profound a rev-
erie that I seemed to forget that I was upon earth.
While sitting thus, sounds broke on my ear which
were sometimes of a hurried, sometimes of a pro-
longed and sustained character, and were repeated
in softened tones by the echoes around. I found
they proceeded from a mountain-horn ; and their
effect was heightened by a plaintive female voice.
Struck as if by enchantment, I started from my
dreams, listened with breathless attention, and
learned, or rather engraved upon my memory, the
Ranz des Vaches' which I send you. In order
to understand all its beauties, you ought to be
transplanted to the scene in which I heard it, and
to feel all the enthusiasm that such a moment
inspired.” It was a similar delightful experience
which, according to Rossini's statement, first sug-
gested to that great composer his immortal opera,
- Guillaume Tell.”
Among many interesting anecdotes current of
Viotti, and one which admirably shows his good-
VIOTTI.
51
ness of heart and quickness of resource, is one
narrated by Ferdinand Langlé to Adolph Adam,
the French composer. The father of the former,
Marie Langlé, a professor of harmony in the
French Conservatoire, was an intimate friend of
Viotti, and one charming summer evening the
twain were strolling on the Champs Élysées.
They sat down on a retired bench to enjoy the
calmness of the night, and became buried in rev-
erie. But they were brought back to prosaic
matters harshly by a babel of discordant noises
that grated on the sensitive ears of the two musi-
cians. They started from their seats, and Viotti
said:
“It can't be a violin, and yet there is some
resemblance to one.
“Nor a clarionet," suggested Langlé," though
it is something like it.”
The easiest manner of solving the problem was
to go and see what it was. They approached the
spot whence the extraordinary tones issued, and
saw a poor blind man standing near a miserable-
looking candle and playing upon a violin-but
the latter was an instrument made of tin-plate.
Fancy !” exclaimed Viotti, “it is a violin,
but a violin of tin-plate! Did you ever dream of
such a curiosity ?" and, after listening a while, he
added, “I say, Langlé, I must possess that instru-
ment. Go and ask the old blind man what he will
sell it for."
66
52
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
>>
Langlé approached and asked the question,
but the old man was disinclined to part with it.
“But we will give you enough for it to enable
you to purchase a better,” he added ; "and why
is not your violin like others ? "
The aged fiddler explained that, when he got
old and found himself poor, not being able to
work, but still able to scrape a few airs upon a
violin, he had endeavored to procure one, but in
vain. At last his good, kind nephew Eustache,
who was apprenticed to a tinker, had made him
one out of a tin-plate. " And an excellent one,
too,” he added ; "and my poor boy Eustache
brings me here in the morning when he goes to
work, and fetches me away in the evening when
he returns, and the receipts are not so bad some-
times—as, when he was out of work, it was I who
kept the house going.”
"Well,” said Viotti, “I will give you twenty
francs for your violin. You can buy a much bet-
ter one for that price ; but let me try it a little.”
He took the violin in his hands, and produced
some extraordinary effects from it. A consider-
able crowd gathered around, and listened with curi-
osity and astonishment to the performance. Lan-
glé seized on the opportunity, and passed around
the hat, gathering a goodly amount of chink from
the bystanders, which, with the twenty francs,
was handed to the astonished old beggar.
'Stay a moment,” said the blind man, recov-
VIOTTI.
53
ering a little from his surprise ; “just now I said
I would sell the violin for twenty francs, but I did
not know it was so good. I ought to have at
least double for it."
Viotti had never received a more genuine com-
pliment, and he did not hesitate to give the old
man two pieces of gold instead of one, and then im-
mediately retired from the spot, passing through
the crowd with the tin-plate instrument under his
arm. He had scarcely gone forty yards when he
felt some one pulling at his sleeve ; it was a work-
man, who politely took off his cap, and said :
“Sir, you have paid too dear for that violin ;
and if you are an amateur, as it was I who made
it, I can supply you with as many as you like at
six francs each.'
This was Eustache ; he had just come in time
to hear the conclusion of the bargain, and, little
dreaming that he was so clever a violin-maker,
wished to continue a trade that had begun so
successfully. However, Viotti was quite satisfied
with the one sample he had bought. He never
parted with that instrument; and, when the ef-
fects of Viotti were sold in London after his
death, though the tin fiddle only brought a few
shillings, an amateur of curiosities sought out
the purchaser, and offered him a large sum if he
could explain how the strange instrument came
into the possession of the great violinist.
After resigning his position as director of the
54
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Grand Opéra, Viotti returned to London, which
had become a second home to him, and spent his
remaining days there. He died on the 24th of
March, 1824.
V.
VIOTTI established and settled for ever the
fundamental principles of violin-playing. He did
not attain the marvelous skill of technique, the
varied subtile and dazzling effects, with which his
successor, Paganini, was to amaze the world, but,
from the accounts transmitted to us, his perform-
ance must have been characterized by great nobil-
ity, breadth, and beauty of tone, united with a fire
and agility unknown before his time. Viotti was
one of the first to use the Tourté bow, that indis-
pensable adjunct to the perfect manipulation of
the violin. The value of this advantage over his
predecessors can not be too highly estimated.
The bows used before the time of François
Tourté, who lived in the latter years of the last
century in Paris, were of imperfect shape and
make. The Tourté model leaves nothing to be
desired in all the qualities required to enable the
player to follow out every conceivable manner of
tone and movement-lightness, firmness, and elas-
ticity. Tartini had made the stick of his bow
elastic, an innovation from the time of Corelli,
and had thus attained a certain flexibility and
brilliancy in his bowing superior to his predeces-
sors, But the full development of all the powers
VIOTTI.
55
of the violin, or the practice of what we now call
virtuosoism on this instrument, was only possible
with the modern bow as designed by Tourté, of
Paris. The thin, bent, elastic stick of the bow,
with its greater length of sweep, gives the modern
player incalculable advantages over those of an
earlier age, enabling him to follow out the slight-
est gradations of tone from the fullest forte to the
softest piano, to mark all kinds of strong and
gentle accents, to execute staccato, legato, saltato,
and arpeggio passages with the greatest ease and
certainty. The French school of violin-playing
did not at first avail itself of these advantages,
and even Viotti and Spohr did not fully grasp the
new resources of execution. It was left for Paga-
nini to open a new era in the art. His daring and
subtile genius perceived and seized the wonderful
resources of the modern bow at one bound. He
used freely every imaginable movement of the
bow, and developed the movement of the wrist to
that high perfection which enabled him to prac-
tice all kinds of bowing with celerity. Without
the Tourté bow, Paganini and the modern school
of virtuosos, which has followed so splendidly
from his example, would have been impossible.
To many of our readers an amplification of this
topic may be of interest. While the left hand of
the violin-player fixes the tone, and thereby does
that which for the pianist is already done by the
mechanism of the instrument, and while the cor-
5
56
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
rectness of his intonation depends on the profi-
ciency of the left hand, it is the action of the
right hand, the bowing, which, analogous to the
pianist's touch, makes the sound spring into life.
It is through the medium of the bow that the
player embodies his ideas and feelings. It is
therefore evident that herein rests one of the
most important and difficult elements of the art
of violin-playing, and that the excellence of a
player, or even of a whole school of playing, de-
pends to a great extent on its method of bowing:
It would have been even better for the art of
violin-playing as practiced to-day that the per-
fect instruments of Stradiuarius and Guarnerius
should not have been, than that the Tourté bow
should have been uninvented.
The long, effective sweep of the bow was one
of the characteristics of Viotti's playing, and was
alike the admiration and despair of his rivals.
His compositions for the violin are classics, and
Spohr was wont to say that there could be no
better test of a fine player than his execution of
one of the Viotti sonatas or concertos. Spohr re-
gretted deeply that he could not finish his violin
training under this great master, and was wont
to speak of him in terms of the greatest admira-
tion. Viotti had but few pupils, but among them
were a number of highly gifted artists. Rode,
Robrechts, Cartier, Malle. Gerbini, Alday, La-
barre, Pixis, Mari, Mme. Paravicini, and Vacher
VIOTTI.
57
are well-known names to all those interested in the
literature of the violin. The influence of Viotti
on violin music was a very deep one, not only in
virtue of his compositions, but in the fact that he
molded the style not only of many of the best
violinists of his own day, but of those that came
after hiin.
LUDWIG SPOHR.
Birth and Early Life of the Violinist Spohr.—He is presented
with his First Violin at six.—The French Emigré Dufour uses
his Influence with Dr. Spohr, Sr., to have the Boy devoted to
a Musical Career.—Goes to Brunswick for fuller Musical In-
struction. --Spolr is appointed Kammer-musicus at the Ducal
Court.--He enters under the Tuition of and makes a Tour
with the Violin Virtuoso Eck.-Incidents of the Russian
Journey and his Return.--Concert Tour in Germany. -Loses
his Fine Guarnerius Violin.-Is appointed Director of the Or-
chestra at Gotha.---- He marries Dorette Schiedler, the Brilliant
Harpist. Spohr's Stratagem to be present at the Erfurt Mu-
sical Celebration given by Napoleon in Honor of the Allied
Sovereigns.-Becomes Director of Opera in Vienna.-Inci-
dents of liis Life and Production of various Works.–First
Visit to England.—He is made Director of the Cassel Court
Oratorios.--He is retired with a Pension.--Closing Years of
his Life.-His Place as Composer and Executant.
peared !
I.
“THE first singer on the violin that ever ap-
Such was the verdict of the enthusias-
tic Italians when they heard one of the greatest
of the world's violinists, who was also a great
composer. The modern world thinks of Spohr
rather as the composer of symphony, opera, and
oratorio than as a wonderful executant on the
violin ; but it was in the latter capacity that he
enjoyed the greatest reputation during the earlier
LUDWIG SPOHR.
59
part of his lifetime, which was a long one, ex-
tending from the year 1784 to 1859. The latter
half of Spohr's life was mostly devoted to the
higher musical ambition of creating, but not un-
til he had established himself as one of the great-
est of virtuosos, and founded a school of violin-
playing which is, beyond all others, the most sci-
entific, exhaustive, and satisfactory. All of the
great contemporary violinists are disciples of the
Spohr school of execution. Great as a composer,
still greater as a player, and widely beloved as a
man--there are only a few names in musical art
held in greater esteem than his, though many
have evoked a deeper enthusiasm.
Ludwig Spohr was born at Brunswick, April
5, 1784, of parents both of whom possessed no
little musical talent. His father, a physician of
considerable eminence, was an excellent flutist,
and his mother possessed remarkable talent both
as a pianist and singer. To the family concerts
which he heard at home was the rapid develop-
ment of the boy's talents largely due. Nature
had given him a very sensitive ear and a fine clear
voice, and at the age of four or five he joined
his mother in duets at the evening gatherings.
From the very first he manifested a taste for the
instrument for which he was destined to become
distinguished. He so teased his father that, at
the age of six, he was presented with his first
violin, and his joy on receiving his treasure was
60
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
overpowering. The violin was never out of his
hand, and he continually wandered about the
house trying to play his favorite melodies. Spohr
tells us in his “ Autobiography":"I still recollect
that, after my first lesson, in which I had learned
to play the G-sharp chord upon all four strings,
in my rapture at the harmony, I hurried to my
mother, who was in the kitchen, and played the
chord so incessantly that she was obliged to order
me out."
Young Spohr was placed under the tuition of
Dufour, a French emigré of the days of '91, who
was an excellent player, though not a professional,
then living at the town of Seesen, the home of
the Spohr family; and under him the boy made
very rapid progress. It was Dufour who, by his
enthusiastic representations, overcame the oppo-
sition of Ludwig's parents to the boy's devoting
himself to a life of music, for the notion of the
senior Spohr was that the name musician was
synonymous with that of a tavern fiddler, who
played for dancers. In Germany, the land par
excellence of music, there was a general contempt
among the educated classes, during the latter
years of the eighteenth century, for the musical
profession. Spohr remained under the care of
Dufour until he was twelve years old, and de-
voted himself to his work with great sedulity.
Though he as yet knew but little of counterpoint
and composition, his creative talent already began
LUDWIG SPOHR.
61
to assert itself, and he produced several duos and
trios, as well as solo compositions, which evinced
great promise, though crude and faulty in the
extreme. He was then sent to Brunswick, that
he might have the advantage of more scientific
instruction, and to this.end was placed under the
care of Kunisch, an excellent violin teacher, and
under Hartung for harmony and counterpoint.
The latter was a sort of Dr. Dryasdust, learned,
barren, acrid, but an efficient instructor. When
young Spohr showed him one of his compositions,
he growled out, “There's time enough for that;
you must learn something first.” It may be said
of Spohr, however, that his studies in theory were
for the most part self-taught, for he was a most
diligent student of the great masters, and was
gifted with a keenly analytic mind.
At the age of fourteen young Spohr was an
effective soloist, and, as his father began to com-
plain of the heavy expense of his musical educa-
tion, the boy determined to make an effort for
self-support. After revolving many schemes, he
conceived the notion of applying to the duke,
who was known as an ardent patron of music.
He managed to place himself in the way of his
Serene Highness, while the latter was walking in
his garden, and boldly preferred his request for
an appointment in the court orchestra. The
duke was pleased to favor the application, and
young Spohr was permitted to display his skill at
62
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
a court concert, in which he acquitted himself so
admirably as to secure the cordial patronage of
the sovereign. Said the duke :: “Be industrious
and well behaved, and, if you make good progress,
I will put you under the tuition of a great mas-
ter.” So Louis Spohr was installed as a Kammer-
musicus, and his patron fulfilled his promise in
1802 by placing his protégé under the charge of
Francis Eck, one of the finest violinists then liv-
ing. Under the tuition of this accomplished in-
structor, the young virtuoso made such rapid
advance in the excellence of his technique, that
he was soon regarded as worthy of accompany-
ing his master on a grand concert tour through
the principal cities of Germany and Russia.
II.
This concert expedition of the two violinists,
as narrated in Spohr's “Autobiography," was full
of interesting and romantic episodes. Both mas-
ter and pupil were of amorous and susceptible
temperaments, and their affairs were rarely regu-
lated by a common sense of prudence. Spohr
relates with delightful naïvete the circumstances
under which he fell successively in love, and the
rapidity with which he recovered from these fit-
ful spasms of the tender passion. Herr Eck, in
addition to his tendency to intrigues with the
fairer half of creation, was also of a quarrelsome
and exacting disposition, and the general result
LUDWIG SPOHR.
63
was ceaseless squabbling with authorities and musi-
cal societies in nearly every city they visited. In
spite of these drawbacks, however, the two violin-
ists gained both in fame and purse, and were every-
where well received. If Herr Eck carried off the
palm over the boyish Spohr as a mere executant,
the impression everywhere gained ground that
the latter was by far the superior in real depth of
musical science, and many of his own violin con-
certos were received with the heartiest applause.
The concert tour came to an end at St. Peters-
burg in a singular way. Eck fell in love with a
daughter of a member of the imperial orchestra,
but the idea of marriage did not enter into his
project. As the young lady soon felt the unfor-
tunate results of her indiscretion, her parents
complained to the Empress, at whose instance
Eck was given the choice of marrying the girl or
taking an enforced journey to Siberia. He chose
the former, and determined to remain in St.
Petersburg, where he was offered the first violin
of the imperial orchestra. Poor Eck found he
had married a shrew, and, between matrimonial
discords and ill health · brought on by years of
excess, he became the victim of a nervous fever,
which resulted in lunacy and confinement in a
mad-house.
Spohr returned to his native town in July,
1803, and his first meeting with his family was a
curious one. “I arrived," he says, “at two
64
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
As my
o'clock in the morning. I landed at the Petri
gate, crossed the Ocker in a boat, and hastened to
my grandmother's garden, but found that the
house and garden doors were locked.
knocking didn't arouse any one, I climbed over
the garden wall and laid myself down in a sum-
mer-house at the end of the garden. Wearied
by the long journey, I soon fell asleep, and, not-
withstanding my hard couch, would probably
have slept for a long while had not my aunts
in their morning wall discovered me. Much
alarmed, they ran and told my grandmother that a
man was asleep in the summer-house. Returning
together, the three approached nearer, and, recog-
nizing me, I was awakened amid joyous expres-
sions, embraces, and kisses. At first, I did not
recollect where I was, but soon recognized my
dear relations, and rejoiced at being once again
in the home and scenes of my childhood."
Spohr was most graciously received by the
duke, who was satisfied with the proofs of indus-
try and ambition shown by his protégé. The cel-
ebrated Rode, Viotti's most brilliant pupil, was at
that time in Brunswick, and Spohr, who con-
ceived the most enthusiastic admiration of his
style, set himself assiduously to the study and
imitation of the effects peculiar to Rode. On
Rode's departure, Spohr appeared in a concert
arranged for him, in which he played a new con-
certo dedicated to his ducal patron, and created
LUDWIG SPOHR.
65
an enthusiasm hardly less than that made by
Rode himself. He was warmly congratulated by
the duke and the court, and appointed first court-
violinist, with a salary more than sufficient for
the musician's moderate wants. Shortly after
this he undertook another concert tour in con-
junction with the violoncellist, Benike, through
the principal German cities, which added mate-
rially to his reputation. But no amount of world's
talk or money could fully compensate him for the
loss of his magnificent violin, one of the chefs-
d'oeuvre of Guarnerius del Gesù when that great
maker was at his best. This instrument he had
brought from Russia, and it was an imperial gift.
A concert was announced for Göttingen, and
Spohr, with his companion, was about to enter
the town by coach, when he asked one of the sol-
diers at the guard-house if the trunk, which had
been strapped to the back of the carriage, and
which contained his precious instrument, was in
its place. “There is no trunk there," was the
reply.
“With one bound,” says Spohr, “I was out of
the carriage, and rushed out through the gate
with a drawn hunting-knife. Had I, with more
reflection, listened a while, I might have heard
the thieves running out through a side path.
But in my blind rage I had far overshot the place
where I had last seen the trunk, and only dis-
covered my overhaste when I found myself in the
66
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
open field. Inconsolable for my loss, I turned
back. While my fellow-traveler looked for the inn,
I hastened to the post-office, and requested that
an immediate search might be made in the gar-
den houses outside the gate. With astonishment
and vexation, I was informed that the jurisdiction
outside the gate belonged to Weende, and that I
must prefer my request there. As Weende was
half a league from Göttingen, I was compelled to
abandon for that evening all further steps for the
recovery of my things. That these would prove
fruitless on the following morning I was well
assured, and I passed a sleepless night in a state
of mind such as in my hitherto fortunate career
had been unknown to me. Had I not lost my
splendid Guarneri violin, the exponent of all the
artistic success I had so far attained, I could have
lightly borne the loss of clothes and money."
The police recovered an empty trunk and the
violin-case despoiled of its treasure, but still con-
taining a magnificent Tourté bow, which the
thieves had left behind. Spohr managed to bor-
row a Steiner violin, with which he gave his con-,
cert, but he did not for years cease to lament the
loss of his grand Guarneri fiddle.
In 1805 Spohr was quietly settled in his avo-
cation at Brunswick as composer and chief Kam-
mer-musicus of the ducal court, when he received
an offer to compete for the direction of the orches-
tra at Gotha, then one of the most magnificent
LUDWIG SPOHR.
67
organizations in Europe, to be at the head of
which would give him an international fame.
The offer was too tempting to be refused, and
Spohr was easily victorious. His new duties were
not onerous, consisting of a concert once a week,
and in practicing and rehearsing the orchestra.
The annual salary was five hundred thalers.
One of the most interesting incidents of Spohr's
life now occurred. The susceptible heart, which
had often been touched, was firmly enslaved by
the charms of Dorette Schiedler, the daughter of
the principal court singer, and herself a fine vir-
tuoso on the harp. Dorette was a woman whose
personal loveliness was an harmonious expression
of her beauty of character and artistic talent,
and Spohr accepted his fate with joy. This girl
of eighteen was irresistible, for she was accom-
plished, beautiful, tender, as good as an angel,
and with the finest talent for music, for she played
admirably, not only on the harp, but on the piano
and violin. Spohr had reason to hope that the
attachment was mutual, and was eager to declare
his love. One night they were playing together
at a court concert, and Spohr after the perform-
ance noticed the duchess, with an arch look at
him, whispering some words to Dorette which
covered her cheeks with blushes. That night, as
the lovers were returning home in the carriage,
Spohr said to her, “Shall we thus play together
for life ?” Dorette burst into tears, and sank
68
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
into her lover's arms. The compact was sealed
by the joyous assent of the mother, and the
young couple were united in the ducal chapel, in
the presence of the duchess and a large assem-
blage of friends, on the 2d of February, 1806.
III.
In the following year Spohr and his young
wife set out on a musical tour, “by which," he
says, "we not only reaped a rich harvest of ap-
plause, but saved a considerable sum of money."
On his return to Gotha he was met by a band of
pupils, who unharnessed the horses from the
coach and drew him through the streets in tri-
umph. He now devoted himself to composition
largely, and produced his first opera, “ Alruna, ”
which is said to have been very warmly received,
both at Gotha and Weimar, in which latter city it
was produced under the superintendence of the
poet Goethe, who was intendant of the theatre.
Spolır, however, allowed it to disappear, as his
riper judgment condemned its faults more than
it favored its excellences. Among his amusing
adventures, one which he relates in his " Autobi-
ography” as having occurred in 1808 is worth
repeating. He tells us : “In the year 1808 took
place the celebrated Congress of Sovereigns at
Erfurt, on which occasion Napoleon entertained
his friend Alexander of Russia and the various
kings and princes of Germany. The lovers of
LUDWIG SPOHR.
69
sights and the curious of the whole country
round poured in to see the magnificence dis-
played. In the company of some of my pupils,
I made a pedestrian excursion to Erfurt, less to
see the great ones of the earth than to see and
admire the great ones of the French stage, Talma
and Mars. The Emperor had sent to Paris for
his tragic performers, who played every evening
in the classic works of Corneille and Racine. I
and my companions had hoped to have seen one
such representation, but unfortunately I was in-
formed that they took place for the sovereigns
and their suites alone, and that everybody else was
excluded from them.” In this dilemma Spohr
had recourse to stratagem. He persuaded four
musicians of the orchestra to vacate their places
for a handsome consideration, and he and his
pupils engaged to fill the duties. But one of the
substitutes must needs be a horn-player, and the
four new players could only perform on violin
and 'cello. So there was nothing to be done but
for Spohr to master the French horn at a day's
notice. At the expense of swollen and painful
lips, he managed this sufficiently to play the mu-
sic required with ease and precision. “Thus pre-
pared," he writes, “I and my pupils joined the
other musicians, and, as each carried his instru-
ment under his arm, we reached our place with-
out opposition. We found the saloon in which the
theatre had been erected already brilliantly lit up
70
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
and filled with the numerous suites of the sover-
eigns. The seats for Napoleon and his guests
were right behind the orchestra. Shortly after,
the most able of my pupils, to whom I had as-
signed the direction of the music, and under
whose leadership I had placed myself as a new-
fledged hornist, had tuned up the orchestra,
the high personages made their appearance, and
the overture began. The orchestra, with their
faces turned to the stage, stood in a long row,
and each was strictly forbidden to turn around
and look with curiosity at the sovereigns. As I
had received notice of this beforehand, I had pro-
vided myself secretly with a small looking-glass,
by the help of which, as soon as the music was
ended, I was enabled to obtain in succession a
good view of those who directed the destinies of
Europe. Nevertheless, I was soon so engrossed
with the magnificent acting of the tragic artists
that I abandoned my mirror to my pupils, and
directed my whole attention to the stage. But
at every succeeding entr’acte the pain of my lips
increased, and at the close of the performance
they had become so much swollen and blistered
that in the evening I could scarcely eat any sup-
per. Even the next day, on my return to Gotha,
my lips had a very negro-like appearance, and my
young wife was not a little alarmed when she saw
But she was yet more nettled when I told
her that it was from kissing to such excess the
me.
LUDWIG SPOHR.
171
pretty Erfurt women. When I had related, how-
ever, the history of my lessons on the horn, she
laughed heartily at my expense."
In October, 1809, Spohr and bis wife started
on an art journey to Russia, but they were re-
called by the court chamberlain, who said that
the duchess could not spare them from the court
concerts, but would liberally indemnify them for
the loss. Spohr returned and remained at home
for nearly three years, during which time he com-
posed a number of important works for orchestra
and for the violin. In 1812 a visit to Vienna, dur-
ing which he gave a series of concerts, so delighted
the Viennese that Spohr was offered the direction
of the Ander Wien theatre at a salary three times
that received at Gotha, besides valuable emolu-
ments. This, and the assurance of Count Palffy,
the imperial intendant, that he meant to make the
orchestra the finest in Europe, induced Spohr to
accept the offer.
When it became necessary for our musician to
search for a domicile in Vienna, he met with an-
other piece of good fortune. One morning a gen-
tleman waited on him, introducing himself as a
wealthy clock manufacturer and a passionate lover
of music. The stranger made an eccentric propo-
sition. Spohr should hand over to him all that
he should compose or had composed for Vienna
during the term of three years, the original scores
to be his sole property during that time, and
6
72
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Spohr not even to retain a copy.
- But are they
not to be performed during that time?” “Oh,
yes! as often as possible ; but each time on my
lending them for that purpose, and when I can
be present myself.” The bargain was struck, and
the ardent connoisseur agreed to pay thirty ducats
for a string quartet, five and thirty for a quin-
tet, forty for a sextet, etc., according to the
style of composition. Two works were sold on
the spot, and Spohr said he should devote the
money to house-furnishing. Herr Von Tost un-
dertook to provide the furniture complete, and
the two made a tour among the most fashionable
shops. When Spohr protested against purchasing
articles of extreme beauty and luxury, Von Tost
said, “ Make yourself easy, I shall require no cash
settlement. You will soon square all accounts
with your manuscripts.” So the Spohr domicile
was magnificently furnished from kitchen to at-
tic, more fitly, as the musician said, for a royal
dignitary or a rich merchant than for a poor ar-
tist. Von Tost claimed he would gain two re-
sults : “First, I wish to be invited to all the con-
certs and musical circles in which you will play
your compositions, and to do this I must have
your scores in my possession ; secondly, in possess-
ing such treasures of art, I hope upon my business
journeys to make a large acquaintance among the
lovers of music, which I may turn to account in
my manufacturing interests." Let us hope that
LUDWIG SPOHR.
73
this commercial enthusiast found his calcula-
tions verified by results.
Spohr soon gave two important new works to
the musical world, the opera of “Faust," and the
cantata, “The Liberation of Germany,” neither
of which, however, was immediately produced.
Weber brought out “Faust” at Prague in 1816,
and the cantata was first performed at Franken-
hausen in 1815, at a musical festival on the anni-
versary of the battle of Leipsic, a battle which
turned the scale of Napoleon's career. The same
year (1815) also witnessed the quarrel between
Spohr and Count Palffy, which resulted in the
rupture of the former's engagement. Spohr de-
termined to make a long tour through Germany,
Switzerland, and Italy. Before shaking the dust
of Vienna from his feet, he sold the Von Tost
household at auction, and the sum realized was
even larger than what had been paid for it, so
vivid were the public curiosity and interest in view
of the strange bargain under which the furni-
ture had been bought. On the 18th of March,
1815, Louis Spohr, with his beloved Dorette and
young family, which had increased with truly
German fecundity, bade farewell to Vienna.
Two years of concert-giving and sight-seeing
swiftly passed, to the great augmentation of the
German violinist's fame. On Spohr's return home
he was invited to become the opera and music
director of the Frankfort Theatre, and for two
174
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
years more he labored arduously at this post.
He produced the opera of “Zemire and Azar”
(founled on the fairy fable of “ Beauty and the
Beast”) during this period among other works,
and it was very enthusiastically received by the
public. This opera was afterward given in Lon-
don, in English, with great success, though the
opinion of the critics was that it was too scientific
for the English taste.
IV.
LOUIS SPOHR's first visit to England was in
1820, whither he went on invitation of the Phil-
harmonic Society. He gives an amusing account
of his first day in London, on the streets of which
city he appeared in a most brilliantly colored
shawl waistcoat, and narrowly escaped being pelted
by the enraged mob, for the English people
were then in mourning for the death of George
III, which had recently occurred, and Spohr's gay
attire was construed as a public insult. He played
several of his own works at the opening Philhar-
monic concert, and the brilliant veteran of the
violin, Viotti, to become whose pupil had once
been Spohr's darling but ungratified dream, ex-
pressed the greatest admiration of the German
virtuoso's magnificent playing. The « Autobi-
ography” relates an amusing interview of Spohr
with the head of the Rothschild's banking estab-
lishment, to whom he had brought a letter of
.
LUDWIG SPOHR.
75
introduction from the Frankfort Rothschild, as
well as a letter of credit. " After Rothschild had
taken both letters from me and glanced hastily
over them, he said to me, in a subdued tone of
voice, 'I have just read (pointing to the “Times")
that you manage your business very efficiently ;
but I understand nothing of music. This is my
music (slapping his purse); they understand that
on the exchange.' Upon which with a nod of the
head he terminated the audience. But just as I
had reached the door he called after me, 'You can
come out and dine with me at my country house.'
A few days afterward Mme. Rothschild also in-
vited me to dinner, but I did not go, though she
repeated the invitation."
While in London on this visit Spohr com-
posed his B flat Symphony, which was given by
the Philharmonic Society under the direction of
the composer himself, and, as he tells us in his
Autobiography,” it was played better than he
ever heard it afterward. His English reception, on
the whole, was a very cordial one, and he secured a
very high place in public estimation, both as a
violinist and orchestral composer.
On returning
to Germany, Spohr gave a series of concerts, dur-
ing which time he produced his great D minor
violin concerto, making a great sensation with it.
He had not yet visited Paris in a professional way,
and in the winter of 1821 he turned his steps
thitherward, in answer to a pressing invitation
66
1776
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
from the musicians of that great capital. On
January 20th he made his début before a French
audience, and gave a programme mostly of his
own compositions. Spohr asserts that the satisfac-
tion of the audience was enthusiastically ex-
pressed, but the fact that he did not repeat the
entertainment would suggest a suspicion that the
impression he made was not fully to his liking.
It
may
be he did not dare take the risk in a city
so full of musical attractions of every description.
Certainly he did not like the French, though his
reception from the artists and literati was of the
most friendly sort. He was disgusted “ with the
ridiculous vanity of the Parisians." He writes:
“When one or other of their musicians plays any-
thing, they say, Well! can you boast of that in
Germany ? Or when they introduce to you one
of their distinguished artists, they do not call
him the first in Paris, but at once the first in the
world, although no nation knows less what other
countries possess than they do, in their-for their
vanity's sake most fortunate-ignorance."
Spohr's appointment to the directorship of the
court theatre at Cassel occurred in the winter of
1822, and he confesses his pleasure in the post, as
he believed he could make its fine orchestra one
of the most celebrated in Germany. He remained
in this position for about thirty years, and during
that time Cassel became one of the greatest musi-
cal centers of the country. His labors were assidu-
LUDWIG SPOHR.
77
ous, for he had the true tireless German industry,
and he soon gave the world his opera of " Jesson-
da,” which was first produced on July 28, 1823,
with marked success. “Jessonda” has always
kept its hold on the German stage, though it was
not received with much favor elsewhere. Another
opera, “Der Berg Geist” ("The Mountain Spir-
it”), quickly followed, the work having been writ-
ten to celebrate the marriage of the Princess of
Hesse with the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. One
of his most celebrated compositions, the oratorio
“Die Letzten Dinge” (“The Last Judgment”),
which is more familiar to English-speaking peo-
ples than any other work of Spohr, was first per-
formed on Good Friday, 1826, and was recognized
from the first as a production of masterly excel-
lence. Spohr's ability as a composer of sacred
music would have been more distinctly accepted,
had it not been that Handel, Haydn, and, in more
recent years, Mendelssohn, raised the ideal of the
oratorio so high that only the very loftiest musi-
cal genius is considered fit to reign in this sphere.
The director of the Cassel theatre continued
indefatigable in producing works of greater or
less excellence, chamber-music, symphonies, and
operas. Among the latter, attention may be
called to “ Pietro Albano" and the "Alchemist,"
clever but in no sense brilliant works, though,
as it became the fashion in Germany to indulge
in enthusiasm over Spohr, they were warmly
78
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
praised at home. The best known of his orches-
tral works, “Die Weihe der Töne” (“The Power
of Sound”), a symphony of unquestionable great-
ness, was produced in 1832. We are told that
Spohr had been reading a volume of poems which
his deceased friend Pfeiffer had left behind him,
when he alighted on “Die Weihe der Töne," and
the words delighted him so much that he thought
of using them as the basis of a cantata. But he
changed his purpose, and finally decided to deline-
ate the subject of the poem in orchestral composi-
tion. The finest of all Spohr's symphonies was
the outcome, a work which ranks high among
compositions of this class. His toil on the new
oratorio of “Calvary” was sadly interrupted by
the death of his beloved wife Dorette, who had
borne him a large family, and had been his most
sympathetic and devoted companion. Spohr was
so broken down by this calamity that it was seva
eral months before he could resume his labors, and
it was because Dorette during her illness had felt
such a deep interest in the progress of the work
that the desolate husband so soon plucked heart to
begin again. When the oratorio was produced
on Good Friday, 1835, Spohr records in his diary :
“The thought that my wife did not live to listen
to its first performance sensibly lessened the satis-
faction I felt at this my most successful work."
This oratorio was not given in England till 1839,
at the Norwich festival, Spohr being present to
LUDWIG SPOHR.
79
1
conduct it. The zealous and narrow-minded
clergy of the day preached bitterly against it as a
desecration, and one fierce bigot hurled his dia-
tribes against the composer, when the latter was
present in the cathedral. A journal of the day
describes the scene : “We now see the fanatical
zealot in the pulpit, and sitting right opposite to
him the great composer, with ears happily deaf
to the English tongue, but with a demeanor so
becoming, with a look so full of pure good-will,
and with so much humility and mildness in the
features, that his countenance alone spoke to the
heart like a good sermon.
Without intending it,
we make a comparison, and can not for a moment
doubt in which of the two dwelt the spirit of re-
ligion which denoted the true Christian.”
Spohr had been two years a widower when he
became enamored of one of the daughters of Court
Councilor Pfeiffer. He tells us he had long been
acquainted with the high and varied intellectual
culture of the two sisters, and so I became fully
resolved to sue for the hand of the elder, Mari-
anne, whose knowledge of music and skill in piano-
forte playing I had already observed when she
sometimes gave her assistance at the concerts of
the St. Cecilia Society. As I had not the courage
to propose to her by word of mouth, there being
more than twenty years difference in our ages, I
put the question to her in writing, and added, in
excuse for my courtship, the assurance that I was
80
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
as yet perfectly free from the infirmities of age.”
The proposition was accepted, and they were mar-
ried without delay on January 3, 1836. The
bridal couple made a long journey through the
principal German cities, and were universally re-
ceived with great rejoicings. Musical parties and
banquets were everywhere arranged for them, at
which Spohr and his young wife delighted every
one by their splendid playing. The “Histori-
cal” symphony, descriptive of the music and
characteristics of different periods, was finished in
1839, and made a very favorable impression both
in Germany and England. Spohr had now be-
come quite at home in England, where his music
was much liked, and during different years went
to the country, where oratorio music is more ap-
preciated than anywhere else in the musical
world, to conduct the Norwich festival. One of
his most successful compositions of this descrip-
tion, “The Fall of Babylon," was written ex-
pressly for the festival of 1842. When it was
given the next year in London under Spohr's own
direction, the president of the Sacred Harmonic
Society presented the composer at the close of the
performance with a superb silver testimonial in
the name of the society.
زر
V.
LOUIS SPOhr had now become one of the pa-
triarchs of music, for his life spanned a longer
LUDWIG SPOER.
81
arch in the history of the art than any contempo-
rary except Cherubini. He was seven years old
when Mozart died, and before Haydn had departed
from this life Spohr had already begun to acquire
a name as a violinist and composer. He lived to
be the friend of Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Liszt,
and Wagner. Everywhere he was held in vener-
ation, even by those who did not fully sympathize
with his musical works, for his career had been
one of great fecundity in art. In addition to his
rank as one of the few very great violin virtuosos,
he had been indefatigable in the production of
compositions in nearly all styles, and every coun-
try of Europe recognized his place as a musician
of supereminent talent, if not of genius, one who
had profoundly influenced contemporary music,
even if he should not mold the art of succeeding
ages. Testimonials of admiration and respect
poured in on him from every quarter.
He composed the opera of “The Crusaders ”
in 1845, and he was invited to conduct the first
performance in Berlin. He relates two pleasing
incidents in his “Autobiography." He had been
invited to a select dinner party given at the royal
palace, and between the king and Spohr, who
was seated opposite, there intervened an orna-
mental centerpiece of considerable height in the
shape of a flower vase. This greatly interfered
with the enjoyment by the king of Spohr’s con-
versation. At last his Majesty, growing impa-
82
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
tient, removed the impediment with his own
hands, so that he had a full view of Spohr.
The other incident was a pleasing surprise
from his colleagues in art. He was a guest of
the Wickmann family, and they were all gath-
ered in the illuminated garden saloon, when there
entered through the gloom of the garden a num-
ber of dark figures swiftly following each other,
who proved to be the members of the royal or-
chestra, with Meyerbeer and Taubert at their
head. The senior member then presented Spohr
with a beautifully executed gold laurel-wreath,
while Meyerbeer made a speech full of feeling, in
which he thanked him for his enthusiastic love
of German art, and for all the grand and beautiful
works which he had created, specially “The Cru-
saders.” The twenty-fifth anniversary of Spohr's
connection with the court theatre of Cassel oc-
curred in 1847, and was to have been celebrated
with a great festival. The death of Felix Bar-
tholdy Mendelssohn cast a great gloom over musi-
cal Germany that year, so the festival was held not
in honor of Spohr, but as a solemn memorial of
the departed genius whose name is a household
word among all those who love the art he so
splendidly illustrated.
Spohr's next production was the fine sym-
phony known as “The Seasons," one of the
most picturesque and expressive of his orchestral
works, in which he depicts with rich musical
LUDWIG SPOHR.
83
66
color the vicissitudes of the year and the associa-
tions clustering around them. This symphony was
followed by his seventh quintet, in G minor, an-
other string quartet, the thirty-second, and a series
of pieces for the violin and piano, and in 1852
we find the indefatigable composer busy in re-
modeling his opera of “Faust” for production
by Mr. Gye, in London. It was produced with
great splendor in the English capital, and con-
ducted by Spohr himself; but it did not prove a
great success, a deep disappointment to Spohr,
who fondly believed this work to be his master-
piece. “On this occasion,” writes a very com-
petent critic, à propos of the first performance,
there was a certain amount of heaviness about
the performance which told very much against
the probability of that opera ever becoming a fa-
vorite with the Royal Italian Opera subscribers.
Nothing could possibly exceed the poetical grace
of Ronconi in the title rôle, or surpass the pro-
priety and expression of his singing. Mme. Cas-
tellan's Cunegonda was also exceedingly well sung,
and Tamberlik outdid himself by his thorough
comprehension of the music, the splendor of his
voice, and the refinement of his vocalization in
the character of Ugo. . . . The Mephistopheles
of Herr Formes was a remarkable personation,
being truly demoniacal in the play of his counte-
nance, and as characteristic as any one of Retsch's
drawings of Goethe's fiend-tempter. His singing
84
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
being specially German was in every way well
suited to the occasion." In spite of the excel-
lence of the interpretation, Spohr's "Faust" did
not take any hold on the lovers of music in Eng-
land, and even in Germany, where Spohr is held
in great reverence, it presents but little attraction.
The closing years of Spohr's active life as a
musician were devoted to that species of compo-
sition where he showed indubitable title to be
considered a man of genius, works for the violin
and chamber music. He himself did not recog-
nize his decadence of energy and musical vigor ;
but the veteran was more than seventy years old,
and his royal master resolved to put his baton in
younger and fresher hands. So he was retired
from service with an annual pension of fifteen
hundred thalers. Spohr felt this deeply, but he
had scarcely reconciled himself to the change when
a more serious casualty befell him. He fell and
broke his left arm, which never gained enough
strength for him to hold the beloved instrument
again. It had been the great joy and solace of his
life to play, and, now that in his old age he was
deprived of this comfort, he was ready to die.
Only once more did he make a public appearance.
In the spring of 1859 he journeyed to Meiningen
to direct a concert on behalf of a charitable fund.
An ovation was given to the aged master. A colos-
sal bust of himself was placed on the stage, arched
with festoons of palm and laurel, and the con-
LUDWIG SPOHR.
85
ductor's stand was almost buried in flowers. He
was received with thunders of welcome, which
were again and again reiterated, and at the close
of the performance he could hardly escape for
the eager throng who wished to press his hand.
Spohr died on October 22, 1859, after a few days'
illness, and in his death Germany at least recog-
nized the loss of one of its most accomplished and
versatile if not greatest composers.
VI.
DR. LUDWIG SPOHR's fame as a composer has
far overshadowed his reputation as a violin vir-
tuoso, but the most capable musical critics unite
in the opinion that that rare quality, which we
denominate genius, was principally shown in his
wonderful power as a player, and his works writ-
ten for the violin. Spohr was a man of immense
self-assertion, and believed in the greatness of his
own musical genius as a composer in the higher
domain of his art. His “Autobiography," one
of the most fresh, racy, and interesting works of
the kind ever written, is full of varied illustra-
tions of what Chorley stigmatizes his “bovine
self-conceit." His fecund production of sym
phony, oratorio, and opera, as well as of the more
elaborate forms of chamber music, for a period of
forty years or more, proves how deep was his con-
viction of his own powers. Indeed, he half con-
fesses himself that he is only willing to be rated
86
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
a little less than Beethoven. Spohr was singu.
larly meager, for the most part, in musical ideas
and freshness of melody, but he was a profound
master of the orchestra; and in that variety and
richness of resources which give to tone-creations
the splendor of color, which is one of the great
charms of instrumental music, Spohr is inferior
only to Wagner among modern symphonists.
Spohr's more pretentious works are a singular
union of meagerness of idea with the most pol-
ished richness of manner; but, in imagination and
thought, he is far the inferior of those whose
knowledge of treating the orchestra and contra-
puntal skill could not compare with his. There
are more vigor and originality in one of Schu-
bert's greater symphonies than in all the multi-
tudinous works of the same class ever written by
Spohr. In Spohr's compositions for the violin
as a solo instrument, however, he stands unri.
valed, for here his true genre as a man of crea-
tive genius stamps itself unmistakably.
Before the coming of Spohr violin music had
been illustrated by a succession of virtuosos,
French and Italian, who, though melodiously
charming, planned in their works and execution
to exhibit the effects and graces of the players
themselves instead of the instrument. Paganini
carried this tendency to its most remarkable and
fascinating extreme, but Spohr founded a new
style of violin playing, on which the greatest
LUDWIG SPOHR.
87
modern performers who have grown up since his
prime have assiduously modeled themselves. Mo-
zart had written solid and simple concertos in
which the performer was expected to embroider
and finish the composer's sketch. This required
genius and skill under instant command, instead
of merely phenomenal execution. Again, Bee-
thoven's concertos were so written as to make
the solo player merely one of the orchestra,
chaining him in bonds only to set him free to
deliver the cadenza. This species of self-efface-
ment does not consort with the purpose of solo
playing, which is display, though under that
display there should be power, mastery, and re-
source of thought, and not the 'trickery of the
accomplished juggler. Spohr in his violin music
most felicitously accomplished this, and he is
simply incomparable in his compromise between
what is severe and classical, and what is suave
and delightful, or passionately exciting. In these
works the musician finds nerve, sparkle, élan,
and brightness combined with technical charm
and richness of thought. Spohr's unconscious
and spontaneous force in this direction was the
direct outcome of his remarkable power as a solo
player, or, more properly, gathered its life-like play
and strength from the latter fact. It may be
said of Spohr that, as Mozart raised opera to a
higher standard, as Beethoven uplifted the ideal
of the orchestra, as Clementi laid a solid founda-
7 7
88
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
tion for piano-playing, so Spolr's creative force
as a violinist and writer for the violin has estab-
lished the grandest school for this instrument, to
which all the foremost contemporary artists ac-
knowledge their obligations.
Dr. Spohr's style as a player, while remark-
able for its display of technique and command
of resource, always subordinated mere display to
the purpose of the music. The Italians called
him “the first singer on the violin,” and his
profound musical knowledge enabled him to pro-
duce effects in a perfectly legitimate manner,
where other players had recourse to meretricious
and dazzling exhibition of skill. His title to
recollection in the history of music will not be
so much that of a great general composer, but
that of the greatest of composers for the violin,
and the one who taught violinists that height of
excellence as an excutant should go hand in
hand with good taste and self-restraint, to pro
duce its most permanent effects and exert its
most vital influence.

NICOLO PAGANINI.
.
.
NICOLO PAGANINI.
Tae Birth of the Greatest of Violinists.-His Mother's Dream.-
Extraordinary Character and Genius.--Heine's Description of
his Playing.---Leigh Hunt on Paganini.-Superstitious Rumors
current during bis Life.—He is believed to be a Demoniac.
His Stranye Appearance.—Early Training and Surroundings.
-Anecdotes of his Youth.–Paganini's Youthful Dissipations.
-His Passion for Gambling.—He acquires his Wonderful
Guarnerius Violin.-His Reform from the Gaming-table.-
Indefatigable Practice and Work as a Young Artist.-Paga-
nini as a Preux Chevalier.—His Powerful Attraction for Wo-
men.- Episode with a Lady of Rank.-Anecdotes of his Early
Italian Concertizing:—The Imbroglio at Ferrara.--The Frail
Health of Paganini.- Wonderful Success at Milan, where he
first plays One of the Greatest of his Compositions, “Le
Streghe." —Duel with Lafont.-Incidents and Anecdotes. -
His First Visit to Germany. -Great Enthusiasm of his Audi-
ences.-Experiences at Vienna, Berlin, and other German
Cities. -Description of Paganini, in Paris, by Castil-Blaze and
Fetis.—His English Reception and the Impression made.-
Opinions of the Critics.-Paganini not pleased with England.
-Settles in Paris for Two Years, and becomes the Great Musical
Lion.-Simplicity and Amiability of Nature.—Magnificent
Generosity to Hector Berlioz.—The Great Fortune made by
Paganini.—His Beautiful Country Seat near Parma.--Au Un-
fortunate Speculation in Paris. --The Utter Failure of his
Health.-His Death at Nice.-Characteristics and Anecdotes.
-Interesting Circumstances of his Last Moments.--The Pecu-
liar Genius of Paganini, and his Influence on Art.
I.
In the latter part of the last century an Ital-
ian woman of Genoa had a dream which she thus
90
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
related to her little son : My son, you will be
a great musician. An angel radiant with beauty
appeared to me during the night and promised to
accomplish any wish that I might make. I asked
that you should become the greatest of all violin-
ists, and the angel granted that my desire should
be fulfilled.” The child who was thus addressed
became that incomparable artist, Paganini, whose
name now, a glorious tradition, is used as a stan-
dard by which to estimate the excellence of those
who have succeeded him.
. No artist ever lived who so piqued public curi-
osity, and invested himself with a species of weird
romance, which compassed him as with a cloud.
The personality of the individual so unique and
extraordinary, the genius of the artist so tran-
scendant in its way, the mystery which surrounded
all the movements of the man, conspired to make
him an object of such interest that the announce-
ment of a concert by him in any European city
made as much stir as some great public event.
Crowds followed his strange figure in the streets
wherever he went, and, had the time been the me-
diæval ages, he himself a celebrated magician or
sorcerer, credited with power over the spirits of
earth and air, his appearance could not have
aroused a thrill of attention more absorbing.
Over men of genius, as well as the commonplace
herd, he cast the same spell, stamping himself as
a personage who could be compared with no other.
NICOLO PAGANINI.
91
The German poet Heine thus describes his first
acquaintance with this paragon of violinists :
“It was in the theatre at Hamburg that I
first heard Paganini's violin. Although it was
fast-day, all the commercial magnates of the town
were present in the front boxes, the goddesses
Juno of Wandrahm, and the goddesses Aphro-
dite of Dreckwall. A religious hush pervaded
the whole assembly ; every eye was directed to-
ward the stage, every ear was strained for hear-
ing: At last a dark figure, which seemed to
ascend from the under world, appeared on the
stage. It was Paganini in full evening dress,
black coat and waistcoat cut after a most villain-
ous pattern, such as is perhaps in accordance with
the infernal etiquette of the court of Proserpine,
and black trousers fitting awkwardly to his thin
legs. His long arms appeared still longer as he
advanced, holding in one hand his violin, and in
the other the bow, hanging down so as almost to
touch the ground--all the while making a series
of extraordinary reverences. In the angular con-
tortions of his body there was something so pain-
fully wooden, and also something so like the move-
ments of a droll animal, that a strange disposition
to laughter overcame the audience; but his face,
which the glaring footlights caused to assume an
even more corpse-like aspect than was natural to
it, had in it something so appealing, something
so imbecile and meek, that a strange feeling of
92
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
i
compassion removed all tendency to laughter
Had he learned these reverences from an automa-
ton or a performing dog ? Is this beseeching look
the look of one who is sick unto death, or does
there lurk behind it the mocking cunning of a
miser ? Is that a mortal who in the agony of
death stands before the public in the art arena,
and, like a dying gladiator, bids for their applause
in his last convulsions? or is it some phantom
arisen from the grave, a vampire with a violin,
who comes to suck, if not the blood from our
hearts, at least the money from our pockets ?
Questions such as these kept chasing each other
through the brain while Paganini continued his
apparently interminable series of complimentary
bows; but all such questionings instantly take
flight the moment the great master puts his violin
to his chin and began to play.
“Then were heard melodies such as the nightin-
gale pours forth in the gloaming when the perfume
of the rose intoxicates her heart with sweet fore-
bodings of spring! What melting, sensuously
languishing notes of bliss ! Tones that kissed,
then poutingly fled from another, and at last em-
braced and became one, and died away in the eco
stasy of union! Again, there were heard sounds
like the song of the fallen angels, who, banished
from the realms of bliss, sink with shame-red coun-
tenance to the lower world. These were sounds
out of whose bottomless depth gleamed no ray of
NICOLO PAGANINI.
93
hope or comfort ; when the blessed in heaven hear
them, the praises of God die away upon their
pallid lips, and, sighing, they veil their holy faces."
Leigh Hunt, in one of his essays, thus de-
scribes the playing of this greatest of all virtu-
osos : “Paganini, the first time I saw and heard
him, and the first moment he struck a note,
seemed literally to strike it, to give it a blow.
The house was so crammed that, being among the
squeezers in the standing room at the side of the
pit, I happened to catch the first glance of his
face through the arms akimbo of a man who was
perched up before me, which made a kind of frame
for it; and there on the stage through that frame,
as through a perspective glass, were the face, the
bust, and the raised hand of the wonderful mu-
sician, with the instrument at his chin, just going
to begin, and looking exactly as I describe him in
the following lines :
“ His hand,
Loading the air with dumb expectancy,
Suspended, ere it fell, a nation's breath.
He smote ; and clinging to the serious chords
With Godlike ravishment drew forth a breath,
So deep, so strong, so fervid, thick with love
Blissful, yet laden as with twenty prayers-
That Juno yearned with no diviner soul
To the first burthen of the lips of Jove.
The exceeding mystery of the loveliness
Sadden'd delight; and, with his mournful look,
Dreary and gaunt, hanging his pallid face
94
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Twixt his dark flowing locks, he almost seemed
Too feeble, or to melancholy eyes
One that has parted from his soul for pride,
And in the sable secret lived forlorn.
"To show the depth and identicalness of the
impression which he made on everybody, foreign
or native, an Italian who stood near me said to
himself, with a long sigh, O Dio!' and this had
not been said long, when another person in the
same tone uttered Oh Christ !' Musicians pressed
forward from behind the scenes to get as close
to him as possible, and they could not sleep at
night for thinking of him.”
The impression made by Paganini was some-
thing more than that of a great, even the great-
est, violinist. It was as if some demoniac power
lay behind the human, prisoned and dumb except
through the agencies of music, but able to fill
expression with faint, far-away cries of passion,
anguish, love, and aspiration-echoes from the
supernatural and invisible. His hearers forgot
the admiration due to the wonderful virtuoso,
and seemed to listen to voices from another world.
The strange rumors that were current about him,
Paganini seems to have been not disinclined to en-
courage, for, mingled with his extraordinary gen-
ius, there was an element of charlatanism. It
was commonly reported that his wonderful execu-
tion on the G-string was due to a long imprison-
ment, inflicted on him for the assassination of a
NICOLO PAGANINI.
95
rival in love, during which he had a violin with
one string only. Paganini himself writes that,
“At Vienna one of the audience affirmed publicly
that my performance was not surprising, for he
had distinctly seen, while I was playing my varia-
tions, the devil at my elbow, directing my arm
and guiding my bow. My resemblance to the
devil was a proof of my origin. Even sensible
people believed that Paganini had some uncanny
and unlawful secret which enabled him to do what
was impossible for other players. At Prague he
actually printed a letter from his mother to prove
that he was not the son of the devil. It was not
only the perfectly novel and astonishing charac-
ter of his playing, but to a large extent his ghost-
like appearance, which caused such absurd rumors.
The tall, skeleton-like figure, the pale, narrow, wax-
colored face, the long, dark, disheveled hair, the
mysterious expression of the heavy eye, made a
weirdly strange ensemble. Heine tells us in “The
Florentine Nights” that only one artist had suc-
ceeded in delineating the real physiognomy of
Paganini: “A deaf and crazy painter, called
Lyser, has in a sort of spiritual frenzy so admira-
bly portrayed by a few touches of his pencil the
head of Paganini that one is dismayed and moved
to laughter at the faithfulness of the sketch !
"The devil guided my hand,' said the deaf painter
to me, with mysterious gesticulations and a satiri-
cal yet good-natured wag of the head, such as he
96
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
I
was wont to indulge in when in the midst of his
genial tomfoolery."
II.
NICOLO PAGANINI was born at Genoa on the
night of February 18, 1784, of parents in hum-
bly prosperous circumstances, his father being a
ship-broker, and, though illiterate in a general
way, a passionate lover of music and an amateur
of some skill. The father soon perceived the
child's talent, and caused him to study so severely
that it not only affected his constitution, but
actually made him a tolerable player at the age
of six years. The elder Paganini's knowledge of
music was not sufficient to carry the lad far in
mastering the instrument, but the extraordinary
precocity shown so interested Signor Corvetto,
the leader at the Genoese theatre, that he under-
took to instruct the gifted child.
later the young Paganini was transferred to the
charge of Signor Giacomo Costa, an excellent
violinist, and director of church music at one of
the cathedrals, under whom he made rapid prog-
ress in executive skill, while he studied harmony
and counterpoint under the composer Gnecco.
It was at this time, Paganini not yet being nine
years of age, that he composed his first piece, a
sonata now lost. In 1793 he made his first ap-
pearance in public at Genoa, and played varia-
tions on the air “La Carmagnole,” then so popu-
lar, with immense effect. This début was followed
Two years
NICOLO PAGANINI.
97
by several subsequent appearances, in which he
created much enthusiasm. He also played a vio-
lin concerto every Sunday in church, an attrac-
tion which drew great throngs. This practice was
of great use to Paganini, as it forced him con-
tinually to study fresh music. About the year
1795 it was deemed best to place the boy under
the charge of an eminent professor, and Alessan-
dro Rolla, of Parma, was pitched on. When the
Paganinis arrived, they found the learned profes-
sor ill, and rather surly at the disturbance. Young
Paganini, however, speedily silenced the com-
plaints of the querulous invalid.
The great
player himself relates the anecdote : “His wife
showed us into a room adjoining the bedroom,
till she had spoken to the sick man. Finding on
the table a violin and the music of Rolla's latest
concerto, I took up the instrument and played
the piece at sight. Astonished at what he heard,
the composer asked for the name of the player,
and could not believe it was only a young boy till
he had seen for himself. He then told me that
he had nothing to teach me, and advised me to go
to Paër for study in composition.” But, as Paër
was at this time in Germany, Paganini studied
under Ghiretti and Rolla himself while he re-
mained in Parma, according to the monograph of
Fetis.
The youthful player had already begun to
search out new effects on the violin, and to create
98
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
for himself characteristics of tone and treatment
hitherto unknown to players. After his return
to Genoa he composed his first “ Études,” which
were of such unheard-of difficulty that he was
sometimes obliged to practice a single passage ten
hours running. His intense study resulted not
only in his acquirement of an unlimited execution,
but in breaking down his health. His father was
a harsh and inexorable taskmaster, and up to this
time Paganini (now being fourteen) had remained
quiescent under this tyrant's control. But the
desire of liberty was breeding projects in his
breast, which opportunity soon favored. He man-
aged to get permission to travel alone for the first
time to Lucca, where he had engaged to play at
the musical festival in November, 1798. He was
received with so much enthusiasm that he deter-
mined not to return to the paternal roof, and at
once set off to fulfill engagements at Pisa and
other towns. In vain the angry and mortified
father sought to reclaim the young rebel who had
slipped through his fingers. Nicolo found the
sweets of freedom too precious to go back again
to bondage, though he continued to send his
father a portion of the proceeds of his playing.
The youth, intoxicated with the license of his
life, plunged into all kinds of dissipation, specially
into gambling, at this time a universal vice in
Italy, as indeed it was throughout Europe. Al-
ternate fits of study and gaming, both of which
NICOLO PAGANINI.
99
he pursued with equal zeal, and the exhaustion
of the life he led, operated dangerously on his en-
feebled frame, and fits of illness frequently pre-
vented his fulfillment of concert engagements.
More than once he wasted in one evening the
proceeds of several concerts, and was obliged to
borrow money on his violin, the source of his
livelihood, in order to obtain funds wherewith to
pay his gambling debts. Anything more wild,
debilitating, and ruinous than the life led by this
boy, who had barely emerged from childhood, can
hardly be imagined. On one occasion he was
announced for a concert at Leghorn, but he had
gambled away his money and pawned his vio-
lin, so that he was compelled to get the loan of
an instrument in order to play in the evening.
In this emergency he applied to M. Livron,
French gentleman, a merchant of Leghorn, and
an excellent amateur performer, who possessed a
Guarneri del Gesù violin, reputed among con-
noisseurs one of the finest instruments in the
world. The generous Frenchman instantly ac-
ceded to the boy's wish, and the precious violin
was put in his hands. After the concert, when
Paganini returned the instrument to M. Livron,
the latter, who had been to hear him, exclaimed,
“Never will I profane the strings which your
fingers have touched! That instrument is yours.'
The astonishment and delight of the young artist
may be more easily imagined than described. It
а
100 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
- The
was upon this violin that Paganini afterward per-
formed in all his concerts, and the great virtuoso
left it to the town of Genoa, where it is now pre-
served in a glass case in the Museum. An excel-
lent engraving of it, from a photograph, was pub-
lished in 1875 in George Hart's book on
Violin.”
At this period of his life, between the ages of
seventeen and twenty, Nicolo Paganini was sur-
rounded by numerous admirers, and led into all
kinds of dissipation. He was naturally amiable
and witty in conversation, though he has been
reproached with selfishness. There can be no
doubt that he was, at this period, constantly un-
der the combined influences of flattery and un-
bounded ambition ; nevertheless, in spite of all his
successful performances at concerts, the style of
life he was leading kept him so poor that he fre-
quently took in hand all kinds of musical work to
supply the wants of the moment. It is a curious
coincidence that the fine violin which was present-
ed to him by M. Livron, as we have just seen,
was the cause of his abandoning, after a while, the
allurements of the gaming-tables. Paganini tells
us himself that a certain nobleman was anxious
to possess this instrument, and had offered for it
a sum equivalent to about four hundred dollars ;
but the artist would not sell it even if one thou-
sand had been offered for it, although he was, at
this juncture, in great need of funds to pay off a
NICOLO PAGANINI.
101
debt of honor, and sorely tempted to accept the
proffered amount. Just at this point Paganini
received an invitation to a friend's house where
gambling was the order of the day. “All my
capital,” he says, - consisted of thirty francs, as I
had disposed of my jewels, watch, rings, etc. ; I
nevertheless resolved on risking this last resource,
and, if fortune proved fickle, to sell my violin
and proceed to St. Petersburg, without instru-
ment or baggage, with the view of reëstablishing
my affairs. My thirty francs were soon reduced
to three, and I already fancied myself on the road
to Russia, when luck took a sudden turn, and I
won one hundred and sixty francs. This saved
my violin and completely set me up. From that
day forward I gradually gave up gaming, becom-
ing more and more convinced that a gambler
is an object of contempt to all well-regulated
minds."
III.
LOVE-MAKING was also among the diversions
which Paganini began early to practice. Like
nearly all great musicians, he was an object of
great fascination to the fair sex, and his life had
its full share of amorous romances. A strange
episode was his retirement in the country château
of a beautiful Bolognese lady for three years, be-
tween the years 1801 and 1804. Here, in the so-
ciety of a lovely woman, who was passionately
devoted to him, and amid beautiful scenery, he
102
1
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
devoted himself to practicing and composition,
also giving much study to the guitar (the favorite
instrument of liis inamorata), on which he became
a wonderful proficient. This charming idyl in
Paganini's life reminds one of the retirement of
the pianist Chopin to the island of Majorca in
the company of Mme. George Sand. It was dur-
ing this period of his life that Paganini composed
twelve of his finest sonatas for violin and guitar.
When our musician returned again to Genoa
and active life in 1804, he devoted much time
also to composition. He was twenty years of
age, and wrote here four grand quartets for vio-
lin, tenor, violoncello, and guitar, and also some
bravura variations for violin with guitar accom-
paniment. At this period he gave lessons to a
young girl of Genoa, Catherine Calcagno, about
seven years of age ; eight years later, when only
fifteen years old, this young lady astonished Ital-
ian audiences by the boldness of her style. She
continued her artistic career till the year 1816,
when she had attained the age of twenty-one, and
all traces of her in the musical world appear to
be lost; doubtless, at this period she found a hus-
band, and retired completely from public life.
In 1805 Paganini accepted the position of
director of music and conductor of the opera
orchestra at Lucca, under the immediate patron-
age of the Princess Eliza, sister of Napoleon and
wife of Bacciochi. The prince took lessons from
NICOLO PAGANİNİ.
103
him on the violin, and gave him whole charge
of the court music. It was at the numerous
concerts given at Lucca during this period of
Paganini's early career that he first elaborated
many of those curious effects, such as perform-
ances on one string, harmonic and pizzicato pas-
sages, which afterward became so characteristic
of his style.
But the demon of unrest would not permit
Paganini to remain very long in one place. In
1808 he began his wandering career of concert-
giving afresh, performing throughout northern
Italy, and amassing considerable money, for his
fame had now become so widespread that engage-
ments poured on him thick and fast. The les-
sons of his inconsiderate past had already made a
deep impression on his mind, and Paganini be-
came very economical, a tendency which after-
ward developed into an almost miserly passion for
money-getting and -saving, though, through his
whole life, he performed many acts of magnifi-
cent generosity. He had numerous curious ad-
ventures, some of which are worth recording. At
a concert in Leghorn he came on the stage, limp-
ing, from the effects of a nail which had run
into his foot. This made a great laugh. Just as
he began to play, the candles fell out of his music
desk, and again there was an uproar. Suddenly
the first string broke, and there was more hilari-
ty; but, says Paganini, naively, “I played the
8
104 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
piece on three strings, and the sneers quickly
changed into boisterous' applause." At Ferrara
he narrowly escaped an enraged audience with his
life. It had been arranged that a certain Signora
Marcolini should take part in his concert, but ill-
ness prevented her singing, and at the last moment
Paganini secured the services of Signora Pallerini,
who, though a danseuse, possessed an agreeable
voice. The lady was very nervous and diffident,
but sang exceedingly well, though there were a
few in the audience who were inconsiderate
enough to hiss. Paganini was furious at this in-
sult, and vowed to be avenged. At the end of the
concert he proposed to amuse the audience by
imitating the noises of various animals on his vio-
lin. After he had reproduced the mewing of a
cat, the barking of a dog, the crowing of a cock,
etc., he advanced to the footlights and called out,
“Questo è per quelli che han fischiato" (" This is
for those who hissed ”), and imitated in an unmis-
takable way the braying of the jackass. At this
the pit rose to a man, and charged through the
orchestra, climbed the stage, and would have
killed Paganini, had he not fled incontinently,
“standing not on the order of his going, but go-
ing at once.” The explanation of this sensitive-
ness of the audience is found in the fact that the
people of Ferrara had a general reputation for
stupidity, and the appearance of a Ferrarese out-
side of the town walls was the signal for a signifi-
NICOLO PAGANINI.
105
cant hee-haw. Paganini never gave any more con-
certs in that town.
As he approached his thirtieth year his deli-
cate and highly strung organization, already un-
dermined by the excesses of his early youth, began
to give way. He was frequently troubled with
internal inflammation, and he was obliged to regu-
late his habits in the strictest fashion as to diet
and hours of sleep. Even while comparatively
well, his health always continued to be very frail.
Paganini composed his remarkable variations
called “Le Streghe” (“The Witches”) at Milan
in 1813. In this composition, the air of which
was taken from a ballet by Sussmayer, called
“Il Noce de Benevento," at the part where the
witches appear in the piece as performed on the
stage, the violinist introduced many of his most
remarkable effects. He played this piece for
the first time at La Scala theatre, and he was
honored with the most tumultuous enthusiasm,
which for a long time prevented the progress of
the programme. Paganini always had a predi-
lection for Milan afterward, and said he enjoyed
giving concerts there more than at any other city
in Europe. He gave no less than thirty-seven con-
certs here in 1813. In this city, three years after-
ward, occurred his interesting musical duel with
Lafont, the well-known French violinist. Paga-
nini was then at Genoa, and, hearing of Lafont's
presence at Milan, at once hastened to that city to
106
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ور
hear him play. “His performance," said Pagani-
ni, “pleased me exceedingly.” When the Italian
violinist, a week later, gave a concert at La Scala,
Lafont was in the audience, and the very next
day he proposed that Paganini and himself should
play together at the same concert. “I excused
myself,” said Paganini, “alleging that such ex-
periments were impolitic, as the public invariably
looked upon these matters as duels, in which
there must be a victim, and that it would be so
in this case; for, as he was acknowledged to be
the best of the French violinists, so the public
indulgently considered me to be the best player
in Italy. Lafont not looking at it in this light,
I was obliged to accept the challenge. I allowed
him to arrange the programme. We each played
a concerto of our own composition, after which
we played together a duo concertante by Kreutz-
In this I did not deviate in the least from
the composer's text while we played together, but
in the solo parts I yielded freely to my own im-
agination, and introduced several novelties, which
seemed to annoy my adversary. Then followed
a ‘Russian Air,' with variations, by Lafont, and
I finished the concert with my variations called
'Le Streghe. Lafont probably surpassed me
in tone ; but the applause which followed my ef-
forts convinced me that I did not suffer by com-
parison.” There seems to be no question that
the victory remained with Paganini. A few years
er.
NICOLO PAGANINI.
107
later Paganini played in a similar contest with
the Polish violinist Lipinski, at Placentia. The
two artists, however, were intimate friends, and
there was not a spark of rivalry or jealousy in
their generous emulation. In fact, Paganini ap-
pears to have been utterly without that conceit
in his own extraordinary powers which is so
common in musical artists. Heine gives an
amusing illustration of this. He writes : “Once,
after listening to a concert by Paganini, as I was
addressing him with the most impassioned eulo-
gies on his violin-playing, he interrupted me with
the words, But how were you pleased to-day
with my compliments and reverences ?'” The
musician thought more of his genuflexions than
of his musical talent.
IV.
In the year 1817 Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Pag-
anini were at Rome during Carnival time, and
the trio determined on a grand frolic. Rossini
had composed a very clever part-song, “ Carnavale,
Carnavale," known in English as “We are Poor
Beggars," and the three great musicians, having
disguised themselves as beggars, sang it with great
effect through the streets. Rossini during this
Carnival produced his “ Cenerentola,” and Pag-
anini gave a series of concerts which excited
great enthusiasm. Shortly after this, Paganini's
health gave way completely at Naples, and the
landlord of the hotel where he was stopping got
108
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
the impression that his sickness was infectious.
In the most brutal manner he turned the sick mu-
sician into the street. Fortunately, at this moment
a violoncello player, Ciandelli, who knew Paga-
nini well, was passing by, and came to the rescue,
and his anger was so great, when he saw what had
happened to the great violinist, that he belabored
the barbarous landlord unmercifully with a stick,
and conveyed the invalid to a comfortable lodging
where he was carefully attended to. Some time
subsequently Paganini had an opportunity of re-
paying this kindness, for he gave Ciandelli some
valuable instruction, which enabled him in the
course of a few years to become transformed from
a very indifferent performer into an artist of con-
siderable eminence.
At the age of thirty-six Paganini again found
himself at Milan, and there organized a society
of musical amateurs, called “Gli Orfei.” HC
conducted several of their concerts. But either
the love of a roving life or the necessity of wan-
dering in order to fill his exchequer kept him
constantly on the move; and, though during
these travels he is said to have met with many
extraordinary adventures, very little reliance can
be placed upon the accounts that have come down
to us, the more so when we consider that Paga-
nini's mode of life was, as we shall see presently,
become by this time extremely sober. It was not
until he was forty-four years old that he finally
NICOLO PAGANINI,
109
the poor.
quitted Italy to make himself better known in
foreign countries. He had been encouraged to
visit Vienna by Prince Metternich, who had
heard and admired his playing at Rome in 1817,
and had repeatedly made plans to visit Germany,
but his health had been so wretched as to prevent
his departure from his native country. But a
sojourn in the balmy climate of Sicily for a few
months had done him so much good that in 1828
he put his long-deferred plans into execution.
The first concert in March of that year made an
unparalleled sensation. He gave a great number
of concerts in Vienna, among them several for
A fever seized all classes of society,
The shop windows were crowded with goods à la
Paganini; a good stroke at billiards was called
un coup à la Paganini; dishes were named after
him ; his portrait was enameled on snuff-boxes,
and the Viennese dandies carried his bust on the
head of their walking-sticks. A cabman wheedled
out of the reluctant violinist permission to print
on his cab, Cabriolet de Paganini. By this cun-
ning device, Jehu so augmented his profits that
he was able to rent a large house and establish a
hotel, in which capacity Paganini found him
when he returned again to Vienna.
Among the pleasant stories told of him is one
similar to an incident previously related of Viotti.
One day, as he was walking in Vienna, Paganini
saw a poor little Italian boy scraping some Neapol-
110
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
itan songs before the windows of a large house.
A celebrated composer who accompanied the ar-
tist remarked to him, " There is one of your com-
patriots." Upon which Paganini evinced a de-
sire to speak to the lad, and went across the street
to him for that purpose. After ascertaining that
he was a poor beggar-boy from the other side of
the Alps, and that he supported his sick mother,
his only relative, by his playing, the great violin-
ist appeared touched. He literally emptied his
pockets into the boy's hand, and, taking the violin
and bow from him, began the most grotesque and
extraordinary performance possible. A crowd
soon collected, the great virtuoso was at once rec-
ognized by the bystanders, and when he brought
the performance to an end, amid the cheers and
shouts of all assembled, he handed round the boy's
hat, and made a considerable collection of coin,
in which silver pieces were very conspicuous. He
then handed the sum to the young Italian, say-
ing, “Take that to your mother," and, rejoining
his companion, walked off with him, saying, “I
hope I've done a good turn to that little animal.”
At Berlin, where he soon afterward astonished
his crowded audiences by his marvelous playing,
the same fanatical enthusiasm ensued ; and, with
the exception of Palermo, Naples (where he seems
to have had many detractors), and Prague, his
visits to the various cities of Europe were one
continued triumph. People tried in vain to ex-
NICOLO PAGANINI.
111
plain his method of playing, professors criticised
him, and pamphlets were published which en-
deavored to make him out a quack or a charlatan.
It was all to no purpose. Nothing could arrest
his onward course; triumph succeeded triumph
wherever he appeared ; and, though no one could
understand him, every one admired him, and he
had only to touch his violin to enchant thousands.
A curious scene occurred at Berlin, at a mu-
sical evening party to which Paganini was invited.
A young and presumptuous professor of the violin
performed there several pieces with very little ef-
fect; he was not aware of the presence of the Gen-
oese giant, whom he did not know even by sight.
Others, however, quickly recognized him, and he
was asked to play, which he at first declined, but
finally consented to do after urgent solicitation.
Purposely he played a few variations in wretchedly
bad style, which caused a suppressed laugh from
those ignorant of his identity. The young pro-
fessor came forward again and played another se-
lection in a most pretentious and pointed way,
as if to crush the daring wretch who had ven-
tured to compete with him. Paganini again took
up the instrument, and played a short piece with
such touching pathos and astonishing execution,
that the audience sat breathless till the last dying
cadence wakened them into thunders of applause,
and hearts thrilled as the name “Paganini” crept
from mouth to mouth. The young professor had
112
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
already vanished from the room, and was never
again seen in the house where he had received so
severe a lesson.
Paganini repeated his triumphs again the fol-
lowing year, performing in Vienna and the prin-
cipal cities of Germany, and everywhere arousing
similar feelings of admiration. Orders and medals
were bestowed on him, and his progress was
almost one of royalty. His first concert in Paris
was given on March 9, 1831, at the opera-house.
He was then forty-seven years old, and Castil-
Blaze described him as being nearly six feet in
height, with a long, pallid face, brilliant eyes, like
those of an eagle, long curling black hair, which
fell down over the collar of his coat, a thin and
cadaverous figure—altogether a personality so
gaunt and delicate as to be more like a shadow
than a man. The eyes sparkled with a strange
phosphorescent gleam, and the long bony fingers
were so flexible as to be likened only to " a hand-
kerchief tied to the end of a stick." Fetis de-
scribes the impression he created at his first con-
cert as amounting to a “positive and universal
frenzy." Being questioned as to why he always
performed his own compositions, he replied “that,
if he played other compositions than his own, he
was obliged to arrange them to suit his own pe-
culiar style, and it was less trouble to write a
piece of his own. Indeed, whenever he attempted
to interpret the works of other composers, he
NICOLO PAGANINI.
113
failed to produce the effects which might have
been expected of him. This was especially the
case in the works of Beethoven.
V.
WHEN Paganini appeared in England, of course
there was a prodigious curiosity to see and hear
the great player. All kinds of rumors were in
the public mouth about him, and many of the
lower classes really believed that he had sold him-
self to the evil one. The capacious area of the
opera-house was densely packed, and the prices of
admission were doubled on the opening night.
The enthusiasm awakened by the performance can
best be indicated by quoting from some of the
contemporary accounts. The concert opened with
Beethoven's Second Symphony, performed by the
Philharmonic Society, and it was followed by
Lablache, who sang Rossini's “Largo al facto-
tum.” “A breathless silence then ensued," writes
Mr. Gardiner, an amateur of Leicester, who at
the peril of his ribs had been struggling in the
crowd for two hours to get admission, "and every
eye watched the action of this extraordinary vio-
linist as he glided from the side scenes to the
front of the stage. An involuntary cheering burst
from every part of the house, many persons ris-
ing from their seats to view the specter during
the thunder of this unprecedented applause, his
gaunt and extraordinary appearance being more
114 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
like that of a devotee about to suffer martyrdom
than one to delight you with his art. With the
tip of his bow he set off the orchestra in a grand
military movement with a force and vivacity as
surprising as it was new. At the termination
of this introduction, he commenced with a soft,
streamy note of celestial quality, and with three
or four whips of his bow elicited points of sound
that mounted to the third heaven, and as bright as
stars. Immediately an execution followed
which was equally indescribable. A scream of
astonishment and delight burst from the audience
at the novelty of this effect. . . . etc.” This
naïve account may serve to show the impression
created on the minds of those not trained to guard
their words with moderation.
“Nothing can be more intense in feeling,"
said a contemporary critic, “than his conception
and delivery of an adagio passage. His tone is,
perhaps, not quite so full and round as that of a
De Bériot or Baillot, for example; it is delicate
rather than strong, but this delicacy was proba-
bly never possessed equally by another player.
“There is no trick in his playing," writes another
critic; “it is all fair scientific execution, opening
to us a new order of sounds. . . . All his passages
seem free and unpremeditated, as if conceived on
the instant. One has no impression of their hay-
ing cost him either forethought or labor. .. ..
The word difficulty has no place in his vocab-
NICOLO PAGANINI.
115
etc."
ulary.
Paganini's lengthened tour
through London and the provinces was every-
where attended with the same success, and brought
him in a golden harvest, for his reputation had
now grown so portentous that he could exact the
greatest terms from managers.
Paganini avowed himself as not altogether
pleased with England, but, under the surface of
such complaints as the following, one detects the
ring of gratified vanity. He writes in a MS. let-
ter, dated from London in 1831, of the excessive
and noisy admiration to which he was subjected
in the London streets, which left him no peace,
and actually blocked his passage to and from the
theatre. “Although the public curiosity to see
me," says he, "is long since satisfied; though I
have played in public at least thirty times, and my
likeness has been reproduced in all possible styles
and forms, yet I can never leave my home with-
out being mobbed by people who are not content
with following and jostling me, but actually get in
front of me, and prevent my going either way, ad-
dress me in English of which I don't know a word,
and even feel me as if to find out if I am made
of flesh and blood. And this is not only among the
common people, but among the upper classes.”
Paganini repeated his visit to England during the
next season, playing his final farewell concert at
the Victoria Theatre, London, June 17, 1832.
The two following years our artist lived in Paris,
116
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
and was the great lion of musical and social circles.
People professed to be as much charmed with his
lack of pretension, his naïve and simple manners,
as with his musical genius. Yet no man was more
exacting of his rights as an artist.
One day a
court concert was announced at the Tuilleries, at
which Paganini was asked to play. He consented,
and went to examine the room the day before. He
objected to the numerous curtains, so hung as to
deaden the sound, and requested the superintend-
ent to see that they were changed. The super-
cilious official ignored the artist's wish, and the
offended Paganini determined not to play. When
the hour of the concert arrived, there was no vio-
linist. The royalties and their attendants were
all seated ; murmurs arose, but still no Paganini.
At last an official was sent to the hotel of the ar-
tist, only to be informed that the great violinist
had not gone out, but that he went to bed very early.
It was during his residence in Paris in the win-
ter of 1834 that he proposed to Berlioz, for whom
he had the most cordial esteem and admiration,
to write a concerto for his Stradiuarius violin,
which resulted in the famous symphony “Ha-
rold en Italie.” Four years after this he bestowed
the sum of twenty thousand francs on Berlioz,
who was then in pressing need, delicately disguis-
ing the donation as a testimonial of his admira-
tion for the "Symphonie Fantastique.” Though
the eagerness of Paganini to make money urged
!
NICOLO PAGANINI.
117
him to labor for years while his health was exceed-
ingly frail, and though he was justly stigmatized
as penurious in many ways, he was capable of
princely generosity on occasions which appealed
strongly to the ardent sympathies which lay at
the bottom of his nature.
Paganini made a great fortune by the exercise
of his art, and in 1834 purchased, among other
property in his native country, a charming coun-
try seat called Villa Gajona, near Parma. Here
he spent two years in comparative quiet, though
still continuing to give concerts. At this period
and for some time previous many music-sellers
had striven to buy the copyright of his works.
But Paganini put a price on it which was prescrip-
tive, the probability being that he did not wish
his compositions to pass out of his hands till he
had given up his career on the concert stage.
He was willing that they should be arranged for
the piano, but not published as violin music.
After his return to Italy Paganini gave sev-
eral most successful concerts, among others, one
for the poor at Placentia, on the 14th of No-
vember, 1834, and another at the court of the
Duchess of Parma, in the December following.
But his health was already giving way most visi-
bly. Phthisis of the larynx, which rendered him
a mere shadow of his former self, and sometimes
almost deprived him of speech, had been gaining
ground since his return to his native climate. In
118 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
1836, however, he was better, and some unscrupu-
lous Parisian speculators induced him to lend his
name to a joint-stock undertaking, a sort of gam-
bling-room and concert-hall, which they called
the Casino Paganini. This was duly opened in a
fashionable part of Paris in 1837; but, as the Gov-
ernment would not allow the establishment to be
used as a gambling-house, and the concerts did
not pay the expenses, it became a great failure,
and the illustrious artist actually suffered loss by
it to the extent of forty thousand francs.
One of his last, if not his very last, concert was
given with the guitar-player, Signor Legnani, at
Turin, on the 9th of June, 1837, for the benefit
of the poor. He was then on his way to ful-
fill his engagements at the fatal Parisian casino,
which opened with much splendor in the Novem-
ber following. But his health had again broken
down, and the fatigue of the journey had told
upon him so mucli that he was unable to appear
at the casino. When the enterprise was found
to be a failure, a pettifogging lawsuit was carried
on against him, and, according to Fetis, who is
very explicit on this subject, the French judges
condemned him to pay the aforesaid forty thou-
sand francs, and to be deprived of his liberty until
that amount was paid-all this without hearing
his defense !
The career of Paganini was at this critical pe-
riod fast drawing to a close. His medical advis-
NICOLO PAGANINI.
119
ers recommended him to return at once to the
South, fearing that the winter would kill him in
Paris. He died at Nice on May 27, 1840, aged
fifty-six years. He left to his legitimized son
Achille, the offspring of his liaison with the singer
Antonia Bianchi, a fortune of eighty thousand
pounds, and the title of baron, of which he had
received the patent in Germany. His beautiful
Guarnerius violin, the vehicle of so many splen-
did artistic triumphs, he bequeathed to the town
of Genoa, where he was born. Though Paganini
was superstitious, and died a son of Holy Church,
he did not leave any money in religious bequests,
nor did he even receive the last sacraments. The
authorities of Rome raised many difficulties about
the funeral, and it was only after an enormous
amount of trouble and expense that Achille was
able to have a solemn service to the memory of
his father performed at Parma. It was five years
after Paganini's death that this occurred, and per-
mission was obtained to have the body removed
to holy ground in the village churchyard near the
Villa Gajona. During this long period the dis-
honored remains of the illustrious musician were
at the hospital of Nice, where the body had been
embalmed, and afterward at a country place near
Genoa, belonging to the family. The supersti-
tious peasantry believed that strange noises were
heard about the grave at night-the wailings of
the unsatisfied spirit of Paganini over the unsanc-
9
120
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
tified burial of its earthly shell. It was to end
these painful stories that the young baron made a
final determined effort to placate the ecclesiastical
authorities.
VI.
THE singular personality of Paganini displayed
itself in his private no less than in his artistic
life, and a few out of the many anecdotes told of
him will be of interest, as throwing fresh light
on the man. Paganini was accused of being self-
ish and miserly, of caring little even for his art,
except as a means of accumulating money. While
there is much in his life to justify such an indict-
ment, it is no less true that he on many occa-
sions displayed great generosity. He was always
willing to give concerts for the benefit of his
fellow-artists and for other charitable purposes,
and on more than one occasion bestowed large
sums of money for the relief of distress.
assume that he was niggardly by habit and gener-
ous by impulse: Utterly ignorant of everything
except the art of music, bred under the most un-
fortunate and demoralizing conditions, the fact
that his character was, on the whole, so naïve and
upright, speaks eloquently for the native qualities
of his disposition. His eccentricities, perhaps, jus-
tified the unreasoning vulgar in believing that he
was slightly crazed. His appearance and manner
on the platform were fantastic in the extreme,
and rarely failed to provoke ridicule, till his magic
We may
NICOLO PAGANINI.
121
bow turned all other emotions into one of breath-
less admiration. He talked to himself continu-
ally when alone, a habit which was partly respon-
sible for the popular belief that he was always
attended by a familiar demon. When a stranger
was introduced to him, his corpse-like face be-
came galvanized into a ghastly smile, which pro-
duced a singular impression, half fascinating,
half repulsive. He was taciturn in society, ex-
cept among his intimates, when his buoyant spir-
its bubbled out in the most amusing jokes and
anecdotes expressed in a polyglot tongue, for he
never knew any language well except his own.
Naturally irritable, his quick temper was inflamed
by intestinal disease, which racked him with a suf:
fering that was aggravated by a nostrum, in the
use of which he indulged freely. Indeed, it was
said by his friends that his death was accelerated
by his devotion to medical quackery, from a be-
lief in which no arguments could wean him.
To his fellow-artists he was always polite and
attentive, though they annoyed him by their
persistent curiosity as to the means by which
he produced his unrivaled effects—effects which
the established technique of violin-playing could
not explain. An Englishman named George
Harris, who was an attaché of the Hanoverian
court, attended Paganini for a year as his pri-
vate secretary, and he asserts that Paganini was
never seen to practice a single note of music in
122 THE GREAT VIOLINİSTS AND PIANISTS.
66 This
private. His astonishing dexterity was kept up
to its pitch by the numerous concerts which he
gave, and by his exquisitely delicate organization.
He was accustomed to say that his whole early
life had been one of prodigious and continual
study, and that he could afford to repose in after
years. Paganini's knowledge of music was pro-
found and exact, and the most difficult music
was mere child's play to him. Pasini, a well-
known painter, living at Parma, did not believe
the stories told of Paganini's ability to play the
most difficult music at sight. Being the possessor
of a valuable Stradiuarius violin, he challenged
our artist to play, at first hand, a manuscript
concerto which he placed before him.
instrument shall be yours," he said, “if you can
play, in a masterly manner, that concerto at first
sight.” The Genoese took the violin in his hand,
saying, “In that case, my friend, you may bid
adieu to it at once," and he immediately threw
Pasini into ecstatic admiration by his perform-
ance of the piece. There is little doubt that this
is the Stradiuarius instrument left by Paganini to
his son, and valued at about six hundred pounds
sterling
Of Antonia Bianchi, the mother of his son
Achille, Paganini tells us that, after many years
of a most devoted life, the lady's temper became
so violent that a separation was necessary. "An-
tonia was constantly tormented,” he says, “by
NICOLO PAGANINI.
123
the most fearful jealousy. One day she happened
to be behind my chair when I was writing some
lines in the album of a great pianiste, and, when
she read the few amiable words I had composed
in honor of the artist to whom the book belonged,
he tore it from my hands, demolished it on the
spot, and, so fearful was her rage, would have as-
sassinated me.”
He was very fond of his little son Achille.
A French gentleman tells us that he called once
to take Paganini to dine with him. He found
the artist's room in great disorder. A violin on
the table with manuscript music, another upon a
chair, a snuff-box on the bed along with his child's
toys, music, money, letters, articles of dress--all
pêle-mêle ; nor were the tables and chairs in their
proper places. Everything was in the most con-
spicuous confusion. The child was out of tem-
per ; something had vexed him ; he had been told
to wash his hands; and, while the little one gave
vent to the most violent bursts of temper, the
father stood as calm and quiet as the most accom-
plished of nurses. He merely turned quietly to
his visitor, and said, in melancholy accents : “ The
poor child is cross; I do not know what to do to
amuse him ; I have played with him ever since
morning, and I can not stand it any longer."
“ It was rather amusing," says the same writer,
" to see Paganini in liis slippers doing battle with
his child, who came about up to his knees. The
124
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
little one advanced boldly with his wooden sword,
while the father retired, crying out, 'Enough,
enough! I am already wounded.' But it was not
enough; the young Achilles was never satisfied
until his father, completely vanquished, fell heav-
ily on the bed."
In the early part of the present century the
facilities for travel were far less convenient than at
the present time, and it was always an arduous
undertaking to one in Paganini's frail condition of
health. He was, however, generally cheerful while
jolting along in the post-chaise, and chatted in-
cessantly as long as his voice held out. Harris
tells us that the artist was in the habit of getting
out when the horses were changed, to stretch his
long limbs after the confinement of the carriage.
Often he extended his promenades when he be-
came interested in the town through which he
was passing, and would not return till long after
the fresh horses had been harnessed, thereby caus-
ing much annoyance to the driver. On one occa-
sion Jehu swore, if it occurred again, he would
drive on, and leave his passenger behind, to get
along as best he could. The secretary, Harris,
was enjoying a nap, and the driver was true to his
resolution at the next stopping-place, leaving
Paganini behind. This made much trouble, and
a special coach had to be sent for the enraged ar-
tist, who was found sputtering oaths in half a
dozen languages. Paganini refused to pay for
NICOLO PAGANINI.
125
the carriage, and it was only by force of law that
he reluctantly settled the bill.
His baggage was always of the plainest de-
scription ; in fact, ludicrously simple. A shabby
box contained his precious Guarnerius fiddle, and
served also as a portmanteau wherein to pack his
jewelry, his linen, and sundry trifles. In ad-
dition to this he carried a small traveling-bag and
a hat-box. Mr. Harris tells us that Paganini was
in eating and drinking exceedingly frugal. Ta-
ble indulgence was forbidden him by the condi-
tion of his health, as any deviation from the strict-
est diet resulted in great suffering. He was a
thorough Italian in all his habits and ideas.
Among other traits was a great disdain for the
lower classes, though he was by no means subser-
vient to people of rank and wealth. It was his
habit, when an inferior addressed him, to inquire
of his companion, “What does this animal want
with me?" If he was pleased with his coachman,
he would say,
" That animal drives well.” This
seemed not so much the vulgar arrogance of a
small nature, elevated above the class in life from
which it sprang, as that pride of great gifts which
made the freemasonry of genius the measure by
which he judged all others, noble and simple.
Like all men of highly nervous constitution, he
was keenly susceptible to both enjoyment and
suffering. He was so sensitive to atmospherio
changes that his irritability was excessive during
126
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
1
a thunderstorm. He would then remain silent
for hours together, while his eyes rolled and his
limbs twitched convulsively. Such fragile, ner-
vous, highly sensitive organizations are not unfre-
quently characteristic of men of great genius, and
in the great Italian violinist it was developed in
an abnormal degree.
The circumstances accompanying the last
scenes of Paganini's life are very interesting. He
had been intimate with most of the great people
of Europe, among them Lord Byron, Sir Clifford
Constable, 'Lord Holland, Rossini, Ugo Fascolo,
Monti, Prince Jerome, the Princess Eliza, and
most of the great painters, poets, and musicians
of his age. For Lord Byron he had a most ar-
dent and exaggerated admiration. Paganini had
stopped at Nice on his way from Paris, detained
by extreme debility, for his last hours were draw-
ing near. Under the blue sky and balmy air of
this Mediterranean paradise the great musician
somewhat recovered his strength at first. One
night he sat by his bedroom window, surrounded
by a circle of intimate friends, watching the glo-
ries of the Italian sunset that emblazoned earth,
air, and sky, with the richest dyes of nature's
palette. A soft breeze swept into the room, heavy
with the perfumes of flowers, and the twittering
of the birds in the green foliage mingled with the
hum of talk from the throngs of gay promenaders
şauntering on the beach. For a while Paganini
1
NICOLO PAGANINI.
127
sat silently absorbed in watching the joyous scene,
when suddenly his eyes turned on the picture of
Lord Byron that hung on the wall. A flash
of enthusiasm lightened his face, as if a great
thought were struggling to the surface, and he
seized his violin to improvise. The listeners de-
clared that this swan song " was the most re-
markable production of his life. He illustrated
the stormy and romantic career of the English
poet in music.
The accents of doubt, irony,
and despair mingled with the cry of liberty and
the tumult of triumph. Paganini bad scarcely
finished this wonderful musical picture when the
bow fell from the icy fingers that refused any
longer to perform their function, and the player
sank into a dead swoon.
The shock had been too great, and Paganini
never quitted his bed afterward. The day before
his death he seemed a little better, and directed
his servant to buy a pigeon for him, as he had a
slight return of appetite. On the last evening of
his life he seemed very tranquil, and ordered the
curtains to be drawn that he might look out of
the window at the beautiful night. The full
moon was sailing through the skies, flooding ev-
erything with splendor. Paganini gazed eagerly,
gave a long sigh of pleasure, and fell back on his
pillow dead.
128
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
VII.
PAGANINI was the first to develop the full
resources of the violin as a solo instrument. He
departed entirely from the traditions of violin-
playing as practiced by earlier masters, as he be-
lieved that great fame could never be acquired in
pursuing their methods. A work of Locatelli, one
of the cleverest pupils of Corelli, and a great mas-
ter of technique, first seems to have inspired him
with a conception of the more brilliant possibilities
of the violin. What further favored Paganini's new
departure was that he lived in an age when the
artistic mind, as well as thought in other direc-
tions, felt the desire of innovation. The French
Revolution stirred Europe to its deepest roots, in-
tellectually as well as politically. At a very early
date in his career Paganini seems to have begun
experimenting with the new effects for which he
became famous, though these did not reach their
full fruitage until just before he left Italy on his
first general tour. Fetis says: “In adopting the
ideas of his predecessors, in resuscitating forgot-
ten effects, in superadding what his genius and
perseverance gave birth to, he arrived at that
distinctive character of performance which con-
tributed to his ultimate greatness. The diversity
of sounds, the different methods of tuning his
instrument, the frequent employment of har-
monics, single and double, the simultaneous pizzi-
çato and bow passages, the various staccato ef-
NICOLO PAGANINI.
129
fects, the use of double and even triple notes, a
prodigious facility in executing wide intervals
with unerring precision, together with an extraor-
dinary knowledge of all styles of bowing—such
were the principal features of Paganini's talent,
rendered all the more perfect by his great execu-
tion, exquisitely nervous sensibility, and his deep
musical feeling.” In a word, Paganini possessed
the most remarkable creative power in the techni-
cal treatment of an instrument ever given to a
player. Franz Liszt as a pianist approaches him
more nearly in this respect than any other virtuoso, ,
but the field open to the violinist was far greater
and wider than that offered to the great Hunga-
rian pianist. It was not, however, mere perfection
of technical power that threw Europe into such
paroxysms of admiration; it was the irresistible
power of a genius which has never been matched,
and which almost justified the vulgar conclusion
that none but one possessed with a demon could
do such things. Paganini possessed the oft-quoted
attribute of genius, “the power of taking infinite
pains,” but behind this there lay superlative gifts
of mind, physique, and temperament. He com-
pletely dazzled the greatest musical artists as well
as the masses. “ His constant and daring flights,"
writes Moscheles, “his newly discovered flageolet
tones, his gift of fusing and beautifying objects of
the most diverse kinds-all these phases of genius
50 completely bewilder my musical perceptions
130
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
that for days afterward my head is on fire and
my brain reels.” His tone lacked roundness and
volume. His use of very thin strings, made ne-
cessary by his double harmonics and other special-
ties, necessarily prevented a broad, rich tone. But
he more than compensated for this defect by the
intense expression, “ soft and melting as that of an
Italian singer," to use the language of Moscheles
again, which characterized the quality of sound
he drew from his instrument. Spohr, a very
great player, but, with all his polish, precision, and
classical beauty of style, somewhat phlegmatic and
conventional withal, critcised Paganini as lacking
in good taste. He could never get in sympathy
with the bent of individuality, the Southern pas-
sion and fire, and the exceptional gifts of tempera-
ment which made Paganini's idiosyncrasies of
style as a player consummate beauties, where imi-
tations of these effects on the part of others would
be gross exaggeration. Spohr developed the
school of Viotti and Rode, and in his attachment
to that school could see no artistic beauty in any
deviation. Paganini's peculiar method of treat-
ing the violin has never been regarded as a safe
school for any other violinist to follow. Without
Paganini's genius to give it vitality, his technique
would justly be charged with exaggeration and
charlatanism. Some of the modern French play-
ers, who have been strongly influenced by the
great Italian, have failed to satisfy serious musi-
NICOLO PAGANINI.
131
cal taste from this cause. On the German violin-
ists he has had but little influence, owing to the
powerful example of Spohr and the musical spirit
of the great composers, which have tended to keep
players within the strictly legitimate lines of art.
Some of the principal compositions of Paganini
are marked by great originality and beauty, and
are violin classics. Schumann and Liszt have
transcribed several of them for the piano, and
Brahms for the orchestra. But the great glory
of Paganini was as a virtuoso, not as a composer,
and it has been generally agreed to place him on
the highest pedestal which has yet been reached
in the executive art of the violin.
DE BÉRIOT.
De Bériot's High Place in the Art of the Violin and Violin Music.
-The Scion of an Impoverished Noble Family.-Early Edu-
cation and Musical Training.—He seeks the Advice of Viotti
in Paris.—Becomes a Pupil of Robrechts and Baillot succes-
sively.--De Bériot finishes and perfects his Style on his
Own Model.-Great Success in England. - Artistic Travels in
Europe.Becomes Soloist to the King of the Netherlands.-
He mects Malibran, the Great Cantatrice, in Paris.—Peculiar
Circumstances which drew the Couple toward Each Other.
They form a Connection which only ends with Malibran's
Life.-Sketch of Malibran and her family.—The Various
Artistic Journeys of Malibran and De Bériot. — Their Marriage
and Mme. de Bériot's Death.-De Bériot becomes Professor
in the Brussels Conservatoire.—His Later Life in Brussels.
His Son Charles Malibran de Bériot.—The Character of De
Bériot as Composer and Player.
I.
AMONG the great players contemporary with
Paganini, the name of Charles Auguste de Bériot
shines in the musical horizon with the luster of a
star of the first magnitude. His influence on
music has been one of unmistakable import, for
he has perpetuated his great talents through the
number of gifted pupils who graduated from his
teachings and gathered an inspiration from an
artist-master, in whom were united splendid
gifts as a player, an earnest musical spirit, depth
DE BÉRIOT.
133
and precision of science, the chivalry of high
birth and breeding, and a width of intellectual
culture which would have dignified the littéra-
teur or scholar. De Bériot was for many years
the chief of the violin department at the Brussels
Conservatoire, where, even before the revolution
of 1830, there was one of the finest schools of
instruction for stringed instruments to be found
in Europe. When in the full ripeness of his fame
as a virtuoso and composer, De Bériot was called
on to take charge of the violin section of this
great institution, and his influence has thus been
transmitted in the world of art in a degree by no
means limited to his direct greatness as an exec-
utant.
De Bériot was born at Louvain, in 1802, of a no-
ble family, which had been impoverished through
the crash and turmoil of the French Revolution.
Left an orphan at the age of nine years, without
inheritance except that of a high spirit and family
pride, he would have fared badly in these early
years, had it not been for the kindness of M. Tiby,
a professor of music, who perceived the child's
latent talent, and he acquired skill in playing so
rapidly that he was able to play one of Viotti's
concertos at the age of nine. His hearers, many
of whom were connoisseurs, were delighted, and
prophesied for him the great career which made
the name of De Bériot famous. Naturally of a
contemplative and thoughtful mind, he lost no
134 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
time in studying not only the art of violin-play-
ing but also acquiring proficiency in general
branches of knowledge. His theories of an art
ideal even at that early age were far more lofty and
earnest than that which generally guides the as-
pirations of musicians. De Bériot, in after years,
attributed many of the elevated ideas which from
this time guided his life to the infuence of the
well-known scholar and philosopher Jacotot, who,
though a poor musician himself, had very clear
ideas as to the æsthetic and moral foundations on
which art success must be built. The text-book,
Jacotot's “Method," fell early into the young
musician's hand, and imbued him with the prin-
ciples of self-reliance, earnestness, and patience
which helped to model his life, and contributed
to the remarkable proficiency in his art on which
his fame rests. Two golden principles were im-
pressed on De Bériot's mind from these teach-
ings : “All obstacles yield to unwearied pursuit,"
and “We are not ordinarily willing to do all that
we are really able to accomplish.” In after years
De Bériot met Jacotot, and had the pleasure of
acknowledging the deep obligation under which
he felt himself bound.
In 1821 young Charles de Bériot had attained
the age of nineteen, and it was determined that
he should leave his native town and go to Paris,
where he could receive the teachings of the great
masters of the violin. At this time he was a
DE BÉRIOT.
135
handsome youth with a strongly knit figure,
somewhat above the middle height, with fine,
dark eyes and hair, a florid complexion, and very
gentlemanly appearance. Good blood and breed-
ing displayed themselves in every movement, and
ardent hope shone in his face. He resided for
several months in Brussels, which was afterward
to be his home, and associated with the scenes of
his greatest usefulness, and then pursued his eager
way to Paris with a letter of introduction to Viotti,
then director of music at the Grand Opéra. De
Bériot's ambition was to play before the veteran
violinist of Europe, and to feed his own hopes on
the great master's praise and encouragement.
“You have a fine style," said Viotti ; "give
yourself up to the business of perfecting it; hear
all men of talent; profit by everything, but imi-
tate nothing.” There was at this time in Brus-
sels a violinist named Robrechts, a former pupil
of Viotti, and one of the last artists who derived
instruction directly from the celebrated Italian.
Andreas Robrechts was born at Brussels on the
18th of December, 1797, and made rapid progress
as a musician under Planken, a professor, who,
like the late M. Wéry, who succeeded him, formed
many excellent pupils. He then entered himself
at the Conservatoire of Paris in 1814, where he
received some private lessons from Baillot, while
the institution itself was closed during the occu-
pation by the allied armies.
10
136
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Viotti, hearing the young Robrechts play, was
so struck with his magnificent tone and broad
style that he undertook to give him finishing les-
sons, with the approbation of Baillot. This was
soon arranged, and for many years the two violin-
ists were inseparable. He even accompanied Viotti
in his journey to London, where they were heard
more than once in duets. The illustrious Ital-
ian had recognized in Robrechts the pupil who
most closely adhered to his style of playing, and
one of the few who were likely to diffuse it in
after years.
In 1820 Robrechts returned to Brussels, where
he was elected first violin solo to the king, Wil-
helm 1. It was shortly after this that De Bériot
took lessons from him, and he it was who gave him
the letter of introduction to Viotti. The same
excellent professor also gave instructions to the
young Artot
He died in 1860, the last direct
representative of the great Viotti school.
It will now be seen where De Bériot acquired
the first principles of that large, bold, and ex-
quisitely charming style that in after life charac-
terized both his performances and his composi-
tions.
II.
ARRIVING at Paris, and believing probably that
the classical style of Robrechts, from whom he
had had instruction in Brussels, did not lead him
swiftly forward enough in the path he would
DE BÉRIOT.
137
travel, he sought Viotti, as we have related above,
and by his advice entered himself in the violin
class of the Conservatoire, which was directed by
Baillot, an eminent player of the Viotti school,
though never a direct pupil of the latter master.
De Bériot, however, did not remain long in the
class, but applied himself most assiduously to the
study of the violin in his own way. This is what
Paganini had done, and through this course had
been able to form a style so peculiarly his own. It
is not probable that De Bériot at this time knew
much about Paganini; certainly he had never heard
him. Paganini was at first looked on as a mere
comet of extraordinary brilliancy, without much
soundness or true genius, and many who after-
ward became his most ardent admirers began with
sneering at his pretensions. De Bériot was in
later years undoubtedly powerfully influenced by
Paganini, but at the time of which we speak the
young violinist appears to have been determined
to evolve a style and character in art out of his
own resources purely. He was carrying out Viot-
ti's advice.
At this time our young artist was the possessor
of a very fine instrument by Giovanni Magini, a
celebrated maker of the Brescian school, and a
pupil of Gaspar de Salo. Many of the violins of
this make are of an excellence hardly inferior to
the Strads of the best period, and De Bériot seems
to have preferred this violin during the whole of
138
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
his career, though he afterward owned instru-
ments of the most celebrated makers.
Very soon De Bériot made his public appear-
ance in concerts, and was brilliantly successful
from the outset. The range of his ambition may
be seen from the fact that he had enough confi-
dence in his own genius from the very first to play
his own music, and it was conceded to possess
great freshness and originality. These early“ Airs
Varié” consisted of an introduction, a theme, fol-
lowed by three or four variations, and a brilliant
finale.
The young artist preceded Paganini in Lon-
don several years, as he made his first appearance
before an English audience in 1826. It was fortu-
nate, perhaps, for De Bériot that such was the case,
as it is more than probable that, after the dazzling
and electric displays of the Geneose player, the
more sedate and simple style which then charac-
terized De Bériot would have failed to please.
As it was, lie was most cordially admired, and was
generally recognized by English connoisseurs, as
well as by the general public, as one of the most
accomplished players who had ever visited Eng-
land. The pecuniary results of these concerts
were large, and sufficient to relieve De Bériot,
who had formerly been rather straitened in his
means, from the friction and embarrassment which
poverty so often imposes on struggling talent.
There was a peculiar charm in De Bériot's style
DE BÉRIOT.
139
1
which was permanently characteristic of him,
though his technical method did not always re-
main the same. In additon to very facile execu-
tion and a rich, mellow tone, he possessed the
most refined taste. His playing impressed people
less as that of a great professional violinist than
that of the marvelously accomplished amateur,
the gentleman of leisure and culture, who per-
formed with the easy, sparkling grace of one who
took no thought of whether he played well or not,
but did great feats on his instrument because he
could not help it. Such was also the characteristic
of Mario as a singer, and there seems to have been
many features of resemblance between these two
fine artists, though moving in different fields of
art.
After traveling through Europe for several
years, giving concerts with great success, he was
presented to King Wilhelm of the then united
kingdom of the Netherlands.
This monarch,
though quite ignorant of music, was an enthusi-
astic patron of art, and, believing that De Bériot
was destined to be a great ornament of his native
country (for he was born in Belgium, though his
parents were from France), bestowed on the ar-
tist a pension of two thousand florins a year, and
the title of first violin solo to his majesty. But
this honor was soon rudely snatched from De Bé-
The revolution of 1830, which
began with the excitement inflamed in Brussels
riot's grasp.
140 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
by the performance of Auber's revolutionary
opera, “ La Muette di Portici," better known as
Masaniello,” dissolved the kingdom, and Bel-
gium parted permanently from Holland. It was,
perhaps, owing to this apparent misfortune that
De Bériot made an acquaintance which culmi-
nated in the most interesting episode of his life.
He lost his official position at Brussels, but he
met Mme. Malibran.
III.
DE BÉRIOT returned to Paris, where Sontag
and Malibran were engaged in ardent artistic
rivalry, about equally dividing the suffrages of
the French public. Mlle. Sontag was a beautiful,
fair-haired, blue-eyed woman, in the very flush
of her youth, with an expression of exquisite
sweetness and mildness. De Bériot became mad-
ly enamored of her at once, and pressed his suit
with vehemence, but without success. Henrietta
Sontag was already the betrothed of Count
Rossi, whom she soon afterward married, though
the engagement was then a secret. The lady's
firm refusal of the young Belgian artist's over-
tures filled him with a deep melancholy, which
he showed so unmistakably that he became an ob-
ject of solicitude to all his friends. Among those
was Mme. Malibran, whose warm sympathies went
out to an artist whose talents she admired. Mali-
bran, living apart from her husband, was obliged
DE BÉRIOT.
141
to be careful in her conduct, to avoid giving
food for the scandal of a censorious world, but
this did not prevent her from exhibiting the ut-
most pity and kindness in her demeanor toward
De Bériot. The violinist was soothed by this
gentle and delightful companion, and it was not
long before a fresh affection, even stronger than
the other, sprang up in his susceptible nature
for the woman whose ardent Spanish frankness
found it difficult to conceal the fact that she cher-
ished sentiments different from mere friendship.
The splendid career of Mme. Malibran shines
almost without a rival in the records of the lyric
stage, and her influence on De Bériot, first her
lover and afterward her husband, was most
marked. Maria Garcia, afterward Mme. Mali-
bran, was one of a family of very eminent musi-
cians. She was trained by her father, Manuel
Garcia, who, in addition to being a tenor singer
of world-wide reputation, was a composer of some
repute, and the greatest teacher of his time. Her
sister, Pauline Garcia, in after years became one
of the greatest dramatic singers who ever lived,
and her brother Manuel also attained considerable
eminence as singer, song-composer, and teacher.
The whole family were richly dowered with mu i-
cal gifts, and Maria was probably one of the most
versatile and accomplished musical artists of any
age. At the age of thirteen she was a professed
musician, and at fifteen, when she came with her
142 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
parents to London, she obtained a complete tri.
umph by accidentally performing in Rossini's
“Il Barbiere," to supply, the place of a prima
donna who was unable to appear.
We can not tarry here to enter into the details
of her interesting life. Her father having taken
her to America, where she fulfilled a number
of engagements with an increasing success, she
finally espoused there a rich merchant named
Malibran, much older than herself. It was a most
ill-advised marriage, and, to make matters worse,
the merchant failed very soon afterward. Some
go so far as to say that he foresaw this catastrophe
before he contracted his marriage, in the hope of
regaining his fortune by the proceeds of the sing-
er's career. However that may be, a separation
took place, and Mme. Malibran returned to Paris
in 1827. Her singing in Italian opera was every-
where a source of the most enthusiastic ovation,
and, as she rose like a star of the first magnitude
in the world of song, so the young De Bériot was
fast earning his laurels as one of the greatest
violinists of the day. In 1830 an indissoluble
friendship united these two kindred spirits, and
in 1832 De Bériot, Lablache, the great basso, and
Mme. Malibran set out for a tour in Italy, where
the latter had operatic engagements at Milan,
Rome, and Naples, and where they all three
appeared in concerts with the most éclatant sric-
cess-as may well be imagined.
DE BÉRIOT.
143
1
At Bologna, in 1834, it is difficult to say
whether the cantatrice, or the violinist, or the in-
estimable basso, produced the greatest sensation ;
but her bust in marble was there and then placed
under the peristyle of the Opera-house.
Henceforward De Bériot never quitted her,
and their affection seems to have increased as
time wore on. In the year following she ap-
peared in London, where she gave forty repre-
sentations at Drury Lane, performing in La
Sonnambula," "The Maid of Artois," etc., for
which she received the sum of three thousand
two hundred pounds. De Bériot would not have
made this amount probably with his violin in a
year.
After a second journey to Italy, in which
Mme. Malibran renewed the enthusiasm which she
had first created in the public mind, and a series
of brilliant concerts which also added to De Bé-
riot's prestige, they returned to Paris to wait for
the divorce of Mme. Malibran from her husband,
which had been dragging its way t).rough the
courts. The much longed for release ci me in 1836,
and the union of hearts and lives, whose sincerity
and devotion had more than half condoned its
irregularity, was sanctified by the Church. The
happiness of the artistic pair was not destined to
be long. Only a month afterward Mme. de Bé-
riot, who was then singing in London, had a dan-
gerous fall from her horse. Always passionately
144
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
fond of activity and exercise, she was an excellent
horsewoman, and was somewhat reckless in pur-
suing her favorite pursuit. The great singer was
thrown by an unruly and badly trained animal,
and received serious internal injuries. Her in-
domitable spirit would not, however, permit her
to rest. She returned to the Continent after the
close of the London season, to give concerts, in
spite of her weak health, and gave herself but
little chance of recovery, before she returned
again to England in September to sing at the
Manchester festival, her last triumph, and the
brilliant close of a short and very remarkable life.
She was seized with sudden and severe illness,
and died after nine days of suffering. During
this period of trial to De Bériot, he never left the
bedside of his dying wife, but devoted himself to
ministering to her comfort, except once when she
insisted on his fulfilling an important concert
engagement. Racked with pain as she was, her
greatest anxiety was as to his artistic success,
fearing that his mental anguish would prevent
his doing full justice to his talents. It is said
that her friends informed her of the vociferous
applause which greeted his playing, and a happy
smile brightened her dying face. She died Sep-
tember 22, 1836, at the age of twenty-eight, but
not too soon to have attained one of the most
dazzling reputations in the history of the operatic
stage. M. de Bériot was almost frantic with grief,
DE BÉRIOT.
145
for a profound love had joined this sympathetic
and well-matched pair, and their private happiness
had not been less than their public fame.*
The news of this calamity to the world of
music spread swiftly through the country, and
was known in Paris the next day, where M. Mali-
bran, the divorced husband of the dead singer, was
then living. As the fortune which Mme. de Bé-
riot had made by her art was principally invested
in France, and there were certain irregularities
in the French law which opened the way for
claims of M. Malibran on her estate, De Bériot
was obliged to hasten to Paris before his wife's
funeral to take out letters of administration, and
thus protect the future of the only child left by
his wife, young Charles de Bériot, who afterward
became a distinguished pianist, though never a
professional musician. As the motives of this
sudden disappearance were not known, De Bériot
was charged with the most callous indifference to
his wife. But it is now well known that his
action was guided by a most imperative necessity,
the welfare of his infant son, all that was left him
of the woman he had loved so passionately. The
remains of Mme. de Bériot were temporarily in-
terred in the Collegiate Church in Manchester,
but they were shortly afterward removed to
*For a full sketch of Mme. Malibran de Beriot's artistic and
personal career, the reader is referred to “Great Singers, Mali-
bran to Tietjens,” Appletons' “Handy-Volume Series."
146
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Laeken, near Brussels. Over her tomb in the
Laeken churchyard the magnificent mausoleum
surmounted with her statue was erected by De
Bériot. The celebrated sculptor Geefs modeled
it, and the work is regarded as one of the chefs-
d'ouvre of the artist.
IV.
M. DE BÉRIOT did not recover from this
shock for more than a year, but remained secluded
at his country place near Brussels. It was not
till Pauline Garcia (subsequently Mme. Viardot)
made her debut in concert in 1837, that De Bé-
riot again appeared in public before one of the
most brilliant audiences which had ever assem-
bled in Brussels. In honor of this occasion the
Philharmonic Society of that city caused two
medals to be struck for M. de Bériot and Mlle.
Garcia, the molds of which were instantly de-
stroyed. The violinist gave a series of concerts
assisted by the young singer in Belgium, Ger-
many, and France, and returned to Brussels
again on the anniversary of their first concert,
where they appeared in the Théâtre de la Renais-
sance before a most crowded and enthusiastic
audience. Among the features of the perform-
ance which called out the warmest applause was
Panseron's grand duo for voice and violin, “Le
Songe de Tartini," Mlle. Garcia both singing and
playing the piano-forte accompaniment with re-
DE BÉRIOT
147
markable skill. Two years afterward Mlle. Gar-
cia married M. Viardot, director of the Italian
Opera at Paris, and De Bériot espoused Mlle.
Huber, daughter of a Viennese magistrate, and
ward of Prince Dietrischten Preskau, who had
adopted her at an early age.
De Bériot became identified with the Royal
Conservatory of Music at Brussels in the year
1840, and thenceforward his life was devoted to
composition and the direction of the violin
school. He gave much time and care to the
education of his son Charles, who, in addition to
a wonderful resemblance to his mother, appears
to have inherited much of the musical endow-
ment of both parents. Had not an ample for-
tune rendered professional labor unnecessary, it is
probable that the son of Malibran and De Bériot
would have attained a musical eminence worthy
of his lineage ; but he is even now celebrated for
his admirable performances in private. and his
musical evenings are said to be among the most
delightful entertainments in Parisian society,
gathering the most celebrated artists and littéra-
teurs of the great capital.
De Bériot ceased giving public concerts after
taking charge of the violin classes of the Brussels
Conservatoire, though he continued to charm se-
lect audiences in private concerts. Many of his
pupils became distinguished players, among whom
may be named Monasterio, Standish, Lauterbach,
148 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
و
and, chief of all, Henri Vieuxtemps, with whose
precocious talents he was so much pleased that he
gave him lessons gratuitously. During his life at
Brussels, and indeed during the whole of his ca-
reer, De Bériot enjoyed the friendship and esteem
of many of the most distinguished men of the
day, among his most intimate friends and ad-
mirers having been Prince de Chimay, the Rus-
sian Prince Youssoupoff, and King Leopold I, of
Belgium. The latter part of his life was not un-
laborious in composition, but otherwise of affluent
and elegant ease. During the last two years his
eyesight failed him, and he gradually became to-
tally blind. He died, April 13, 1870, at the age
of sixty-eight, while visiting his friend Prince
Youssoupoff at St. Petersburg, of the brain mal-
ady which had long been making fatal inroads on
his health.
In originality as a composer for the violin,
probably no one can surpass De Bériot except
Paganini, who exerted a remarkable modifying
influence on him after he had formed his own
His works are full of grace and poetic
feeling, and worked out with an intellectual com-
pleteness of form which gives him an honorable
distinction even among those musicians marked
by affluence of ideas. These compositions are
likely to be among the violin classics, though
some of the violinists of the Spohr school have
criticised them for want of depth. He produced
first style.
DE BÉRIOT.
149
seven concertos, eleven airs variés, several books
of studies, four trios for piano, violin, and 'cello,
and, together with Osborne, Thalberg, and other
pianists, a number of brilliant duos for piano and
violin. His book of instruction for the violin is
among the best ever written, though somewhat
diffuse in detail. He may be considered the
founder of the Franco-Belgian school of violin-
ists, as distinguished from the classical French
school founded by Viotti, and illustrated by Rode
and Baillot. His early playing was molded en-
tirely in this style, but the dazzling example of
Paganini, in course of time, had its effect on him,
as he soon adopted the captivating effects of lar-
monics, arpeggios, pizzicatos, etc., which the
Genoese had introduced, though he stopped short
of sacrificing his breadth and richness of tone.
He combined the Paganini school with that of
Viotti, and gave status to a peculiar genre of
players, in which may be numbered such great vir-
tuosos as Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski, who suc-
cessively occupied the same professional place for-
merly illustrated by De Bériot, and the latter
of whom recently died. De Bériot's playing was
noted for accuracy of intonation, remarkable deft-
ness and facility in bowing, grace, elegance, and
piquancy, though he never succeeded in creating
the unbounded enthusiasm which everywhere
greeted Paganini.
OLE BULL.
The Birth and Early Life of Ole Bull at Bergen, Norway.-- His
Family and Connections.—Surroundings of his Boyhood. —
Early Display of his Musical Passion.-Ļearns the Violin
without Aid.--Takes Lessons from an Old Musical Proſessor,
and soon surpasses his Master.—Anecdotes of his Boyliood.-
His Father's Opposition to Music as a Profession.Coinpetes
for Admittance to the University at Christiania.—Is consoled
for Failure by a Learned Professor.—“ Better be a Fiddler than
a Preacher."-Becomes Conductor of the Philharmonic Society
at Bergen.--His first Musical Journey.-Sees Spohr.–Fights
a Duel.–Visit to Paris.—He is reduced to Great Pecuniary
Straits.-Strange Adventure with Vidocq, the Great Detective.
- First Appearance in Concert in Paris. - Romantic Adven-
ture leading to Acquaintance.—First Appearance in Italy.-
Takes the Place of De Bériot by Great Good Luck.--Ole Bull
is most enthusiastically received. —Extended Concert Tour in
Italy and France.-His Début and Success in England. -One
Hundred and Eighty Concerts in Six Months.-Ole Bull's
Gaspar di Salo Violin, and the Circumstances under which he
acquired it. --His Answer to the King of Sweden.--First Visit
and Great Success in America in 1843.-Attempt to establish
a National Theatre.--The Norwegian Colony in Pennsylvania.
-Latter Years of Ole Bull.—His Personal Appearance.--Art
Characteristics.
I,
THE life of Olaus Bull, or Ole Bull, as he is
generally known to the world, was not only of
much interest in its relation to music, but singu-
larly full of vicissitude and adventure. He was

OLE BULL.
OLE BULL.
151
born at Bergen, Norway, February 5, 1810, of
one of the leading families of that resort of ship-
pers, timber-dealers, and fishermen. His father,
John Storm Bull, was a pharmaceutist, and among
his ancestors he numbered the Norwegian poet
Edward Storm, author of the “Sinclair Lay,” an
epic on the fate of Colonel Sinclair, who with a
thousand Hebridean and Scotch pirates made a
descent on the Norwegian coast, thus emulating
the Vikingr forefathers of the Norwegians them-
selves. The peasants slew them to a man by roll-
ing rocks down on them from the fearful pass of
the Gulbrands Dahl, and the event has been cele-
brated both by the poet's lay and the painter's
brush. By the mother's side Ole Bull came of
excellent Dutch stock, three of his uncles being
captains in the army and navy, and another a
journalist of repute. A passion for music was in-
herent in the family, and the editor had occasional
quartet parties at his house, where the works of
Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were given,
much to the delight of young Ole, who was often
present at these festive occasions.
The romantic and ardent imagination of the
boy was fed by the weird legends familiar to every
Norwegian nursery. The Scheherezade of this
occasion was the boy's own grandmother, who
told him with hushed breath the fairy folk-lore
of the mysterious Huldra and the Fossikal, or
Spirit of the Waterfall, and Ole Bull, with his
11
152
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
passion for music, was wont to fancy that the
music of the rushing waters was the singing of
the violins played by fairy artists. From an
early age this Greek passion for personifying all
the sights and sounds of nature manifested itself
noticeably, but always in some way connected
with music. He would fancy even that he could
hear the bluebells and violets singing, and per-
fume and color translated themselves into analo-
gies of sound. This poetic imagination grew
with his years and widened with his experience,
becoming the cardinal motive of Ole Bull's art
life. For a long time the young boy had longed
for a violin of his own, and finally his uncle who
gave the musical parties presented him with a
violin. Ole worked so hard in practicing on his
new treasure that he was soon able to take part
in the little concerts.
There happened to be at this time in Bergen a
professor of music named Paulsen, who also played
skillfully on the violin. Originally from Denmark,
he had come to Bergen on business, but, finding
the brandy so good and cheap, and his musical
talent so much appreciated, he postponed his de-
parture so long that he became a resident. Paul-
sen, it was said, would show his perseverance in
playing as long as there remained a drop in the
brandy bottle before him, when his musical am-
bition came to a sudden close. When the old
man, for he was more than sixty when young Ole
OLE BULL.
153
Bull first knew him, had worn his clothes into a
threadbare state, his friends would supply him
with a fresh suit, and at intervals he gave con-
certs, which every one thought it a religious duty
to attend. It was to this Dominie Sampson that
Ole Bull was indebted for his earliest musical
training ; but it seems that the lad made such
swift progress that his master soon had nothing
further to teach him. Poor old Paulsen was in
despair, for in his bright pupil he saw a successful
rival, and, fearing that his occupation was gone,
he left Bergen for ever.
In spite of the boy's most manifest genius for
music, his father was bent on making him a cler-
gyman, going almost to the length of forbidding
him to practice any longer on the dearly loved
fiddle, which had now become a part of himself;
but Ole persevered, and played at night softly, in
constant fear that the sounds would be heard.
But his mother and grandmother sympathized
with him, and encouraged his labors of love in
spite of the paternal frowns., The author of a
recent article in an American magazine relates an
interview with Ole Bull, in which the aged artist
gave some interesting facts of that early period in
his life. His father's assistant, who was musical,
occasionally received musical catalogues from Co-
penhagen, and in one of these the boy first saw
the name of Paganini, and reference to his famous
Caprices.” One evening his father brought
154 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
home some Italian musicians, and Ole Bull heard
from them all they knew of the great player, who
was then turning the musical world topsy-turvy
with a fever of excitement. “I went to my grand-
mother. 'Dear grandmother,' I said, 'can't I
get some of Paganini's music ?' 'Don't tell any
one,' said that dear old woman, but I will try
and buy a piece of his for you if you are a good
child.' And she did try, and I was wild when I
got the Paganini music. How difficult it was,
but oh, how beautiful! That garden-house was my
refuge. Maybe—I am not so sure of it—the cats
did not go quite so wild as some four years before.
One day—a memorable one-I went to a quartet
party. The new leader of our philharmonic was
there, a very fine violinist, and he played for us a
concerto of Spohr's. I knew it, and was delighted
with his reading of it. We had porter to drink
in another room, and we all drank it, but before
they had finished I went back to the music-room,
and commenced trying the Spohr. I was, I sup-
pose, carried away with the music, forgot myself,
and they heard me.
“This is impudence,' said the leader. And
do you think, boy, that you can play it ?' 'Yes,'
I said, quite honestly. I don't to this day see
why I should have told a story about it,do you ?
'Now you shall play it,' said somebody. “Hear
him ! hear him !' cried my uncle and the rest of
them. I did try it, and played the allegro. All
OLE BULL.
155
in a rage.
of them applauded save the leader, who looked
mad.
««•You think you can play anything, then ?'
asked the leader. He took a caprice of Paganini's
from a music stand. Now you try this,' he said,
* I will try it,' I said. “All right; go
ahead.'
“Now it just happened that this caprice was
my favorite, as the cats well knew. I could play
it by memory, and I polished it off. When I did
that, they all shouted. The leader before had
been so cross and savage, I thought he would just
rave now. But he did not say a word. He looked
very quiet and composed like. He took the other
musicians aside, and I saw that he was talking to
them. Not long afterward this violinist left Ber-
gen. I never thought I would see him again. It
was in 1840, when I was traveling through Sweden
on a concert tour, of a snowy day, that I met a
man in a sleigh. It was quite a picture : just
near sunset, and the northern lights were shoot-
ing in the sky; a man wrapped up in a bear-skin
a-tracking along the snow. As he drew up abreast
of me and unmuffled himself, he called out to my
driver to stop. It was the leader, and he said to
me, “Well, now that you are a celebrated violin-
ist, remember that, when I heard you play Paga-
nini, I predicted that your career would be a re-
markable one.' "You were mistaken,' I cried,
jumping up; “I did not read that Paganini at
156
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
sight; I had played it before. 'It makes no
difference; good-by,' and he urged on his horse,
and in a minute the leader was gone."
II.
To please his father, Ole Bull studied assidu-
ously to fit himself for the preliminary examina-
tion of the university, but he found time also to
pursue his beloved music. At the age of eighteen
he was entered at the University of Christiania
as a candidate for admission, and went to that
city somewhat in advance of the day of ordeal to
finish his studies. He had hardly entered Chris-
tiania before he was seduced to play at a concert,
which beginning gave full play to the music-mad-
ness beyond all self-restraint. As a result Ole
Bull was "plucked," and at first he did not dare
write to his father of this downfall of the hopes
of the paternal Bull.
We are told that he found consolation from
one of the very professors who had plucked him.
“It's the best thing could have happened to you,"
said the latter, by way of encouragement.
“How so?" inquired Ole.
“My dear fellow," was the reply, “do you
believe you are a fit man for a curacy in Finmar-
ken or a mission among the Laps? Nature has
made you a musician ; stick to your violin, and
you will never regret it.”
OLE BULL.
157
“But my father, think of his disappointed
hopes," said Ole Bull.
“ Your father will never regret it either," an-
swered the professor.
As good fortune ordered for the forlorn youth,
his musical friends did not desert him, but se-
cured for him the temporary position of director
of the Philharmonic Society of Christiania, the
regular incumbent being ill. On the death of
the latter shortly afterward, Ole Bull was ten-
dered the place. As the new duties were very
well paid, and relieved the youth from depen-
dence on his father's purse, further opposition to
his musical career was withdrawn.
In the summer of 1829 Ole Bull made a holi-
day trip into Germany, and heard Dr. Spohr, then
director of the opera at Cassel. - From this ex-
cursion,” said one of Ole Bull's friends, “he
returned completely disappointed. He had fan-
cied that a violin-player like Spohr must be a
man who, by his personal appearance, by the po-
etic character of his performance, or by the flash
of genius, would enchant and overwhelm his hear-
Instead of this, he found in Spohr a correct
teacher, exacting from the young Norwegian the
same cool precision which characterized his own
performance, and quite unable to appreciate the
wild, strange melodies he brought from the land
of the North." Spohr was a man of clock-work
mechanism in all his methods and theories--young
ers.
158 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Ole Bull was all poetry, romance, and enthusi-
asm.
At Minden our young violinist met with an
adventure not of the pleasantest sort. He had
joined a party of students about to give a concert
at that place, and was persuaded to take the
place of the violinist of the party, who had been
rather free in his libations, and became “a victim
of the rosy god.” Ole Bull was very warmly ap-
plauded at the concert, and so much nettled was
the student whose failure had made the vacancy
for Ole Bull's talent, that the latter received a
challenge to fight a duel, which was promptly ac-
cepted. Ole Bull proved that he could handle a
sword as well as a fiddle-bow, for in a few passes
he wounded and disabled his antagonist. Не
was advised, however, to leave that locality as
soon as possible, and so he returned straight to
Christiania, - feeling as if the very soil of Europe
repelled him” (to use an expression from one of
his letters).
Ole Bull remained in Norway for two years,
but he felt that he must bestir himself, and go to
the great centers of musical culture if he would
find a proper development and field for the genius
which he believed he possessed. His friends at
Christiania idolized him, and were loath to let him
go, but nothing could stay him, so with pilgrim's
staff and violin-case he started on his journey.
Scarcely twenty-one years of age, nearly penni-
OLE BULL.
159
less, with no letters of introduction to people
who could help him, but with boundless hope and
resolution, he first set foot in Paris in 1831.
The town was agog over Paganini and Mme.
Malibran, and of course the first impulse of the
young artist was to hear these great people. One
night he returned from hearing Malibran, and
went to bed so late that he slept till nearly noon
the next day. To his infinite consternation, he
discovered that his landlord had decamped dur-
ing the early morning, taking away the house-
hold furniture of any value, and even abstracting
the modest trunk which contained Ole Bull's
clothes and his violin. After such an overwhelm-
ing calamity as this, the Seine seemed the only
resource, and the young Norwegian, it is said,
had nearly concluded to find relief from his trou-
bles in its turbid and sin-weighted waters. But
it happened that the young man had still a little
money left, enough to support him for a week,
and he concluded to delay the fatal plunge till
the last sou was gone. It was while he was slowly
enjoying the last dinner which he was able to pay
for, that he made the acquaintance of a remark-
able character, to whom he confided his misery
and his determination to find a tomb in the Seine.
III.
SAID the stranger, after pondering a few
moments over the simple but sad story of the
160
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
young violinist, in whom he had taken a sudden
interest:
“Well, I will do something for you, if you
have courage and five francs.'
"I have both."
“Then go to Frascate's at ten ; pass through
the first room, enter the second, where they play
'rouge-et-noir,' and when a new taille begins put
your five francs on rouge, and leave it there."
This promise of an adventure revived Ole
Bull's drooping spirits, and he was faithful in
carrying out his unknown friend's instructions.
At the precise hour the tall stalwart figure of the
young Norwegian bent over the table at Fras-
cate's, while the game of “rouge-et-noir” was
being played. He threw his five francs on red ;
the card was drawn-red wins, and the five francs
were ten. Again Ole Bull bet his ten francs on
rouge, and again he won; and so he continued,
leaving his money on the same color till a con-
siderable amount of money lay before him. By
this time the spirit of gaming was thoroughly
aroused. Should he leave the money and trust
to red turning up again, or withdraw the pile of
gold and notes, satisfied with the kindness of For-
tune, without further tempting the fickle god-
dess? He said to a friend afterward, in relating
his feelings on this occasion :
“I was in a fear-I acted as if possessed by a
spirit not my own; no one can understand my
OLE BULL,
161
feelings who has not been so tried-left alone in
the world, as if on the extreme verge of an abyss
yawning beneath, and at the same time feeling
something within that might merit a saving hand
at the last moment."
Ole Bull stretched forth to grasp the money,
when a white hand covered it before his. He
seized the wrist with a fierce grasp, while the
owner of it uttered a loud shriek, and loud threats
came from the other players, who took sides in
the matter, when a dark figure suddenly appeared
on the scene, and spoke in a voice whose tones
carried with them a magic authority which stilled
all tumult at once. “Madame, leave this gold
alone !”—and to Ole Bull: “Sir, take your mon-
ey, if you please.” The winner of an amount
which had become very considerable lingered a
few moments to see the further results of the
play, and, much to his disgust, discovered that
he would have possessed quite a little fortune had
he left his pile undisturbed for one more turn of
the cards. He was consoled, however, on arriv-
ing at his miserable lodgings, for he could scarcely
believe that this stroke of good luck was true, and
yet there was something repulsive in it to the
fresh, unsophisticated nature of the man. He
said in a letter to one of his friends, “What a
hideous joy I felt-what a horrible pleasure it
was to have saved one's own soul by the spoil of
others !” The mysterious stranger who had thus
162 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
befriended Ole Bull was the great detective Vi.
docq, whose adventures and exploits had given
him a world - wide reputation. Ole Bull never
saw him again.
In exploring Paris for the purchase of a new
violin, he accidentally made the acquaintance of
an individual named Labout, who fancied that he
had found the secret of the old Cremona varnish,
and that, by using it on modern-made violins, the
instruments would acquire all the tone and quality
of the best old fiddles of the days of the Stradiuarii
and Amati. The inventor persuaded Ole Bull to
appear at a private concert where he proposed to
test his invention, and where the Duke and Duch-
esse de Montebello were to be present. The Nor-
wegian's playing produced a genuine sensation,
and the duke took the young artist under his pat-
ronage.
The result was that Ole Bull was soon
able to give a concert on his own account, which
brought him a profit of about twelve hundred
francs, and made him talked about among the
musical cognoscenti of Paris. Of course every one
at the time was Paganini mad, but Ole Bull secured
more than a respectful hearing, and opened the
way toward getting a solid footing for himself.
Among the incidents which occurred to him
in Paris about this time was one which had a
curiously interesting bearing on his life. Obliged
to move from his lodgings on account of the death
of the landlord and his wife of cholera, a disease
OLE BULL.
163
then raging in Paris, Ole Bull was told of a no-
ble but impoverished family who had a room to
let on account of the recent death of the only son.
The Norwegian violinist presented himself at the
somewhat dilapidated mansion of the Comtesse
de Faye, and was shown into the presence of three
ladies dressed in deepest mourning. The eldest
of them, on hearing his errand, baughtily declined
the proposition, when the more beautiful of the
two girls said, “Look at him, mother!” with
such eagerness as to startle the ancient dame.
Ole Bull was surprised at this. The old lady
put on her spectacles, and, as she riveted her eyes
upon him, her countenance changed suddenly.
She had found in him such a resemblance to the
son she had lost that she at once consented to his
residing in her house. Some time afterward Ole
Bull became her son indeed, having married the
fascinating girl who had exclaimed, “Look at him,
mother !"
With the little money he had now earned he
determined to go to Italy, provided with some let-
ters of introduction; and he gave his first Ital-
ian concert at Milan in 1834. Applause was not
wanting, but his performance was rather severely
criticised in the papers. The following paragraph,
reproduced from an Italian musical periodical,
published shortly after this concert, probably rep-
resents very truly the state of his talent at that
period :
164 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
“M. Ole Bull plays the music of Spohr, May-
seder, Pugnani, and others, without knowing the
true character of the music he plays, and partly
spoils it by adding a color of his own. It is mani-
fest that this color of his own proceeds from an
original, poetical, and musical individuality ; but
of this originality he is himself unconscious. He
has not formed himself; in fact, he has no style;
he is an uneducated musician. Whether he is al
diamond or not is uncertain ; but certain it is
that the diamond is not polished.”
In a short time Ole Bull discovered that it was
necessary to cultivate, more than he had done,
his cantabile—this was his weakest point, and a
most important one. In Italy he found masters
who enabled him to develop this great quality of
the violin, and from that moment his career as an
artist was established. The next concert of any
consequence in which he played was at Bologna
under peculiar circumstances; and his reputation
as a great violinist appears to date from that con-
cert. De Bériot and Malibran were then idolized at
Bologna, and just as Ole Bull arrived in that an-
cient town, De Bériot was about to fulfill an engage-
ment to play at a concert given by the celebrated
Philharmonic Society there. The engagement had
been made by the Marquis di Zampieri, between
whom and the Belgian artist there was some feel-
ing of mutual aversion, growing out of a misun-
derstanding and a remark of the marquis which
OLE BULL.
165
had wounded the susceptibilities of the other.
The consequence was that on the day of the con-
cert De Bériot sent a note, saying that he had a
sore finger and could not play.
Marquis Zampieri was in a quandary, for the
time was short. In his embarrassment he took
council with Mme. Colbran Rossini, who was then
at Bologna with her husband, the illustrious com-
poser. It happened that Ole Bull's lodging was
in the same palazzo, and Mme. Rossini had often
heard the tones of the young artist's violin in his
daily practicing; her curiosity had been greatly
aroused about this unknown player, and now was
the chance to gratify it. She told the noble entre-
preneur that she had discovered a violinist quite
worthy of taking De Bériot's place.
“Who is it?" inquired the marquis.
“I don't know," answered the wife of Rossini.
“You are joking, then ?”
“Not at all, but I am sure there is a genius in
town, and he lodges close by here,” pointing to
Ole Bull's apartment. “ Take your net,” she
added, "and catch your bird before he has flown
away. The marquis knocked at Ole Bull's door,
and the delighted young artist soon concluded an
engagement which insured him an appearance
under the best auspices, for Mme. Malibran would
sing at the same concert.
In a few hours Ole Bull was performing be-
fore a distinguished audience in the concert-hall
166
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
core.
.
of the Philharmonic Society. Among the pieces he
played, all of his owu composition, was his “Quar-
tet for One Violin,” in which his great skill in dou-
ble and triple harmonics was admirably shown.
Enthusiastic applause greeted the young virtuoso,
and he was escorted home by a torchlight proces-
sion of eager and noisy admirers. This was Ole
Bull's first really great success, though he had
played in France and Germany. The Italians,
with their quick, generous appreciation, and their
demonstrative manner of showing admiration, had
given him a reception of such unreserved appro-
val as warmed his artistic ambition to the very
Mme. Malibran, though annoyed at the
mischance which glorified another at the expense
of De Bériot, was too just and amiable not to ex-
press her hearty congratulations to the young ar-
tist, and De Bériot himself, when he was shortly
afterward introduced to Ole Bull, treatect him
with most brotherly kindness and cordiality.
Prince and Princess Poniatowsky also sent their
cards to the now successful artist, and gave him
letters of introduction to distinguished people
which were of great use in his concert tour. His
career had now become assured, and the world
received him with open arms.
The following year, 1835, contributed a cata-
logue of similar successes in various cities of Italy
and France, culminating in a grand concert at
Paris in the Opera-house, where the most distin-
OLE BULL.
167
+
guished musicians of the city gave their warmest
applause in recognition of the growing fame and
skill of Ole Bull, for he had already begun to
illustrate a new field in music by setting the
quaint poetic legends and folk-songs of his na-
tive land. His specialty as a composer was in the
domain of descriptive music, his genius was for
the picturesque. His vivid imagination, full of
poetic phantasy, and saturated with the heroic
traditions and fairy-lore of a race singularly rich
in this inheritance from an earlier age, instinc-
tively flowered into art-forms designed to embody
this legendary wealth. Ole Bull's violin compo-
sitions, though dry and rigorous musicians object
to them as lacking in depth of science, as shallow
and sensational, are distinctly tone-pictures full
of suggestiveness for the imagination. It was this
peculiarity which early began to impress his au-
diences, and gave Ole Bull a separate place by
himself in an age of eminent players.
IV.
IN 1836 and 1837 Ole Bull gave one hundred
and eighty concerts in England during the space
of sixteen months. By this time he had become
famous, and a mere announcement sufficed to at-
tract large audiences. Subsequently he visited
successively every town of importance in Europe,
earning large amounts of money and golden opin-
ions everywhere. For a long time our artist used
12
168
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
a fine Guarnerius violin and afterward a Nicholas
Amati, which was said to b3 the finest instrument
of this make in the world. But the violin which
Ole Bull prized in latter years above all others
was the famous Gaspar di Salo with the scroll
carved by Benvenuto Cellini. Mr. Barnett Phil-
lips, an American littérateur, tells the story of this
noble old instrument, as related in Ole Bull's
words:
“Well, in 1839 I gave sixteen concerts at Vi-
enna, and then Rhehazek was the great violin col-
lector. I saw at his house this violin for the first
time. I just went wild over it. Will you sell
it?' I asked. “Yes,' was the reply-'for one
quarter of all Vienna.' Now Rhehazek was really
as poor as a church mouse. Though he had no
end of money put out in the most valuable instru-
ments, he never sold any of them unless when
forced by hunger. I invited Rhehazek to my
concerts. I wanted to buy the violin so much
that I made him some tempting offers.
One day
he said to me, "See here, Ole Bull, if I do sell the
violin, you shall have the preference at four
thousand ducats.' Agreed,' I cried, though I
knew it was a big sum.
“That violin came strolling, or playing rath-
er, through my brain for some years. It was in
1841. I was in Leipsic giving concerts. Liszt
was there, and so also was Mendelssohn. One
day we were all dining together. We were hav-
6
OLE BULL.
169
mg a splendid time. During the dinner came an
immense letter with a seal-an official document.
Said Mendelssohn, Use no ceremony; open your
letter.' "What an awful seal !! cried Liszt.
With your permission,' said I, and I opened the
letter. It was from Rhehazek's son, for the col-
lector was dead. His father had said that the
violin should be offered to me at the price he had
mentioned. I told Liszt and Mendelssohn about
the price. You man from Norway, you are
crazy,' said Liszt. “Unheard of extravagance,
which only a fiddler is capable of,' exclaimed
Mendelssohn. ‘Have you ever played on it?
Have you ever tried it?' they both inquired.
Never,' I answered, “for it can not be played on
at all just now.'
I never was happier than when I felt sure
that the prize was mine. Originally the bridge
was of boxwood, with two fishes carved on it-
that was the zodiacal sign of my birthday, Febru-
ary-which was a good sign. Oh, the good times
that violin and I have had! As to its history,
Rhehazek told me that in 1809, when Innspruck
was taken by the French, the soldiers sacked the
town. This violin had been placed in the Inn-
spruck Museum by Cardinal Aldobrandi at the
close of the sixteenth century. A French soldier
looted it, and sold it to Rhehazek for a trifle.
This is the same violin that I played on, when I
first came to the United States, in the Park
66
170 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Theatre. That was on Evacuation day, 1843. 1
went to the Astor House, and made a joke-I am
quite capable of doing such things. It was the
day when John Bull went out and Ole Bull came
in. I remember that at the very first concert one
of my strings broke, and I had to work out my
piece on the three strings, and it was supposed I
did it on purpose.” Ole Bull valued this instru-
ment as beyond all price, and justly, for there
have been few more famous violins than the
Treasury violin of Innspruck, under which name
it was known to all the amateurs and collectors of
the world.
During his various art wanderings through
Europe, Ole Bull made many friends among the
distinguished men of the world. A dominant
pride of person and race, however, always pre-
served him from the slightest approach to servili-
ty. In 1838 he was presented to Carl Johann,
king of Sweden, at Stockholm. The king had at
that time a great feeling of bitterness against
Norway, on account of the obstinate refusal of the
people of that country to be united with Sweden
under his rule. At the interview with Ole Bull
the irate king let fall some sharp expressions rela-
tive to his chagrin in the matter.
“Sire,” said the artist, drawing himself up to
the fullness of his magnificent height, and looking
sternly at the monarch, “you forget that I bave
the honor to be a Norwegian."
OLE BULL,
171
The king was startled by this curt rebuke, and
was about to make an angry reply, but smoothed
his face and answered, with a laugh :
“Well! well! I know you d-d sturdy fel-
lows.” Carl Johann afterward bestowed on Ole
Bull the order of Gustavus Vasa.
V.
OLE BULL's first visit to America was in 1843,
and the impression produced by his playing was,
for manifest causes, even greater than that created
in Europe. He was the first really great violinist
who had ever come to this country for concert
purposes, and there was none other to measure
him by. There were no great traditions of players
who had preceded him ; there were no rivals like
Spohr, Paganini, and De Bériot to provoke com-
parisons. In later years artists discovered that
this country was a veritable El Dorado, and re-
garded an American tour as indispensable to the
fulfillment of a well-rounded career.
But, when
Ole Bull began to play in America, his perfor-
mances were revelations, to the masses of those
that heard him, of the possibilities of the violin.
The greatest enthusiasm was manifested every-
where, and, during the three years of this early
visit, he gave repeated performances in every city
of any note in America. The writer of this little
work met Ole Bull a few years ago in Chicago,
and heard the artist laughingly say that, when he
172 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
first entered what was destined to be such a great
city, it was little more than a vast mudhole, a
good-sized village scattered over a wide space of
ground, and with no building of pretension ex-
cept Fort Dearborn, a stockade fortification.
Our artist returned to Europe in 1846, and
for five years led a wandering life of concert-
giving in England, France, Holland, Germany,
Italy, and Spain, adding to his laurels by the
recognition everywhere conceded of the increased
soundness and musicianly excellence of his play-
ing. It was indeed at this period that Ole Bull
attained his best as a virtuoso. He had been
previously seduced by the example of Paganini,
and in the attempt to master the more strange
and remote difficulties of the instrument had
often laid himself open to serious criticism. But
Ole Bull gradually formed a style of his own
which was the outcome of his passion for descrip-
tive and poetic playing, and the correlative of the
mode of composition which he adopted. In still
later years Ole Bull seems to have returned again
to what might be termed claptrap and trickery in
his art, and to have desired rather to excite won-
der and curiosity than to charm the sensibilities
or to satisfy the requirements of sound musical
taste.
In 1851 Ole Bull returned home with the
-
patriotic purpose of establishing a strictly national
theatre. This had been for a long time one of
OLE BULL.
173
the many dreams which his active imagination
had conjured up as a part of his mission. He
was one of the earliest of that school of reformers,
of whom we have heard so much of late years,
that urge the readoption of the old Norse lan-
guage—or, what is nearest to it now, the Icelandic
as the vehicle of art and literature. In the at-
tempt to dethrone Dansk from its preëminence
as the language of the drama, Ole Bull signally
failed, and his Norwegian theatre, established at
Bergen, proved only an insatiable tax on money-
resources earned in other directions.
The year succeeding this, Ole Bull again vis-
ited the United States, and spent five years here.
The return to America did not altogether con-
template the pursuit of music, for there had
been for a good while boiling in his brain, among
other schemes, the project of a great Scandinavian
colony, to be established in Pennsylvania under
his auspices. He purchased one hundred and
twenty-five thousand acres of land on the Sus-
quehanna, and hundreds of sturdy Norwegians
flocked over to the land of milk and honey thus
auspiciously opened to them. Timber was felled,
ground cleared, churches, cottages, school-houses
built, and everything was progressing desirably,
when the ambitious colonizer discovered that
the parties who sold him the land were swin-
dlers without any rightful claim to it. With
the unbusiness-like carelessness of the man of
174
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
genius, our artist had not investigated the claims
of others on the property, and he thus became
involved in a most perplexing and expensive
suit at law. He attempted to punish the ras-
cals who so nearly ruined him, but they were
shielded behind the quips and quirks of the law,
and got away scot free. Ole Bull's previously
ample means were so heavily drained by this
misfortune that he was compelled to take up
his violin again and resume concert-giving, for
he had incurred heavy pecuniary obligations that
must be met. Driven by the most feverish anx-
iety, he passed from town to town, playing almost
every night, till he was stricken down by yellow
fever in New Orleans. His powerful frame and
sound constitution, fortified by the abstemious
habits which had marked his whole life of queer
vicissitudes, carried him through this danger
safely, and he finally succeeded in honorably ful-
filling the responsibility which he had assumed
toward his countrymen.
For many recent years Ole Bull, when not
engaged in concert-giving in Europe or America,
has resided at a charming country estate on one
of the little islands off the coast of Norway. His
numerous farewell concert tours are very well
known to the public, and would have won him
ridicule, had not the genial presence and brilliant
talents of the Norwegian artist been always good
for a renewed and no less cordial welcome.
He
OLE BULL
175
frequently referred to the United States in latter
years as the beloved land of his adoption. One
striking proof of his preference was, at all events,
displayed in his marriage to an American lady,
Miss Thorpe, of Wisconsin, in 1870. One son
was the fruit of this second marriage, and Mr.
and Mrs. Ole Bull divided their time between
Norway and the United States.
The magnificent presence of Ole Bull, as if of
some grand old viking stepped out of his armor
and dressed in modern garb, made a most pictu-
resque personality. Those who have seen him
can never forget him. The great stature, the
massive, stalwart form, as upright as a pine, the
white floating locks framing the ruddy face, full
of strength and genial humor, lit up by keen blue
eyes—all these things made Ole Bull the most
striking man in personnel among all the artists
who have been familiar to our public.
While Ole Bull will not be known in the his-
tory of art as a great scientific musician, there
can be no doubt that his place as a brilliant and
gifted solo player will stand among the very fore-
most. As a composer he will probably be for-
gotten, for his compositions, which made up the
most of his concert programmes, were so radically
interwoven with his executive art as a virtuoso
that the two can not be dissevered. No one, un-
less he should be inspired by the same feelings
which animated the breast of Ole Bull, could
1976 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ever evolve from his musical tone-pictures of
Scandinavian myth and folk-lore the weird fasci-
nation which his bow struck from the strings.
Ole Bull, like Paganini, laid no claim to great-
ness in interpreting the violin classics. His pe-
culiar title to fame is that of being, aside from bril-
liancy as a violin virtuoso, the musical exponent
of his people and their traditions. He died at
Bergen, Norway, on August 18, 1880, in the
seventy-first year of his age, and his funeral
services made one of the most august and im-
posing ceremonials held for many a long year in
Norway.
JOACHIM.
The Most Serious and Sincerc of Artists.- The Hater of Musical
Claptrap.--Famous while yet a Boy.--Life in Berlin.--His
Annual Visits to London.- Essential Qualities and Ideals as a
Violinist.-Joachim's Compositions.
In a generation which has listened to such
violin-players as Sivori, Wieniawski, Wilhelmj,
Remenyi, Sauret, Sainton, Sarasate, and others
scarcely less in the mouths of men, it seems al-
most invidious to select any one artist as outrank-
ing the rest in the dignity of art. Yet we fancy
that if the question could have been put to all
these masters assembled in convention, “ Who
among you best stands for what is finest in mu-
sical skill and endowment, for sincerity in his
work, for an austere ideal to which he has set the
whole pace of his life ?” the reply would have been
an acclamation, “ Joseph Joachim!” Joachim
has never been in America. He has sought less
than others the rewards which come from peripa-
tetic art, and, like Rubinstein, shrinks from the
title of virtuoso, however nobly it belongs to him.
Music has been to him a temple to be entered with
a sense of consecration, not a market-place where
traders struggle for gain, nor a race-course where
the vanity of fame glitters at the winning-post.
178
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
He re-
The story of his public career can be packed al-
most in a nut-shell.
Joachim was born of Jewish parents at Kitsee,
near Pressburg, Austria, June 28, 1831, and, after
preliminary instruction at Pesth, became a pupil
of Baehm at Vienna. At the age of twelve he
began to study under the great player and teacher,
Ferdinand David, at Leipsic, and was powerfully
molded by Mendelssohn's influence in his ideals
of art. It was during his first year at Leipsic that
Moschelles heard him play, and put on record his
impressions of an exquisite boy artist.
mained in the Conservatoire for four years, and
then shared with David the leadership of the
Gewandhaus Orchestra. After successful tours in
Germany and England, he accepted in 1850 the
leadership of the Grand Duke's orchestra at Wei-
mar; but as Liszt, with his passion for the new
Wagner cult, to which Joachim was antipathetic,
was the all-powerful influence at the German
Athens, our young violinist did not find his en-
gagement agreeable. After two years he accepted
a proffer from the King of Hanover as solo-per-
former and director of concerts, and in this posi-
tion he continued till 1866, during which period
he married the eminent contralto singer, Amalia
Weiss. Two years more of concert-touring, and
then Joachim was installed at the head of the new
department of Musical Execution in the Royal
Academy of Art in Berlin. In 1882 he became the
JOACHIM.
179
chief director of the institution. For many years
Joachim has spent two or three months of each
year in London, where, in association with the
great 'cellist Piatti, and other instrumentalists no
less eminent, he has given the finest interpretation
of chamber music in the world at the Monday
Popular Concerts of the Messrs. Chappell, and at
the Crystal Palace.
Such is the outline of a simple life devoid of
incident. No romance attaches to it as in the case
of Paganini, De Beriot, or Liszt. Eccentricity of
adventure and storm of passion have not ruffled a
serene and persistent devotion to his art. No racy
scandal has startled the public attention. He is
known as the consummate artist pure and simple,
who illustrates the sanity of genius as brilliantly
as others have been object-lessons of its extrava-
gance.
As player Joachim is not famous for that be-
witching trickery to which the violin lends itself
with as much grace as it does to the nobler exer-
cise of its magic, that legerdemain of bow and
string, which so many fine players have been willing
to trust for much of their public repute. That he
rules every resource of his instrument goes without
saying. But this skill has been devoted to the inter-
pretation only of the noblest music-such works
as the great concertos of Beethoven, Bach, Spohr,
Mendelssohn, Brahms, Viotti, and his own superb
Hungarian concerto. These works and the whole
180 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
range of chamber music have set apparently nar-
row bounds to liis repertory, though by his own
deliberate choice. It is enough to say that these
classical masterpieces tax the highest genius and
skill in the executant, and that Joachim is par
excellence their leading exponent to determine at
once his place in art. As a composer he is a fol-
lower of the school of Schumann, and has pro
duced several important works for the orchestra,
many for the violin, and much delightful chamber
music.
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
The Genealogy of the Piano-forte.-The Harpsichord its Imme-
diate Predecessor.-Supposed Invention of the Piano-forte.--
Silbermain the First Maker, — Anecdote of Frederick the
Great.--The Piano-forte only slowly makes its Way as against
the Clavichord and Harpsichord.—Emanuel Bach, the First
Composer of Sonutas for the Piano-forte.—His Views of play-
ing on the New Instrument.-Haydn and Mozart as Players.
Muzio Clementi, the Earliest Virtuoso, strictly speaking, as a
Pianist.-Born in Rome in 1752.-Scion of an Artistic Family.
-First Musical Training.–Kapid Development of his Talents.
--Composes Contrapuntal Works at the Age of Fourteen.-
Early Studies of the Organ and Harpsichord.—Goes to Eng-
land to complete his Studies.-Creates an Unequaled Furore
in London. ---John Christian Bach's Opinion of Clementi.--
Clementi's Musical Tour:—His Duel with Mozart before the
Emperor.---Tenor of Clementi's Life in England.—Clementi's
Pupils.—Trip to St. Petersburg:-Sphor's Anecdote of Him.-
Mercantile and Manufacturing Interest in the Piano as Part-
ner of Collard.—The Players and Composers trained under
Clementi.—His Composition.-Status as a Player.-Character
and Influence as an Artist.- Development of the Technique of
the Piano, culminating in Clementi.
I.
BEFORE touching the life of Clementi, the first
of the great virtuosos who may be considered dis-
tinctively composers for and players on the piano-
forte, it is indispensable to a clear understanding
of the theme involved that the reader should
182
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
turn back for a brief glance at the history of
the piano and piano-playing prior to his time.
Before the piano-forte came the harpsichord,
prior to the latter the spinet, then the virginal,
the clavichord, and monocliord; before these, the
clavicytherium. Before these instruments, which
bring us down to modern civilized times, and
constitute the genealogy of the piano-forte, we
have the dulcimer and psaltery, and all the Egyp-
tian, Grecian, and Roman harps and lyres which
were struck with a quill or plectrum. No product
of human ingenuity has been the outcome of a
steady and systematic growth from age to age
by more demonstrable stages than this most re-
markable of musical instruments. As it is not
the intention to offer an essay on the piano, but
only to make clearer the conditions under which a
great school of players began to appear, the an-
tiquities of the topic are not necessary to be
touched.
The modern piano-forte had as its immediate
predecessor the harpsichord, the instrument on
which the heroines of the novels of Fielding,
Smollett, Richardson, and their contemporaries
were wont to discourse sweet music, and for
which Haydn and Mozart composed come de-
lightful minor works. In the harpsichord the
strings were set in vibration by points of quill or
hard leather. One of these instruments looked like
a piano, only it was provided with two keyboards,
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
183
one above the other, related to each other as the
swell and main keyboards of an organ.
At
last it occurred to lovers of music that all re-
finement of musical expression depended on touch,
and that whereas a string could be plucked or
pulled by machinery in but one way, it could
be hit in a hundred ways. It was then that the
notion of striking the strings with a hammer
found practical use, and by the addition of this
element the piano-forte emerged into existence.
The idea appears to have occurred to three men
early in the eighteenth century, almost simultane-
ously-Cristofori, an Italian, Marius, a French-
man, and Schröter, a German. For years at-
tempts to carry out the new mechanism were
so clumsy that good harpsichords on the wrong
principle were preferred to poor piano-fortes on.
the right principle. But the keynote of prog-
ress had been struck, and the day of the quill
and leather jack was swiftly drawing to a close.
A small hammer was made to strike the string,
producing a marvelously clear, precise, delicate
tone, and the "scratch” with a sound at the end
of it was about to be consigned to oblivion for
ever and a day.
Gottfried Silbermann, an ingenious musical in-
strument maker, of Freyburg, Saxony, was the
first to give the new principle adequate expression,
about the year 1740, and his pianos excited a great
deal of curiosity among musicians and scientific
13
184 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
men. He followed the mechanism of Cristofori,
the Italian, rather than of his own countrymen.
Schröter and his instruments appear to have been
ingenious, though Sebastian Bach, who loved his
“well-tempered clavichord” (the most powerful
instrument of the harpsichord class) too well to
be seduced from his allegiance, pronounced them
too feeble in tone, a criticism which he retracted
in after years.
Silbermann experimented and la-
bored with incessant energy for many years, and
he had the satisfaction before dying of seeing the
piano firmly established in the affection and ad-
miration of the niusical world. One of the most
authentic of musical anecdotes is that of the visit
of John Sebastian Bach and his son to Frederick
the Great, at Potsdam, in 1747. The Prussian
king was an enthusiast in music, and himself an
excellent performer on the flute, of which, as well
as of other instruments, he had a large collection.
He had for a long time been anxious for a visit
from Bach, but that great man was too much
enamored of his own quiet musical solitude to
run hither and thither at the beck of kings. At
last, after much solicitation, he consented, and
arrived at Potsdam late in the evening, all dusty
and travel-stained. The king was just taking up
his flute to play a concerto, when a lackey informed
him of the coming of Bach. Frederick was more
agitated than he ever had been in the tumult of
battle. Crying aloud, “Gentlemen, old Bach is
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
185
here!” he rushed out to meet the king in a loftier
domain than his own, and ushered him into the
lordly company of powdered wigs and doublets, of
fair dames shining with jewels, satins, and vel-
vets, of courtiers glittering in all the colors of the
rainbow. “Old Bach” presented a shabby fig-
ure amid all this splendor, but the king cared
nothing for that. He was most anxious to hear
the grand old musician play on the new Silber-
mann piano, which was the latest hobby of the
Prussian monarch.
It is not a matter of wonder that the lovers of
the harpsichord and clavichord did not take kind-
ly to the piano-forte at first. The keys needed a
greater delicacy of treatment, and the very fact
that the instrument required a new style of play-
ing was of course sufficient to relegate the piano to
another generation. The art of playing had at
the time of the invention of the piano attained a
high degree of efficiency. Such musicians as Do-
menico Scarlatti in Italy and John Sebastian
Bach in Germany had developed a wonderful
degree of skill in treating the clavecin, or spinet,
and the clavichord, and, if we may trust the old
accounts, they called out ecstasies of admiration
similar to those which the great modern players
have excited. With the piano-forte, however, an
entirely new style of expression came into exist-
The power to play soft or loud at will de-
veloped the individual or personal feeling of the
ence.
186 THE GREAT VIOLÍNISTS AND PIANISTS.
player, and new effects were speedily invented
and put in practice. The art of playing ceased to
be considered from the merely objective point of
view, for the richer resources of the piano sug-
gested the indulgence of individuality of expres-
sion. It was left to Emanuel Bach to make the
first step toward the proper treatment of the
piano, and to adapt a style of composition ex-
pressly to its requirements, though even he con-
tinued to prefer the clavichord. The rigorous,
polyphonic style of his illustrious father was
succeeded by the lyrical and singing element,
which, if fantastic and daring, had a sweet,
bright charm very fascinating. He writes in
one of his treatises : “Methinks music ought ap-
peal directly to the heart, and in this no per-
former on the piano-forte will succeed by merely
thumping and drumming, or by continual ar-
peggio playing. During the last few years my
chief endeavor has been to play the piano-forte, in
spite of its deficiency in sustaining the sound, so
much as possible, in a singing manner, and to com-
pose for it accordingly. This is by no means án
easy task, if we desire not to leave the ear empty
or to disturb the noble simplicity of the cantabile
by too much noise."
Haydn and Mozart, who composed somewhat
for the harpsichord (for until the closing years of
the eighteenth century this instrument had not
entirely yielded to the growing popularity of the
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
1894
piano-forte), distinguished themselves still more by
their treatment of the latter instrument. They
closely followed the maxims of Emanuel Bach.
They aimed to please the public by sweet melody
and agreeable harmony, by spontaneous elegance
and cheerfulness, by suave and smooth simplicity.
Their practice in writing for the orchestra and
for voices modified their piano-forte style both as
composers and players, but they never sacrificed
that intelligible and simple charm which appeals
to the universal heart to the taste for grand, com-
plex, and eccentric effects, which has so domi-
nated the efforts of their successors. Mozart's
most distinguished contemporaries bear witness to
his excellence as a player, and his great command
over the piano-forte, and his own remarks on piano-
playing are full of point and suggestion. He as-
serts “that the performer should possess a quiet
and steady hand, with its natural lightness,
smoothness, and gliding rapidity so well developed
that the passages should flow like oil. . . . All
notes, graces, accents, etc., should be brought out
with fitting taste and expression. . . . In pas-
sages [technical figures], some notes may be left
to their fate without notice, but is that right?
Three things are necessary to a good performer";
and he pointed significantly to his head, his
heart, and the tips of his fingers, as symbolical of
understanding, sympathy, and technical skill.
But it was fated that Clementi should be the
188 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Columbus in the domain of piano-forte playing
and composition. He was the father of the school
of modern piano technique, and by far surpassed
all his contemporaries in the boldness, vigor, bril-
liancy, and variety of his execution, and he is en-
titled to be called first in respect of date) of the
great piano-forte virtuosos. Clementi wrote solely
for this instrument (for his few orchestral works
are now dead). The piano, as his sole medium of
expression, became a vehicle of great eloquence
and power, and his sonatas, as pure types of
piano-forte compositions, are unsurpassed, even in
this age of exuberant musical fertility.
II.
MUZIO CLEMENTI was born at Rome in the
year 1752, and was the son of a silver worker of
great skill, who was principally engaged on the
execution of the embossed figures and vases em-
ployed in the Catholic worship. The boy at a
very early age evinced a most decided taste for
music, a predilection which delighted his father,
himself an enthusiastic amateur, and caused him
to bestow the utinost pains on the cultivation of
the child's talents. The boy's first master was
Buroni, choir-master a tone of the churches, and
a relation of the family. Later, young Clementi
took lessons in thorough bass from an eminent
organist, Condicelli, and after a couple of years'
application he was thought sufficiently advanced
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
189
to apply for the position of organist, which he
obtained, his age then being barely nine. He
prosecuted his studies with great zeal under the
ablest masters, and his genius for composition as
well as for playing displayed a rapid development.
By the time Clementi had attained the age of
fourteen he had composed several contrapuntal
works of considerable merit, one of which, a mass
for four voices and chorus, gained great applause
from the musicians and public of Rome.
During his studies of counterpoint and the or-
gan Clementi never neglected his harpsichord, on
which he achieved remarkable proficiency, for the
piano-forte at this time, though gradually coming
into use, was looked on rather as a curiosity than
an instrument of practical value. The turning-
point of Clementi's life occurred in 1767, through
his acquaintance with an English gentleman of
wealth, Mr. Peter Beckford, who evinced a deep
interest in the young musician's career. After
much opposition Mr. Beckford persuaded the el-
der Clementi to in trust his son's further musical
education to his care. The country seat of Mr.
Beckford was in Dorsetshire, England, and here,
by the aid of a fine library, social surroundings of
the most favorable kind, and indomitable energy
on his own part, he speedily made himself an
adept in the English language and literature.
The talents of Clementi made him almost an Ad-
mirable Crichton, for it is asserted that, in addi-
190 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
tion to the most severe musical studies, he made
himself in a few years a proficient in the principal
modern languages, in Greek and Latin, and in
the whole circle of the belles-lettres. His studies
in his own art were principally based on the works
of Corelli, Alexander Scarlatti, Handel's harpsi-
chord and organ music, and on the sonatas of
Paradies, a Neapolitan composer and teacher, who
enjoyed high repute in London for many years.
Until 1770 Clementi spent his time secluded at
his patron's country seat, and then fully equipped
with musical knowledge, and with an unequaled
command of the instrument, he burst on the town
as pianist and composer. He had already written
at this time his “Opus No. 2,” which established
a new era for sonata compositions, and is recog-
nized to-day as the basis for all modern works of
this class.
Clementi's attainments were so phenomenal
that he carried everything before him in London,
and met with a success so brilliant as to be almost
without precedent. Socially and musically he was
one of the idols of the hour, and the great Han-
del himself had not met with as much adulation.
Apropos of the great sonata above mentioned,
with which the Clementi furore began in Lon-
don, it is said that John Christian Bach, son
of Sebastian, one of the greatest executants of
the time, confessed his inability to do it justice,
and Schröter, one of those sharing the honor of
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
191
the invention of the piano-forte, and a leading
musician of his age, said, “Only the devil and
Clementi could play it.” For seven years the
subject of our sketch poured forth a succession of
brilliant works, continually gave concerts, and in
addition acted as conductor of the Italian opera, a
life sufficiently busy for the most ambitious man.
In 1780 Clementi began his musical travels,
and gave the first concerts of his tour at Paris,
whither he was accompanied by the great singer
Pacchierotti. He was received with the greatest
favor by the queen, Marie Antoinette, and the
court, and made the acquaintance of Gluck, who
warmly admired the brilliant player who had so
completely revolutionized the style of execution
on instruments with a keyboard. Here he also
met Viotti, the great violinist, and played a duo
concertante with the latter, expressly composed
for the occasion. Clementi was delighted with
the almost frantic enthusiasm of the French, so
different from the more temperate approbation of
the English. He was wont to say jocosely that he
hardly knew himself to be the same man. From
Paris Clementi passed, via Strasburg and Munich,
where he was most cordially welcomed, to Vienna,
the then musical Mecca of Europe, for it con-
tained two world-famed men-“Papa” Haydn and
the young prodigy Mozart. The Emperor Joseph
II, a great lover of music, could not let the oppor-
tunity slip, for he now had a chance to determine
192
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
which was the greater player, his own pet Mozart
or the Anglo-Italian stranger whose fame as an
executant had risen to such dimensions. So the
two musicians fought a musical duel, in which
they played at sight the most difficult works, and
improvised on themes selected by the imperial ar-
biter. The victory was left undecided, though Mo-
zart, who disliked the Italians, spoke afterward of
Clementi, in a tone at variance with his usual gen-
tleness, as "a mere mechanician, without a pen-
nyworth of feeling or taste.” Clementi was more
generous, for he couldn't say too much of Mo-
zart's "singing touch and exquisite taste," and
dated from this meeting a considerable difference
in his own style of play.
With the exception of occasional concert tours
to Paris, Clementi devoted all his time up to 1802
in England, busy as conductor, composer, virtu-
oso, and teacher. In the latter capacity he was
unrivaled, and pupils came to him from all parts
of Europe. Among these pupils were John B. Cra-
mer and John Field, names celebrated in music.
In 1802 Clementi took the brilliant young Irish-
man, John Field, to St. Petersburg on a musical
tour, where both master and pupil were received
with unbounded enthusiasm, and where the latter
remained in affluent circumstances, having mar-
ried a Russian lady of rank and wealth. Field
was idolized by the Russians, and they claim his
compositions as belonging to their music. He is
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
193
now distinctively remembered as the inventor of
that beautiful form of musical writing, the noc-
turne. Spohr, the violinist, met Clementi and
Field at the Russian capital, and gives the follow-
ing amusing account in his “ Autobiography”:
Clementi, a man in his best years, of an ex-
tremely lively disposition and very engaging man-
ners, liked much to converse with me, and often
invited me after dinner to play at billiards. In
the evening I sometimes accompanied him to his
large piano - forte warehouse, where Field was
often obliged to play for hours to display instru-
ments to the best advantage to purchasers. I
have still in recollection the figure of the pale
overgrown youth, whom I have never since seen.
When Field, who had outgrown his clothes, placed
himself at the piano, stretching out his arms over
the keyboard, so that the sleeves shrank up nearly
to the elbow, his whole figure appeared awkward
and stiff in the highest degree. But, as soon as
his touching instrumentation began, everything
else was forgotten, and one became all ear. Un-
fortunately I could not express my emotion and
thankfulness to the young man otherwise than by
the pressure of the hand, for he spoke no lan-
guage but his mother tongue. Even at that
time many anecdotes of the remarkable avarice
of the rich Clementi were related, which had
greatly increased in later years when I again met
him in London. It was generally reported that
194
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Field was kept on very short allowance by his
master, and was obliged to pay for the good for-
tune of having his instruction by many priva-
tions. I myself experienced a little sample of
Clementi's truly Italian parsimony, for one day I
found teacher and pupil with upturned sleeves,
engaged at the wash-tub, washing their stockings
and other linen. They did not suffer themselves
to be disturbed, and Clementi advised me to do
the same, as washing in St. Petersburg was not
only very expensive, but the linen suffered much
from the method used in washing it."
From the above it may be suspected that Cle-
menti was not only player and composer, but man
of business. He had been very successful in
money-making in England from the start, and
it was not many years before he accumulated a
sufficient amount to buy an interest in the firm of
Longman & Broderip, "manufacturers of musi-
cal instruments, and music sellers to their majes-
The failure of the house, by which he sus-
tained heavy losses, induced him to try his hand
alone at music publishing and piano-forte manu-
facturing; and his great success (the firm is still
extant in the person of his partner's son, Mr. Col-
lard) proves he was an exception to the majori-
ty of artists, who rarely possess business talents.
Clementi met many reverses in his commercial
In March, 1807, the warehouses occupied
by Clementi's new firm were destroyed by fire,
tics.
Career.
.
MUZIO CLEMENTİ.
195
entailing a loss of about forty thousand pounds.
But the man's courage was indomitable, and he
retrieved his misfortunes with characteristic pluck
and cheerfulness. After 1810 he gave up playing
in public, and devoted himself to composing and
the conduct of his piano-forte business, which be-
came very large and valuable. Himself an in-
ventor and mechanician, he made many important
improvements in the construction of the piano,
some of which have never been superseded.
CLEMENTI numbers among his pupils more
great names in the art of piano-forte playing than
any other great master. This is partly owing to
the fact, it may be, that he began his career in
the infancy of the piano-forte as an instrument,
and was the first to establish a solid basis for the
technique of the instrument. In addition to John
Field and J. B. Cramer, previously mentioned, were
Zeuner, Dussek, Alex. Kleugel, Ludwig Berger,
Kalkbrenner, Charles Mayer, and Meyerbeer.
These musicians not only added richly to the lit-
erature of the piano-forte, but were splendid expo-
nents of its powers as virtuosos. But mere artis-
tic fame is transitory, and it is in Clementi's con-
tributions to the permanent history of piano-forte
playing that we must find his chief claim on the
admiration of posterity. He composed not a few
works for the orchestra, and transcriptions of
196 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
opera, but these have now receded to the lumber
closet. The works which live are his piano con-
certos, of which about sixty were written for the
piano alone, and the remainder as duets or trios;
and, par excellence, his “Gradus ad Parnassum,"
a superb series of one hundred studies, upon which
even to-day the solid art of piano-forte playing
rests. Clementi's works must always remain in-
dispensable to the pianist, and, in spite of the fact
that piano technique has made such advances dur-
ing the last half century, there are several of Cle-
menti's sonatas which tax the utmost skill of such
players as Liszt and Von Bülow, to whom all or-
dinary difficulty is merely a plaything. As Viotti
was the father of modern violin-playing, Clementi
may be considered the father of virtuosoism on
the piano-forte, and he has left an indelible mark,
both mechanically and spiritually, on all that per-
tains to piano-playing. Compared with Clementi's
style in piano-forte composition, that of Haydn
and Mozart appears poor and thin. Haydn and
Mozart regarded execution as merely the vehicle
of ideas, and valued technical brilliancy less than
musical substance. Clementi, on the other hand,
led the way for that class of compositions which
pay large attention to manual skill. His works
can not be said to burn with that sacred fire which
inspires men of the highest genius, but they are
magnificently modeled for the display of technical
execution, brilliancy of effect, and virile force of
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
197
expression. The great Beethoven, who composed
the greatest works for the piano-forte, as also for
the orchestra, had a most exalted estimate of
Clementi, and never wearied of playing his music
and sounding his praises. No musician has prob-
ably exerted more far-reaching effects in this de-
partment of his art than Clementi, though he
can not be called a man of the highest genius, for
this lofty attribute supposes great creative in-
agination and rich resources of thought, as well
as knowledge, experience, skill, and transcendent
aptitude for a single instrument.
As far as a musician of such unique and colos-
sal genius as Beethoven could be influenced by
preceding or contemporary artists, his style as a
piano-forte player and composer was more modi-
fied by Clementi than by any other. He was
wont to say that no one could play till he knew
Clementi by heart. He adopted many of the
peculiar figures and combinations original with
Clementi, though his musical mentality, incom-
parably richer and greater than that of the other,
transfigured them into a new life. That Beetho-
ven found novel means of expression to satisfy the
importunate demands of his musical conceptions;
that his piano works display a greater polyphony,
stronger contrasts, bolder and richer rhythm,
broader design and execution, by no means impair
the value of his obligations to Clementi, obligations
which the most arrogant and self-centered of men
198 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
freely allowed. Beethoven's fancy was penetrated
by all the qualities of tone which distinguish the
string, reed, and brass instruments ; his imagina-
tion shot through and through with orchestral
color; and he succeeded in saturating his sonatas
with these rich effects without sacrificing the
specialty of the piano-forte. But in general style
and technique he is distinctly a follower of Cle-
menti. The most unique and splendid personality
in music has thus been singled out as furnishing
a vivid illustration of the influence exerted by Cle-
menti in the department of the piano-forte.
Clementi lived to the age of eighty, and spent
the last twelve years of his life in London uninter-
ruptedly, his growing feebleness preventing him
from taking his usual musical trips to the Conti-
nent. He retained his characteristic energy and
freshness of mind to the last, and was lield in the
highest honor by the great circle of artists who
had centered in London, for he was the musical
patriarch in England, as Cherubini was in France
at a little later date. He was married three times,
had children in his old age, and only a few months
before his death, Moscheles records in his diary,
he was able to arouse the greatest enthusiasm by
the vigor and brilliancy of his playing, in spite of
his enfeebled physical powers. He died March 9,
1832, at Eversham, and his funeral gathered a
great convocation of musical celebrities. His life
covered an immense arch in the history of music.
MUZIO CLEMENTI.
199
At his birth Handel was alive ; at his death Bee-
thoven, Schubert, and Weber had found refuge in
the grave from the ingratitude of a contemporary
public. He began his career by practicing Scar-
latti's harpsichord sonatas; he lived to be ac-
quainted with the finest piano-forte works of all
time. When he first used the piano, he practiced
on the imperfect and feeble Silbermann instru-
ment. When he died, the magnificent instruments
of Erard, Broadwood, and Collard, to the latter
of which his own mechanical and musical knowl-
edge had contributed much, were in common
Vogue. Such was the career of Muzio Clementi,
the father of piano-forte virtuosos. Had he lived
later, he might have been far eclipsed by the great
players who have since adorned the art of music.
As Goethe says, through the mouthpiece of Wil-
helm Meister : “The narrowest man may be com-
plete while he moves within the bounds of his
own capacity and acquirements, but even fine
qualities become clouded and destroyed if this
indispensable proportion is exceeded. This un-
wholesome excess, however, will begin to appear
frequently, for who can suffice to the swift prog-
ress and increasing requirements of the ever-soar-
ing present time ?” But, measured by his own
day and age, Clementi deserves the pedestal on
which musical criticism has placed him.
14
MOSCHELES.
Clementi and Mozart as Points of Departure in Piano-forte Play-
ing.-Moscheles the most Brilliant Climax reached by the Vi-
ennese School. His Child-Life at Prague.- Extraordinary Pre-
cocity.--Goes to Vienna as the Pupil of Salieri and Albrechts-
burger. -- Acquaintance with Beethoven.- Moschcles is hon-
ored with a Commission to make a Piano Transcription of Bee-
thoven's “Fidelio." —His Intercourse with the Great Man.-
Concert Tour.- Arrival in Paris.—The Artistic Circle into
which he is received.-Pictures of Art-Life in Paris.--London
and its Musical Celebrities.--Career as a Wandering Virtuoso.
-Felix Mendelssohn becomes his Pupil.--The Mendelssohn
Family.--Moscheles's Marriage to a Hamburg Lady.--Settles in
London.--His Life as Teacher, Player, and Composer.—Emi-
nent Place taken by Moscheles among the Musicians of his
Age.—His Efforts soothe the Sufferinys of Beethoven's Death-
bed.-Friendship for Mendelssolin.-Moscheles becomes con-
nected with the Leipzig Conservatorium.--Death in 1870.-
Moscheles as Pianist and Composer.—Sympathy with the Old
as against the New School of the Piano.-His Powerful Influ-
ence on the Musical Culture and Tendencies of his Age.
I.
THE rivalry of Clementi and Mozart as expo-
nents of piano-forte playing in their day was con-
tinued in their schools of performance. The
original cause of this difference was largely based
on the character of the instruments on which
they played. Clementi used the English piano-
MOSCHELES.
201
forte, and Mozart the Viennese, and the style of
execution was no less the outcome of the me-
chanical difference between the two vehicles of
expression than the result of personal idiosyn-
crasies. The English instrument was speedily
developed into the production of a richer, fuller,
and more sonorous tone, while the Viennese
piano-forte continued for a long time to be dis-
tinguished by its light, thin, sweet quality of
sound, and an action so sensitive that the slighest
pressure produced a sound from the key, so that
the term “breathing on the keys” became a cur-
rent expression. Clementi's piano favored a bold,
masculine, brilliant style of playing, while the
Viennese piano led to a rapid, fluent, delicate
treatment. The former player founded the
school which has culminated, through a series
of great players, in the magnificent virtuosoism
of Franz Liszt, while the Vienna school has no
nearer representative than Ignaz Moscheles, one
of the greatest players in the history of the piano-
forte, who, whether judged by his gifts as a con-
cert performer, a composer for the instrument
which he so brilliantly adorned, or from his social
and intellectual prominence, must be set apart
as peculiarly a representative man. There were
other eminent players, such as Hummel, Czerny,
and Herz, contemporary with Moscheles and be-
longing to the same genre as a pianist, but these
names do not stand forth with the same clear and
202 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
to say,
permanent luster in their relation to the musical
art.
Ignaz Moscheles was born at Prague, May 30,
1794, his parents being well-to-do people of He-
brew stock. His father, a cloth merchant, was
passionately fond of music, and was accustomed
“One of my children must become a
thoroughbred musician."
Ignaz was soon se-
lected as the one on whom the experiment should
be made, and the rapid progress he made justified
the accident of choice, for all of the family pos-
sessed some musical talent. The boy progressed
too fast, for he attempted at the age of seven to
play Beethoven's “Sonata Pathétique.” He was
traveling on the wrong road, attempting what he
could in no way attain, when his father took him
to Dionys Weber, one of the best teachers of the
time. “I come," said the parent, “to you as
our first musician, for sincere truth instead of
empty flattery. I want to find out from you if
my boy has such genuine talent that you can make
å really good musician of him.” “Naturally, I
was called on to play,” says Moscheles, in his "Au-
tobiography," "and I was bungler enough to
do it with some conceit. My mother having
decked me out in my Sunday best, I played
my best piece, Beethoven's Sonata Pathé-
tique.' But what was my astonishment on find-
ing that I was neither interrupted by bravos nor
overwhelmed by praise ! and what were my feel-
MOSCHELES.
203
ings when Dionys Weber finally delivered him-
self thus :
“Candidly speaking, the boy has talent, but
is on the wrong road, for he makes bosh of great
works which he does not understand, and to which
he is utterly unequal. I could make something
of him if you could hand him over to me for
three years, and follow out my plan to the letter.
The first year he must play nothing but Mozart,
the second Clementi, and the third Bach ; but
only that: not a note as yet of Beethoven ; and if
he persists in using the circulating libraries, I
have done with him for ever.""
This scheme was followed out strictly, and
Moscheles at the age of fourteen had acquired a
sufficient mastery of the piano to give a concert
at Prague with brilliant success.
musician continued to pursue his studies assidu-
ously under Weber's direction until his father's
death, and his mother then determined to yield
to his oft-repeated wish to try his musical for-
tunes in a larger field, and win his own way in
life. So young Ignaz, little more than a child,
went to Vienna, where he was warmly received
in the hospitable musical circles of that capital.
He took lessons in counterpoint from Albrechts-
burger, and in composition from Salieri, and in
all ways indicated that serene, tireless industry
which marked his whole after-career. Moscheles
spent eight years at Vienna, continually growing
The young
204 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
in estimation as artist and beginning to make his
mark as a composer. His own reminiscences of
the brilliant and gifted men who clustered in Vi-
enna are very pleasant, but it is to Beethoven
that his admiration specially went forth. The
great master liked his young disciple much, and
proposed to him that he should set the numbers
of “Fidelio” for the piano, a task which, it is
needless to say, was gladly accepted. Moscheles
tells us one morning, when he went to see Bee-
thoven, he found him lying in bed. “He hap-
pened to be in remarkably good spirits, jumped
up immediately, and placed himself, just as he
was, at the window looking out on the Schotten-
bastei, with the view of examining the 'Fidelio'
numbers which I had arranged. Naturally, a
crowd of street-boys collected under the window,
when he roared out, 'Now, what do these con-
founded boys want?' I laughed and pointed to
his own figure. 'Yes, yes! You are quite right,'
he said, and hastily put on a dressing-gown."
Moscheles's associations were even at this early
period with all the foremost people of the age,
and he was cordially welcome in every circle.
He
composed a good deal, besides giving concerts and
playing in private select circles, and was recog-
nized as being the equal of Hummel, who had
hitherto been accepted as the great piano virtuoso
of Vienna. The two were very good friends in
spite of their rivalry. They, as well as all the
MOSCHELES.
205
Viennese musicians, were bound together by a
common tie, very well expressed in the saying of
Moscheles : “We musicians, whatever we be, are
mere satellites of the great Beethoven, the daz-
zling luminary.”
II.
In the autumn of 1816 Moscheles bade a sor-
rowful adieu. to the imperial city, where he had
spent so many happy years, to undertake an ex-
tended concert tour, armed with letters of intro-
duction to all the courts of Europe from Prince
Lichtenstein, Countess Hardigg, and other influ-
ential admirers. He proceeded directly to Leip-
zig, where he was warmly received by the musical
fraternity of that city, especially by the Wiecks,
of whose daughter Clara he speaks in highly eu-
logistic words. He played his own compositions,
which already began to show that serene and fin-
ished beauty so characteristic of his after-writ-
ings. A similar success greeted him at Dresden,
where, among other concerts, he gave one before
the court. Of this entertainment Moscheles
writes : “The court actually dined (this barbar-
ous custom still prevails), and the royal household
listened in the galleries, while I and the court
band made music to them, and barbarous it really
was; but, in regard to truth, I must add that roy-
alty and also the lackeys kept as quiet as possible,
and the former congratulated me, and actually
condescended to admit me to friendly conversa-
206
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
tion. He continued his concerts in Munich,
Augsburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, and other cities,
creating the most genuine admiration wherever
he went, and finally reached Paris in December,
1817
Here our young artist was promptly received
in the extraordinary world of musicians, artists,
authors, wits, and social celebrities which then,
as now, made Paris so delightful for those pos-
sessing the countersign of admission. Baillot,
the violinist, gave a private concert in his honor,
in which he in company with Spohr played before
an audience made up of such artists and celebrities
as Cherubini, Auber, Herold, Adam, Lesueur,
Pacini, Paer, Habeneck, Plantade, Blangini, La-
font, Pleyel, Ivan Müller, Viotti, Pellegrini,
Boïeldieu, Schlesinger, Manuel Garcia, and others.
These areopagites of music set the mighty scal of
their approval on Moscheles's genius. He was in-
vited everywhere, to dinners, balls, and fêtes, and
there was no salon in Paris so high and exclusive
which did not feel itself honored by his presence.
His public concerts were thronged with the best
and most critical audiences, and he by no means
shone the less that he appeared in conjunction
with other distinguished artists.
IIe often enter-
tained parties of jovial artists at his lodgings, and
music, punch, and supper enlivened the night
till 3 A. M. Whoever could play or sing was
present, and good music alternated with amus-
MOSCHELES.
207
con-
ing tricks played on the respective instruments.
“Altogether," he writes, “it is a happy, merry
time! Certainly, at the last state dinner of the
Rothschilds, in the presence of such notabilities
as Canning or Narischkin, I was obliged to keep
rather in the background. The invitation to a
large, brilliant, but ceremonious ball appears a
very questionable way of showing me attention.
The drive up, the endless queue of carriages,
wearied me, and at last I got out and walked.
There, too, I found little pleasure.” On the
other hand, he praises the performance of Gluck's
opera at the house of the Erards. The “
certs spirituels” delight him. “Who would not, ”
he says, "envy me this enjoyment? These con-
certs justly enjoy a world-wide celebrity. There
I listen with the most solemn earnestness.” On
the other hand, there are cheerful episodes, and
jovial dinners with Carl Blum and Schlesinger,
at the Restaurant Lemelle. Yesterday,” he
writes, “Schlesinger quizzed me about my slow-
ness in eating, and went so far as to make the
stupid bet with me, that he would demolish
three dozen oysters while I ate one dozen, and he
was quite right. On perceiving, however, that
he was on the point of winning, I took to making
faces, made him laugh so heartily that he couldn't
go on eating ; thus I won my bet.” We find the
following notice on the 20th of March : "I spent
the evening at Ciceri's, son-in-law of Isabey, the
208 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
famous painter, where I was introduced to one of
the most interesting circles of artists. In the
first room were assembled the most famous paint-
ers, engaged in drawing several things for their
own amusement. In the midst of these was
Cherubini, also drawing. I had the honor, like
every one newly introduced, of having my portrait
taken in caricature. Bégasse took me in hand,
and succeeded well. In an adjoining room were
musicians and actors, among them Ponchard, Le-
vasseur, Dugazon, Panseron, Mlle. de Munck,
and Mme. Livère, of the Théâtre Français. The
most interesting of their performances, which I
attended merely as a listener, was a vocal quartet
by Cherubini, performed under his direction.
Later in the evening, the whole party armed itself
with larger or smaller 'mirlitons' (reed-pipe whis:
tles), and on these small monotonous instruments,
sometimes made of sugar, they played, after the
fashion of Russian horn music, the overture to
* Demophon,' two frying-pans representing the
drums." On the 27th of March this “mirliton"
concert was repeated at Ciceri's, and on this occa-
sion Cherubini took an active part. Moscheles
relates : “Horace Vernet entertained us with his
ventriloquizing powers, M. Salmon with his imi-
tation of a horn, and Dugazon actually with a
'mirliton' solo. Lafont and I represented the
classical music, which, after all, held its own.”
It was hard to tear himself from these gay-
MOSCHELES.
209
eties; but he had not visited London, and he was
anxious to make himself known at a musical capi-
tal inferior to none in Europe. He little thought
that in London he was destined to find his second
home. He plunged into the gayeties and enjoy-
ments of the English capital with no less zest
than he had already experienced in Paris. He
found such great players as J. B. Cramer, Ferdi-
nand Ries, Kalkbrenner, and Clementi in the field;
but our young artist did not altogether lose by
comparison. Among other distinguished musi-
cians, Moscheles also met Kiesewetter, the violin-
ist, the great singers Mara and Catalani, and
Dragonetti, the greatest of double-bass players.
Dragonetti was a most eccentric man, and of him
Moscheles says :
“In his salon in Liecester Square
he has collected a large number of various kinds
of dolls, among them a negress. When visitors
are announced, he politely receives them, and says
that this or that young lady will make room for
them ; he also asks his intimate acquaintances
whether his favorite dolls look better or worse
since their last visit, and similar absurdities. He
is a terrible snuff-taker, helping himself out of a
gigantic snuff-box, and he bas an immense and
Varied collection of snuff-boxes. The most curi-
ous part of him is his language, a regular jargon,
in which there is a mixture of his native Berga-
mese, bad French, and still worse English."
During the several months of this first English
210
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
visit Moscheles made many acquaintances which
were destined to ripen into solid friendships, and
gave many concerts in which the most distin-
guished artists, vocal and instrumental, partici-
pated. Altogether, he appears to have been de-
lighted with the London art and social world little
less than he had been with that of Paris. He
returned, however, to the latter city in August,
and again became a prominent figure in the most
fashionable and admired concerts. During this
visit to Paris he writes in his diary : “Young
Erard took me to-day to his piano-forte factory
to try the new invention of his uncle Sebastian.
This quicker action of the hammer seems to me
so important that I prophesy a new era in the
manufacture of piano-fortes. I still complain of
some heaviness in the touch, and, therefore, prefer
to play on Pape's and Petzold's instruments (Vien-
nese pianos). I admired the Erards, but am not
thoroughly satisfied, and urged him to make new
improvements."
From 1815, when Moscheles began his career
as a virtuoso in the production of his “Varia-
tionen über den Alexandermarsch," to 1826, he
established a great reputation as a virtuoso and
composer for the piano-forte. Though he played
his own works at concerts with marked approba-
tion, he also became distinguished as an interpret-
er of Mozart and Beethoven, for whom he had a
reverential admiration. Moscheles often records
MOSCHELES.
211
his own sense of insignificance by the side of
these Titans of music. A delightful characteris-
tic of the man was his modesty about himself,
and his genial appreciation of other musicians.
Nowhere do those performers who, for example,
came in active rivalry with himself, receive. more
cordial and unalloyed praise. Moscheles was en-
tirely devoid of that littleness which finds vent
in envy and jealousy, and was as frank and sym-
pathetic in his estimate of others as he was am-
bitious and industrious in the development of his
own great talents. In 1824 he gave piano-forte
lessons to Felix Mendelssohn, then a youth of
fifteen, at Berlin. He wrote of the Mendelssohn
family: “This is a family the like of which I
have never known. Felix, a boy of fifteen, is a
phenomenon. What are all prodigies as com-
pared with him ? Gifted children, but nothing
else. This Felix Mendelssohn is already a mature
artist, and yet but fifteen years old! We at once
settled down together for several hours, for I was
obliged to play a great deal, when really I wanted
to hear him and see his compositions, for Felix
had to show me a concerto in C minor, a double
concerto, and several motets; and all so full of
genius, and at the same time so correct and thor-
ough! His elder sister Fanny, also extraordi-
narily gifted, played by heart, and with admirable
precision, fugues and passacailles by Bach. I
think one may well call her a thorough ‘Mus.
212 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
.
Doc.' (guter Musiker). Both parents give one
the impression of being people of the highest re-
finement. They are far from overrating their
children's talents; in fact, they are anxious about
Felix's future, and to know whether his gift will
prove sufficient to lead to a noble and truly great
Career. Will he not, like so many other brilliant
children, suddenly collapse ? I asserted my con-
scientious conviction that Felix would ultimately
become a great master, that I had not the slight-
est doubt of his genius; but again and again I
had to insist on my opinion before they believed
These two are not specimens of the genus
prodigy-parents (Wunderkinds Eltern), such as I
most frequently endure.” Moscheles soon came
to the conclusion that to give Felix regular les-
sons was useless. Only a little hint from time to
time was necessary for the marvelous youth, who
had already begun to compose works which ex-
cited Moscheles's deepest admiration.
me.
III.
In January, 1825, Moscheles, in the course of
his musical wanderings, gave several concerts at
Hamburg. Among the crowd of listeners who
came to hear the great pianist was Charlotte
Embden, the daughter of an excellent Hamburg
family. She was enchanted by the playing of
Moscheles, and, when she accidentally made the
acquaintance of the performer at the house of a
MOSCHELES.
213
mutual acquaintance, the couple quickly became
enamored of each other. A brief engagement of
less than a month was followed by marriage, and
so Moscheles entered into a relation singularly
felicitous in all the elements which make domes-
tic life most blessed. After a brief tour in the
Rhenish cities, and a visit to Paris, Moscheles
proceeded to London, where he had determined
to make his home, for in no country had such
genuine and unaffected cordiality been shown
him, and nowhere were the rewards of musical
talent, whether as teacher, virtuoso, or composer,
more satisfying to the man of high ambition.
He made London his home for twenty years, and
during this time became one of the most promi-
nent figures in the art circles of that great city.
Moscheles's mental accomplishments and singu-
lar geniality of nature contributed, with his very
great abilities as a musician, to give him a posi-
tion attained by but few artists. He gave lessons
to none but the most talented pupils, and his
services were sought by the most wealthy families
of the English capital, though the ability to pay
great prices was by no means a passport to the
good graces of Moscheles. Among the pupils
who early came under the charge of this great
master was Thalberg, who even then was a bril-
liant player, but found in the exact knowledge
and great experience of Moscheles that which
gave the crowning finish to his style. Busy in
214 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
teaching, composing, and public performance;
busy in responding to the almost incessant de-
mands made by social necessity on one who was
not only intimate in the best circles of London
society, but the center to whom all foreign ar-
tists of merit gravitated instantly they arrived
in London ; busy in confidential correspondence
with all the great musicians of Europe, who dis-
cussed with the genial and sympathetic Moscheles
all their plans and aspirations, and to whom they
turned in their moments of trouble, he was in-
deed a busy man; and had it not been for the
loving labors of his wife, who was his secretary,
his musical copyist, and his assistant in a myriad
of ways, he would have been unequal to his bur-
den. Moscheles's diary tells the story of a man
whose life, though one of tireless industry, was
singularly serene and happy, and without those
salient accidents and vicissitudes which make up
the material of a picturesque life.
He made almost yearly tours to the Continent
for concert-giving purposes, and kept his friend-
ship with the great composers of the Continent
green by personal contact. Beethoven was the
god of his musical idolatry, and his pilgrimage
to Vienna was always delightful to him. When
Beethoven, in the early part of 1827, was in dire
distress from poverty, just before his death, it
was to Moscheles that he applied for assistance;
and it was this generous friend who promptly
MOSCHELES.
215
29
arranged the concert with the Philharmonic So-
ciety by which one hundred pounds sterling was
raised to alleviate the dying moments of the great
man whom his own countrymen would have let
starve, even as they had allowed Schubert and
Mozart to suffer the direst want on their death-
beds.
An adequate record of Moscheles's life during
the twenty years of his London career would be a
pretty full record of all matters of musical inter-
est occurring during this time. In 1832 he was
made one of the directors of the Philharmonic
Society, and in 1837–38 he conducted with sig-
nal success Beethoven's “Ninth Symphony."
When Sir Henry Bishop resigned, in 1845, Mo-
scheles was made the conductor, and thereafter
wielded the baton over this orchestra, the no-
blest in England. Among the yearly pleasures
to which our pianist looked forward with the
greatest interest were the visits of Mendelssohn,
between whom and Moscheles there was the most
tender friendship. Whole pages of his diary are
given up to an account of Mendelssohn's doings,
and to the most enthusiastic expression of his
love and admiration for one of the greatest musi-
cal geniuses of modern times.
We can not attempt to follow up the placid
and gentle current of Moscheles's life, flowing on
to ever-increasing honor and usefulness, but has-
ten to the period when he left England in 1846,
15
216
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
to become associated with Mendelssohn in the
conduct of the Leipzig Conservatorium, then re-
cently organized. Mendelssohn lived but a few
months after achieving this great monument of
musical education, but Moscheles remained con-
nected with it for nearly twenty years, and to his
great zeal, knowledge, and executive skill is due
in large measure the solid success of the institu-
tion. Mendelssohn's early death, while yet in the
very prime of creative genius, was a stunning
blow to Moscheles; more so, perhaps, than would
have occurred from the loss of any one except his
beloved wife, the mother of his five children.
Our musician died himself, in Leipzig, March 10,
1870, and his passage from this world was as se-
rene and quiet as his passage through had been.
He lived to see his daughters married to men of
high worth and position, and his sons substantial-
ly placed in life. Perhaps few distinguished mu-
sicians have lived a life of such monotonous bap-
piness, unmarked by those events which, while
they give romantic interest to a career, make the
gift at the expense of so much personal misery.
IV.
As a pianist Moscheles was distinguished by
an incisive, brilliant touch, wonderfully clear,
precise phrasing, and close attention to the care-
ful accentuation of every phase of the composer's
meaning Of the younger composers for the
MOSCHELES.
217
piano, Mendelssohn and Schumann were the only
ones with whose works he had any sympathy,
though he often complains of the latter on ac-
count of his mysticism. His intelligence had as
much if not more part in his art work than
his emotions, and to this we may attribute that
fine symmetry and balance in his own composi-
tions, which make them equal in this respect to
the productions of Mendelssohn. Chopin he re-
garded with a sense of admiration mingled with
dread, for he could by no means enter into the
peculiar conditions which make the works of the
Polish composer so unique. He wrote of Cho-
pin's “Études,” in 1838 : “My thoughts and
consequently my fingers ever stumble and sprawl
at certain crude modulations, and I find Chopin's
productions on the whole too sugared, too little
worthy of a man and an educated musician,
though there is much charm and originality in
the national .color of his motive.” When he
heard Chopin play in after-years, however, he
confessed the fascination of the performance,
and bewailed his own incapacity to produce such
effects in execution, though himself one of the
greatest pianists in the world. So, too, Mo-
scheles, though dazzled by Liszt's brilliant virtu-
osoism and power of transforming a single instru-
ment into an orchestra, shook his head in doubt
over such performances, and looked on them as
charlatanism, which, however magnificent as an
218 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
exhibition of talent, would ultimately help to
degrade the piano by carrying it out of its true
sphere. Moscheles himself was a more bold and
versatile player than any other performer of his
school, but he aimed assiduously to confine his
efforts within the perfectly legitimate and well-
established channels of pianism.
As an extemporaneous player, perhaps no
pianist has ever lived who could surpass Mo-
scheles. His improvisation on themes suggested
by the audience always made one of the most
attractive features of his concerts. His profound
musical knowledge, his strong sense of form, the
clearness and precision with which he instinct-
ively clothed his ideas, as well as the fertility of
the ideas themselves, gave his improvised pieces
something of the same air of completeness as if
they were the outcome of hours of laborious
solitude. His very lack of passion and fire were
favorable to this clear-cut and symmetrical ex-
pression. His last improvisation in public, on
themes furnished by the audience, formed part
of the programme of a concert at London, in
1865, given by Mme. Jenny Lind Goldschmidt,
in aid of the sufferers by the war between Austria
and Prussia, where he extemporized for half an
hour on “See the Conquering Hero Comes,” and
on a theme from the andante of Beethoven's C
Minor Symphony, in a most brilliant and aston-
ishing style.
MOSCHELES.
219
Aside from his greatness as a virtuoso and
composer for the piano-forte, whose works will
always remain classics in spite of vicissitudes of
public opinion, even as those of Spohr will for
the violin, the influence of Moscheles in further-
ance of a solid and true musical taste was very
great, and worthy of special notice. Perhaps no
one did more to educate the English mind up to
a full appreciation of the greatest musical works.
As teacher, conductor, player, and composer, the
life of Ignaz Moscheles was one of signal and
permanent worth, and its influences fertilized in
no inconsiderable streams the public thought, not
only of his own times, but indirectly of the gen-
eration which has followed. It is not necessary
to attribute to him transcendent genius, but he
possessed, what was perhaps of equal value to the
world, an intellect and temperament splendidly
balanced to the artistic needs of his epoch. The
list of Moscheles's numbered compositions reaches
Op. 142, besides a large number of ephemeral
productions which he did not care to preserve.
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
Robert Schumann's Place as a National Composer. —Peculiar
Greatness as a Piano-forte Composer.-Born at Zwickau in
1810.--His Father's Aversion to his Musical Studies.-Becomes
a Student of Jurisprudence in Leipzig.-Makes the Acquaint-
ance of Clara Wieck.-Tedium of his Law Studies.--Vacation
Tour to Italy.—Death of his Father, and Consent of his Mother
to Schumann adopting the Profession of Music.—Becomes
Wieck's Pupil.-Injury to his Hand which prevents all Possibil-
ities of his becoming a Great Performer.--Devotes himself to
Composition.---The Child, Clara Wieck -Remarkable Geni-
us as a Player.—Her Early Training.–Paganini's Delight in
her Genius.—Clara Wieck's Concert Tours.-Schumann falls
deeply in Love with her, and Wieck's Opposition.—His Al-
lusions to Clara in the "Neue Zeitschrift."-Schumann at Vi-
enna.-His Compositions at first Unpopular, though played
by Clara Wieck and Liszt. —Schumann's Labors as a Critic.-
He Marries Clara in 1840.- His Song Period inspired by his
Wife.—Tour to Russia, and Brilliant Reception given to the
Artist Pair.-The "Neue Zeitschrift” and its Mission.-The
Davidsbund.-Peculiar Style of Schumann's Writing.--He
moves to Dresden.- Active Production in Orchestral Compo.
sition.- Artistic Tour in Holland. He is seized with Brain
Disease.--Characteristics as a Man, as an Artist, and as a
Philosopher.—Mme. Schumann as her Husband's Interpreter.
--Chopin & Colaborer with Schumann. --Schumann on Cho-
pin again.-Chopin's Nativity. — Exclusively a Piano-forte
Composer.—His Genre as Pianist and Composer.—Aversion
to Concert-giving. -- Parisian Associations. New Style of
Technique demanded by his Works, --Unique Treatment of the
Instrument.-Characteristics of Chopin's Compositions.
I.
ROBERT SCHUMANN shares with Weber the
honor of giving the earliest impulse to what may
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
221
be called the romantic school of music, which has
culminated in the operatic creations of Richard
Wagner. Greatly to the gain of the world, his
early aspirations as a mere player were crushed by
the too intense zeal through which he attempted
to perfect his manipulation, the mechanical con-
trivance he used having had the effect of paralyz-
ing the muscular power of one of his hands. But
this department of art work was nobly borne by his
gifted wife, née Clara Wieck, and Schumann con-
centrated his musical ambition in the higher field
of composition, leaving behind him works not only
remarkable for beauty of form, but for poetic
richness of thought and imagination. Schumann
composed songs, cantatas, operas, and symphonies,
but it is in his works for the piano-forte that his
idiosyncrasy was most strikingly embodied, and
in which he has bequeathed the most precious in-
heritance to the world of art.
All his powers
were swept impetuously into one current, the po-
etic side of art, and alike as critic and composer
he stands in a relation to the music of the piano-
forte which places him on a pinnacle only less
lofty than that of Beethoven.
Robert Schumann was born in the small Saxon
town of Zwickau in the year 1810, and was de-
signed by his father, a publisher and author of
considerable reputation, for the profession of the
law. The elder Schumann, though a man of
talent and culture, had a deep distaste for hiş
222
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
son's clearly displayed tendencies to music, and
though he permitted him to study something of
the science in the usual school-boy way (for mu-
sic has always been a part of the educational
course in Germany), he discouraged in every way
Robert's passion. The boy had quickly become
a clever player, and even at the age of eight had
begun to put his ideas on paper. We are told by
his biographers that he was accustomed to extem-
porize at school, and had such a knack in por-
traying the characteristics of his school-fellows in
music as to make his purpose instantly recogniz-
able. His father died when Schumann was only
seventeen, and his mother, who was also bent on
her son becoming a jurist, became his guardian.
It was a severe battle between taste and duty,
but love for his widowed mother conquered, and
young Robert Schumann entered the University
of Leipzig as a law student. It was with a feeling
almost of despair that he wrote at this time, “I
have decided upon law as my profession, and will
work at it industriously, however cold and dry
the beginning may be.” Previously, however, he
had spent a year in the household of Frederick
Wieck, the distinguished teacher of music. So
much he had exacted before succumbing to ma-
ternal ploading. At this time he first made the
acquaintance of a charming and precocious child,
Clara Wieck, who played such an important part
in his future life,
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
223
Robert Schumann's law studies were inex-
pressibly tedious to him, and so he told his sym-
pathetic professor, the learned Thibaut, author
of the treatise “On the Purity of Music,” in a
characteristic manner. He went to the piano
and played Weber's “Invitation to the Waltz,'
commenting on the different passages : “Now
she speaks - that's the love prattle ; now he
speaks—that's the man's earnest voice; now both
the lovers speak together"; concluding with the
remark, “Isn't all that better far than anything
that jurisprudence can utter ?” The young stu-
dent became quite popular in society as a pianist,
heard Ernst and Paganini for the first time, and
composed several works, among them the Toccata
in D major. The genius for music would come
to the fore in spite of jurisprudence. A vacation
trip to Italy which the young man made gave fresh
fuel to the flame, and he began to write the most
passionate pleas to his mother that she should con-
sent to his adoption of a musical career. The
distressed woman wrote to Wieck to know what
he thought, and the answer was favorable to Rob-
ert's aspirations. Robert was intoxicated with
his mother's concession, and he poured out his
enthusiasm to Wieck : “ Take me as I am, and,
above all, bear with me. No blame shall depress
me, no praise make me idle. Pails upon pails of
very cold theory can not hurt me, and I will work
at it without the dcast murmur.
224
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Taking lodgings at the house of Wieck, Schu-
mann devoted himself to piano-forte playing with
intense ardor; but his zeal outran prudence. To
hasten his proficiency and acquire an indepen-
dent action for each finger, he contrived a me-
chanical apparatus which held the third finger
of the right hand immovable, while the others
went through their evolutions. The result was
such a lameness of the hand that it was incurable,
and young Schumann's career as a virtuoso was
for ever checked. His deep sorrow, however, did
not unman him long, for he turned his attention
to the study of composition and counterpoint un-
der Kupsch, and, afterward, Heinrich Dorn. He
remained for three years under Wieck's roof, and
the companionship of the child Clara, whose mar-
velous musical powers were the talk of Leipzig,
was a sweet consolation to him in his troubles and
his toil, though ten years his junior. The love,
which became a part of his life, had already be-
gun to flutter into unconscious being in his feel-
ing for a shy and reserved little girl.
Schumann tells us that the year 1834 was the
most important one of his life, for it witnessed
the birth of the “ Neue Zeitschrift für Musik,'
a journal which was to embody his notions of ideal
music, and to be the organ of a clique of enthusi-
asts in lifting the art out of Philistinism and com-
monplace. The war-cry was
“Reform in art,"
and never-ending battle against the little and con
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
225
ventional ideas which were believed then to be the
curse of German music. Among the earlier contrib-
utors were Wieck, Schumke, Knorr, Banck, and
Schumann himself, who wrote under the pseudo-
nyms Florestan and Eusebius. Between his new
journal and composing, Schumann was kept busy,
but he found time to persuade himself that he
was in love with Fräulein Ernestine von Fricken,
a beautiful but somewhat frivolous damsel, who
became engaged to the young composer and editor.
Two years cooled off this passion, and a separation
was mutually agreed on. Perhaps Schumann rec-
ognized something, in the lovely child who was
swiftly blooming into maidenhood, which made
his own inner soul protest against any other at-
tachment.
II.
It would have been very strange indeed if two
such natures as Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann
had not gravitated toward each other during the
almost constant intercourse between them which
took place between 1835 and 1838. Clara, born
in 1820, had been her father's pupil from her
tenderest childhood, but the development of her
musical gifts was not forced in such a way as to
interfere with her health and the exuberance of
her spirits. The exacting teacher was also a ten-
der father and a man of ripe judgment, and he
knew the bitter price which mere mental preco-
city so frequently has to pay for its existence.
226
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
But the young girl's gifts were so extraordinary,
and withal her character so full of childish sim-
plicity and gayety, that it was difficult to think of
her as of the average child phenomenon. At the
age of nine she could play Mozart's concertos, and
Hummel's A minor Concerto for the orchestra,
one of the most difficult of compositions. A year
later she began to compose, and improvised with-
out difficulty, for her lessons in counterpoint and
harmony had kept pace with her studies of piano-
forte technique. Paganini visited Leipzig at this
period, and was so astonished at the little Clara's
precocious genius that he insisted on her presence
at all his concerts, and addressed her with the
deepest respect as a fellow-artist. She first ap-
peared in public concert at the age of eleven, in
Leipzig, Weimar, and other places, playing Pixis,
Moscheles, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Chopin.
The latter of these composers was then almost
unknown in Germany, and Clara Wieck, young as
she was, contributed largely to making him popu-
lar. A year later she visited Paris in company
with her father, and heard Chopin, Liszt, and
Kalkbrenner, who on their part were delighted
with the little artist, who, beneath the delicacy
and timidity of the child, indicated extraordinary
powers. Society received her with the most fat-
tering approbation, and when her father allowed
her to appear in concert her playing excited the
greatest delight and surprise. Her improvisation
THE SCÉUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
227
specially displayed a vigor of imagination, a fine
artistic taste, and a well-defined knowledge which
justly called out the most enthusiastic recogni-
tion.
When Clara Wieck returned home, she gave
herself up to work with fresh ardor, studying com-
position under Heinrich Dorn, singing under the
celebrated Mieksch, and even violin-playing, so
great was her ambition for musical accomplish-
ments. From 1836 to 1838 she made an extended
musical tour through Germany, and was welcomed
as a musico-poetic ideal by the enthusiasts who
gathered around her. The poet Grillparzer spoke
of her as “the innocent child who first unlocked
the casket in which Beethoven buried his mighty
heart," and it must be confessed that Clara Wieck,
even as a young girl, did inore than any other
pianist to develop a love of and appreciation for
the music of the Titan of composers.
Long before Schumann distinctly contemplated
the image of Clara as the beloved one, the half of
his soul, he had divined her genius, and expressed
his opinion of her in no stinted terms of praise.
When she was as yet only thirteen, he had written
of her in his journal : “As I know people who,
having but just heard Clara, yet rejoice in their
anticipation of their next occasion of hearing her,
I ask, What sustains this continual interest in her ?
Is it the 'wonder child' herself, at whose stretches
of tenths people shake their heads while they
228
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS,
are amazed at them, or the most difficult difficul-
ties which she sportively flings toward the public
like flower garlands ? Is it the special pride of
the city with which a people regards its own na.
tives ? Is it that she presents to us the most in-
teresting productions of recent art in as short a
time as possible ? Is it that the masses under-
stand that art should not depend on the caprices
of a few enthusiasts, who would direct us back to
a century over whose corpse the wheels of time
are hastening? I know not; I only feel that
here we are subdued by genius, which men still
hold in respect.
In short, we here divine the
presence of a power of which much is spoken,
while few indeed possess it. . . . Early she drew
the veil of Isis aside. Serenely the child looks
up; older eyes, perhaps, would have been blinded
by that radiant light. . . . To Clara we dare no
longer apply the measuring scale of age, but only
that of fulfillment. .. Clara Wieck is the first
German artist. ... Pearls do not float on the
surface ; they must be sought for in the deep,
often with danger. But Clara is an intrepid
diver.”
The child whose genius he admired ripened
into a lovely young woman, and Schumann be-
came conscious that there had been growing in
his heart for years a deep, ardent love. He had
fancied himself in love more than once, but now
he felt that he could make no mistake as to the
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
229
genuineness of his feelings. In 1836 he confessed
his feelings to the object of his affections, and dis-
covered that he not only loved but was loved, for
two such gifted and sympathetic natures could
hardly be thrown together for years without the
growth of a mutual tenderness. The marriage
project was not favored by Papa Wieck, much as
lie liked the young composer who had so long
been his pupil and a member of his family circle.
The father of Clara looked forward to a brilliant
artistic career for his daughter, perhaps hoped to
marry her to some serene highness, and Schu-
mann's prospects were as yet very uncertain. So
he took Clara on a long artistic journey through
Germany, with a view of quenching this passion by
absence and those public adulations which he
knew Clara's genius would command. But no-
thing shook the devotion of her heart, and she in-
sisted on playing the compositions of the young
composer at her concerts, as well as those of Bee-
thoven, Liszt, and Chopin, the latter two of whom
were just beginning to be known and admired.
Hoping to overcome Papa Wieck's opposition
by success, Schumann took his new journal to
Vienna, and published it in that city, carrying on
simultaneously with his editorial duties active
labors in composition. The attempt to better his
fortunes in Vienna, however, did not prove very
successful, and after six months he returned again
to Leipzig. Schumann's generous sympathy with
230
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
other great musicians was signally shown in his
very first Vienna experiences, for he immediately
made a pious pilgrimage to the Währing cemetery
to offer his pious gift of flowers on the graves of
Beethoven and Schubert. On Beethoven's grave
he found a steel pen, which he preserved as a sa-
cred treasure, and used afterward in writing his
own finest musical fancies. He remembered, too,
that the brother of Schubert, Ferdinand, was still
living in a suburb of Vienna. "He knew me,'
Schumann says, “from my admiration for inis
brother, as I had publicly expressed it, and showed
me many things. At last he let me look at the
treasures of Franz Schubert's compositions, which
he still possesses.
The wealth that lay heaped
up made me shudder with joy, what to take first,
where to cease. Among other things, he also
showed me the scores of several symphonies, of
which many had never been heard, while others
had been tried, but put back, on the score of their
being too difficult and bombastic.” One of these
symphonies, that in C major, the largest and
grandest in conception, Schumann chose and sent
to Leipzig, where it was soon afterward produced
under Mendelssohn's direction at one of the Ge-
wandhaus concerts, and produced an immediate
and profound sensation. For the first time the
world witnessed, in a more expanded sphere,
the powers of a composer the very beauties of
whose songs had hitherto been fatal to his general
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
231
success. During this period of Schumann's life
the most important works he composed were the
Études Symphoniques," the famous “Carnival”
dedicated to Liszt, the “Scenes of Childhood,"
the - Fantasia dedicated to Liszt, the “No-
vellettes,” and “Kreisleriana." As he writes to
Heinrich Dorn : “Much music is the result of
the contest I am passing through for Clara's sake.”
Schumann's compositions had been introduced
to the public by the gifted interpretation of Clara
Wieck, with whom it was a labor of love, and also
by Franz Liszt, then rising almost on the top
wave of his dazzling fame as a virtuoso. Liszt
was a profound admirer of the less fortunate
Schumann, and did everything possible to make
him a favorite with the public, but for a long
time in vain. Liszt writes of this as follows :
“Since my first knowledge of his compositions I
had played many of them in private circles at
Milan and Vienna, without having succeeded in
winning the approbation of my hearers. These
works were, fortunately for them, too far above
the then trivial level of taste to find a home in
the superficial atmosphere of popular applause.
The public did not fancy them, and few play-
ers understood them. Even in Leipzig, where I
played the 'Carnival' at my second Gewandhaus
concert, I did not obtain my customary applause.
Musicians, even those who claimed to be connois-
seurs also, carried too thick a mask over their ears
16
232 TEE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
to be able to comprehend that charming 'Carni-
val,'harmoniously framed as it is, and ornamented
with such rich variety of artistic fancy. I did
not doubt, however, but that this work would
eventually win its place in general appreciation
beside Beethoven's thirty-three variations on a
theme by Diabelli (which work it surpasses, ac-
cording to my opinion, in melody, richness, and
inventiveness).” Both as a composer and writer
on music, Schumann embodied his deep detesta-
tion of the Philistinism and commonplace which
stupefied the current opinions of the time, and he
represented in Germany the same battle of the ro-
mantic in art against what was known as the
classical which had been carried on so fiercely in
France by Berlioz, Liszt, and Chopin.
III.
THE year 1840 was one of the most important
in Schumann's life. In February he was created
Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Jena,
and, still more precious boon to the man's heart,
Wieck's objections to the marriage with Clara had
been so far melted away that he consented, though
with reluctance, to their union. The marriage
took place quietly at a little church in Schönfeld,
near Leipzig. This year was one of the most fruit-
ful of Schumann's life. His happiness burst forth
in lyric forms. He wrote the amazing number of
one hundred and thirty-eight songs, among which
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
233
the more famous are the set entitled “Myrtles,"
the cyclus of song from Heine, dedicated to
Pauline Viardot, Chamisso's “Woman's Love and
Life,” and Heine's “ Poet Love." Schumann as
a song-writer must be called indeed the musical
reflex of Heine, for his immortal works have
the same passionate play of pathos and melan-
choly, the sharp - cut epigrammatic form, the
grand swell of imagination, impatient of the lim-
its set by artistic taste, which characterize the poet
themes. Schumann says that nearly all the works
composed at this time were written under Clara's
inspiration solely. Blest with the continual com-
panionship of a woman of genius, as amiable as
she was gifted, who placed herself as a gentle
mediator between Schumann's intellectual life
and the outer world, he composed many of his
finest vocal and instrumental compositions dur-
ing the years immediately succeeding his mar-
riage; among them the cantata “ Paradise and
the Peri,” and the “Faust” music.
His own
connection with public life was restricted to his
position as teacher of piano-forte playing, compo-
sition, and score playing at the Leipzig Conserva-
tory, while the gifted wife was the interpreter of
his beautiful piano-forte works as an executant.
A more perfect fitness and companionship in union
could not have existed, and one is reminded of the
married life of the poet pair, the Brownings.
After four years of happy and quiet life, in which
234 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
mental activity was inspired by the most delight-
ful of domestic surroundings, an artistic tour to
St. Petersburg was undertaken by Robert and
Clara Schumann. Our composer did not go with-
out reluctance. “Forgive me,” he writes to a
friend, “if I forbear telling you of my unwilling-
ness to leave my quiet home.” He seems to have
had a melancholy premonition that his days of un-
troubled happiness were over. A genial reception
awaited them at the Russian capital. They were
frequently invited to the Winter Palace by the
emperor and empress, and the artistic circles of
the city were very enthusiastic over Mme. Schu-
mann's piano-forte playing. Since the days of
John Field, Clementi's great pupil, no one had
raised such a furore among the music-loving Rus-
sians. Schumann's music, which it was his wife's
dearest privilege to interpret, found a much warmer
welcome than among his own countrymen at that
date. In the Sclavonic nature there is a deep cur-
rent of romance and mysticism, which met with
instinctive sympathy the dreamy and fantastic
thoughts which ran riot in Schumann's works.
On returning from the St. Petersburg tour,
Schumann gave up the “Neue Zeitschrift," the
journal which he had made such a powerful organ
of musical revolution, and transferred it to Os-
wald Lorenz. Schumann's literary work is so
deeply intertwined with his artistic life and mis-
sion that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
235
separate the two. He had achieved a great work
-he had planted in the German mind the thought
that there was such a thing as progress and growth;
that stagnation was death; and that genius was
for ever shaping for itself new forms and develop-
ments. He had taught that no art is an end to
itself, and that, unless it embodies the deep-seated
longings and aspirations of men ever striving
toward a loftier ideal, it becomes barren and fruit-
less—the mere survival of a truth whose need had
ceased. He was the apostle of the musico-poetical
art in Germany, and, both as author and com-
poser, strove with might and main to educate his
countrymen up to a clear understanding of the
ultimate outcome of the work begun by Beethoven,
Schubert, and Weber.
Schumann as a critic was eminently catholic
and comprehensive. Deeply appreciative of the
old lights of music, he received with enthusiasm
all the fresh additions contributed by musical gen-
ius to the progress of his age. Eschewing the
cold, objective, technical form of criticism, his
method of approaching the work of others was
eminently subjective, casting on them the illumi-
nation which one man of genius gives to another.
The cast of his articles was somewhat dramatic
and conversational, and the characters represented
as contributing their opinions to the symposium
of discussion were modeled on actual personages.
He himself was personified under the dual form
236 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
of Florestan and Eusebius, the “two souls in his
breast”--the former, the fiery iconoclast, impul-
sive in his judgments and reckless in attacking
prejudices; the latter, the mild, genial, receptive
dreamer. Master Raro, who stood for Wieck, also
typified the calm, speculative side of Schumann's
nature. Chiara represented Clara Wieck, and per-
sonified the feminine side of art. So the various
personages were all modeled after associates of
Schumann, and, aside from the freshness and fasci-
nation which this method gave his style, it enabled
him to approach his subjects from many sides.
The name of the imaginary society was the Davids-
bund, probably from King David and his cele-
brated harp, or perhaps in virtue of David's vic-
tories over the Philistines of his day.
As an illustration of Schumann's style and
method of treating musical subjects, we can not
do better than give his article on Chopin's “Don
Juan Fantasia": " Eusebius entered not long
ago. You know his pale face and the ironical
smile with which he awakens expectation. I sat
with Florestan at the piano-forte. Florestan is,
as you know, one of those rare musical minds
that foresee, as it were, coming novel or extraor-
dinary things. But he encountered a surprise to-
day. With the words 'Off with your hats, gen-
tlemen ! a genius,' Eusebius laid down a piece of
music. We were not allowed to see the title-
page.
I turned over the music vacantly ; the
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
237
veiled enjoyment of music which one does not
hear lias something magical in it. And besides
this, it seems that every composer has something
different in the note forms. Beethoven looks dif-
ferently from Mozart on paper; the difference re-
sembles that between Jean Paul's and Goethe's
prose. But here it seemed as if eyes, strange,
were glancing up to me—flower eyes, basilisk eyes,
peacock's eyes, maiden's eyes; in many places it
looked yet brighter. I thought I saw Mozart's
'La ci darem la mano' wound through a hun-
dred chords. Leporello seemed to wink at me,
and Don Juan hurried past in his white mantle.
Now play it,' said Florestan.
Eusebius con-
sented, and we, in the recess of a window, listened.
Eusebius played as though he were inspired, and
led forward countless forms filled with the live-
liest, warmest life; it seemed that the inspiration
of the moment gave to his fingers a power beyond
the ordinary measure of their cunning. It is true
that Florestan's whole applause was expressed in
nothing but a happy smile, and the remark that
the variations might have been written by Beetho-
ven or Franz Schubert, had either of these been
a piano virtuoso; but how surprised he was when,
turning to the title-page, he read 'La ci darem
la mano, varié pour le piano-forte, par Frederic
Chopin, Ouvre 2,' and with what astonishment
we both cried out, 'An Opus 2 !' How our faces
glowed as we wondered, exclaiming, “That is
238
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
C
something reasonable once more ! Chopin ? I
never heard of the name-who can he be ? In
any case, a genius. Is not that Zerlina's smile,
And Leporello, etc.' I could not describe the
scene. Heated with wine, Chopin, and our own
enthusiasm, we went to Master Raro, who with a
smile, and displaying but little curiosity for Cho-
pin, said, “Bring me the Chopin ! I know you
and your enthusiasm.' We promised to bring it
the next day. Eusebius soon bade us good-night.
I remained a short time with Master Raro. Flo-
restan, who had been for some time without a habi-
tation, hurried to my house through the moonlit
streets. Chopin's variations,' he began, as if in a
dream, are constantly running through my head;
the whole is so dramatic and Chopin-like; the
introduction is so concentrated. Do you remem-
ber Leporello's springs in thirds ?
That seems
to me somewhat unfitted to the theme; but the
theme-why did he write that in A flat? The
variations, the finale, the adagio, these are indeed
something; genius burns through every measure.
Naturally, dear Julius, Don Juan, Zerlina, Lepo,
rello, Massetto, are the dramatis personae ; Zer
lina's answer in the theme has a sufficiently
enamored character; the first variation expresses
a kind of coquettish coveteousness : the Spanish
Grandee flirts amiably with the peasant girl in
it. This leads of itself to the second, which is
at once confidential, disputative, and comic, as
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
239
though two lovers were chasing each other and
laughing more than usual about it. How all this
is changed in the third ! It is filled with fairy
music and moonshine ; Masetto keeps at a dis-
tance, swearing audibly, but without any effect on
Don Juan. And now the fourth—what do you
think of it ? Eusebius played it altogether cor-
rectly. How boldly, how wantonly, it springs for-
ward to meet the man ! though the adagio (it
seems quite natural to me that Chopin repeats the
first part) is in B flat minor, as it should be, for
in its commencement it presents a beautiful moral
warning to Don Juan. It is at once so mischiev-
ous and beautiful that Leporello listens behind the
hedge, laughing and jesting that oboes and clario-
nettes enchantingly allure, and that the B flat ma-
jor in full bloom correctly designates the first
kiss of love. But all this is nothing compared
to the last (have you any more wine, Julius?).
That is the whole of Mozart's finale, popping cham-
pague corks, ringing glasses, Leporello's voice be-
tween, the grasping, torturing demons, the flee-
ing Don Juan—and then the end, that beautifully
soothes and closes all.' Florestan concluded by
saying that he had never experienced feelings simi-
lar to those awakened by the finale. When the
evening sunlight of a beautiful day creeps up to-
ward the highest peaks, and when the last beam
vanishes, there comes a moment when the white Al-
pine giants close their eyes. We feel that we have
240 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
witnessed a heavenly apparition. “And now awake
to new dreams, Julius, and sleep.' 'Dear Flores-
tan,' I answered, 'these confidential feelings, are
perhaps praiseworthy, although somewhat sub-
jective ; but as deeply as yourself I bend before
Chopin's spontaneous genius, his lofty aim, his
mastership; and after that we fell asleep.'” This
article was the first journalistic record of Chopin's
genius.
IV.
WHEN Schumann gave up his journal in 1845
he moved to Dresden, and he began to suffer se-
verely from the dreadful disorder to which he fell
à victim twelve years later. This disease—an ab-
normal formation of bone in the brain-afflicted
him with excruciating pains in the head, sleep-
lessness, fear of death, and strange auricular de-
lusions. A sojourn at Parma, where he had com-
plete repose and a course of sea-bathing, partially
restored his health, and he gave himself up to
musical composition again. During the next
three years, up to 1849, Schumann wrote some of
his finest works, among which may be mentioned
his opera “Genoviva," his Second symphony, the
cantata “ The Rose's Pilgrimage," more beautiful
songs, much piano-forte and concerted music, and
the musical illustrations of Byron's “Manfred,"
which latter is one of his greatest orchestral works.
During the years 1850 to 1854 Schumann com-
posed his “ Rhenish Symphony,” the overtures to
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
211
the “ Bride of Messina” and “Hermann and Do-
rothea,” and many vocal and piano-forte works.
He accepted the post of musical director at Düs-
seldorf in 1850, removed to that city with his wife
and children, and, on arriving, the artistic pair
were received with a civic banquet. The position
was in many respects agreeable, but the responsi-
bilities were too great for Schumann's declining
health, and probably hastened his death. In 1853
Robert and Clara Schumann made a grand artistic
tour through Holland, which resembled a tri-
umphal procession, so great was the musical en-
thusiasm called out. When they returned Schu-
mann's malady returned with double force, ard
on February 27, 1854, he attempted to end his
misery by jumping into the Rhire. Madness had
seized him with a clutch which was never to be
released, except at short intervals. Every possi-
ble care was lavished on him by his heartbroken
and devoted wife, and the assiduous attention of
the friends who reverenced the genius now for
ever quenched. The last two years of his life
were spent in the private insane asylum at En-
denich, near Bonn, where he died July 20, 1856.
Schumann possessed a wealth of musical im-
agination which, if possibly equaled in a few in-
stances, is nowhere surpassed in the records of his
art. For him music possessed all the attributes
inherent in the other arts -- absolute color and
flexibility of form. That he attempted to express
242 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
these phases of art expression, with an almout
boundless trust in their applicability to tone and
sound, not unfrequently makes them obscure to
the last degree, but it also gave much of his com-
position a richness, depth, and subtilty of sug-
gestive power which place them in a unique niche
and will always preserve them as objects of the
greatest interest to the musical student. There
is no doubt that his increasing mental malady is
evident in the chaotic character of some of his
later orchestral compositions, but, in those works
composed during his best period, splendor of
imagination goes hand in hand with genuine art
treatment. This is specially noticeable in the
songs and the piano-forte works. Schumann was
essentially lyrical and subjective, though his in-
tellectual breadth and culture (almost unrivaled
among his musical compeers) always kept him
from narrowness as a composer. He led the van
in the formation of that pictorial and descriptive
style of music which has asserted itself in German
music, but his essentially lyric personality in his
attitude to the outer world presented the external
thoroughly saturated and modified by his own
moods and feelings.
In hiç piano-forte works we find his most com-
plete and satisfactory development as the artist
composer. Here the world, with its myriad im-
pressions, its facts, its purposes, its tendencies,
met the man and commingled in a series of exqui-
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
243
site creations, which are true tone pictures. In
this domain Beethoven alone was worthy to be
compared with him, though the animus and
scheme of the Beethoven piano-forte works grew
out of a totally different method.
In personal appearance Schumann bore the
marks of the man of genius. As he reached mid-
dle age we are told of him that his figure was of
middle height, inclined to stoutness, that his
bearing was dignified, his movements slow. His
features, though irregular, produced an agreeable
impression ; his forehead was broad and high, the
nose heavy, the eyes excessively bright, though
generally veiled and downcast, the mouth deli-
cately cut, the hair thick and brown, his cheeks
full and ruddy. His head was squarely formed,
of an intensely powerful character, and the whole
expression of his face sweet and genial. Even
when young he was distinguished by a kind of
absent-mindedness that prevented him from tak-
ing much part in conversation. Once, it is said,
he entered a lady's drawing-room to call, played
a few chords on the piano, and smilingly left
without speaking a word. But, among intimate
friends, he could be extraordinarily fluent and
eloquent in discussing an interesting topic. He
was conscious of his own shyness, and once wrote
to a friend : “ I shall be very glad to see you here.
In me, however, you must not expect to find
much. I scarcely ever speak except in the even-
244
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS,
She was
ing, and most in playing the piano." His wife
was the crowning blessing of his life.
not only his consoler, but his other intellectual
life, for she, with her great powers as a virtuoso,
interpreted his music to the world, both before
and er his death. It has rarely been the lot of
an artist to see his most intimate feelings and
aspirations embodied to the world by the genius
of the mother of his children. Well did Ferdi-
nand Hiller write of this artist couple : “What
love beautified his life! A woman stood beside
him, crowned with the starry circlet of genius, to
whom he seemed at once the father to his daugh-
ter, the master to the scholar, the bridegroom to
the bride, the saint to the disciple.”
Clara Schumann still lives, though becoming
fast an old woman in years, if still young in heart,
and still able to win the admiration of the musical
world by her splendid playing. Berlioz, who heard
her in her youth, pronounced her the greatest vir-
tuoso in Germany, in one of his letters to Heine;
and while she was little more than a child she
had gained the heartiest admiration in England,
France, and Germany. Henry Chorley heard her
at Leipzig in 1839, and speaks of “the organ-
playing on the piano of Mme. Schumann (better
known in England under the name of Clara
Wieck), who commands her instrument with the
enthusiasm of a sibyl and the grasp of a man.'
Since Schumann's death, Mme. Schumann has
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
245
been known as the exponent of her husband's
works, which she has performed in Germany and
England with an insight, a power of conception,
and a beauty of treatment which have contributed
much to the recognition of his remarkable genius.
V.
THE name of Frederic Francis Chopin is so
closely linked in the minds of musical students
with that of Schumann in that art renaissance
which took place almost simultaneously in France
and Germany, when so many daring and original
minds broke loose from the petrifactions of cus-
tom and tradition, that we shall not venture to
separate them here. Chopin was too timid and
gentle to be a bold aggressor, like Berlioz, Liszt,
and Schumann, but his whole nature responded to
the movement, and his charming and most origi-
nal compositions, which glow with the fire of a
genius perhaps narrow in its limits, have never
been surpassed for their individuality and poetic
beauty. The present brief sketch of Chopin does
not propose to consider his life biographically,
full of pathos and romance as that life may be. *
Schumann, in his "Neue Zeitschrift," sums up the
characteristics of the Polish composer admirably :
si Genius creates kingdoms, the smaller states of
which are again divided by a higher hand among
talents, that these may organize details which the
* See article Chopin, in “Great German Composers.”
246 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
former, in its thousand-fold activity, would be un-
able to perfect. As Hummel, for example, fol-
lowed the call of Mozart, clothing the thoughts of
that master in a flowing, sparkling robe, so Chopin
followed Beethoven. Or, to speak more simply,
as Hummel imitated the style of Mozart in detail,
rendering it enjoyable to the virtuoso on one par-
ticular instrument, so Chopin led the spirit of
Beethoven into the concert-room.
Chopin did not make his appearance accom-
panied by an orchestral army, as great genius is
accustomed to do; he only possessed a small co-
hort, but every soul belongs to him to the last
hero.
“He is the pupil of the first masters—Bee-
thoven, Schubert, Field. The first formed his
mind in boldness, the second his heart in tender-
ness, the third his hand to its flexibility. Thus
he stood well provided with deep knowledge in
his art, armed with courage in the full conscious-
ness of his power, when in the year 1830 the great
voice of the people arose in the West. Hundreds
of youths had waited for the moment; but Cho-
pin was the first on the summit of the wall, be-
hind which lay a cowardly renaissance, a dwarfish
Philistinism, asleep. Blows were dealt right and
left, and the Philistines awoke angrily, crying out,
'Look at the impudent one!' while others behind
the besieger cried, "The one of noble courage.'
“Besides this, and the favorable influence of
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
247
period and condition, fate rendered Chopin still
more individual and interesting in endowing him
with an original pronounced nationality ; Polish,
too, and because this nationality wanders in mourn-
ing robes in the thoughtful artist, it deeply at-
tracts us. It was well for him that neutral Ger-
many did not receive him too warmly at first, and
that his genius led him straight to one of the great
capitals of the world, where he could freely poet-
ize and grow angry. If the powerful autocrat
of the North knew what a dangerous enemy
threatens him in Chopin's works in the simple
melodies of his mazurkas, he would forbid music.
Chopin's works are cannons buried in flowers.
He is the boldest, proudest poet soul of to-day.”
But Schumann could have said something more
than this, and added that Chopin was a musician
of exceptional attainments, a virtuoso of the very
highest order, a writer for the piano pure and
simple preëminent beyond example, and a master
of a unique and perfect style.
Chopin was born of mixed French and Polish
parentage, February 8, 1810, at Zelazowa Wola,
near Warsaw. He was educated at the Warsaw
Conservatory, and his eminent genius for the
piano shone at this time most unmistakably. He
found in the piano-forte an exclusive organ for
the expression of his thoughts. In the presence
of this confidential companion he forgot his shy-
ness and poured forth his whole soul. A passion-
17
248
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ate lover of his native country, and burning with
those aspirations for freedom which have made
Poland since its first partition a volcano ever
ready to break forth, the folk-themes of Poland
are at the root of all of Chopin's compositions, and
in the waltzes and mazurkas bearing his name we
find a passionate glow and richness of color which
make them musical poems of the highest order.
Chopin's art position, both as a pianist and
composer, was a unique one. He was accus-
tomed to say that the breath of the concert-room
stifled him, whereas Liszt, his intimate friend and
fellow-artist, delighted in it as a war-horse delights
in the tumult of battle. Chopin always shrank
from the display of his powers as a mere exec-
utant. To exhibit his talents to the public was
an offense to him, and he only cared for his re-
markable technical skill as a means of placing his
fanciful original poems in tone rightly before the
public. It was with the greatest difficulty that
his intimate friends, Liszt, Meyerbeer, Nourrit,
Delacroix, Heine, Mme. George Sand, Countess
D'Agoult, and others, could persuade him to ap-
pear before large mixed audiences. His genius
only shone unconstrained as a player in the soci-
ety of a few chosen intimate friends, with whom
he felt a perfect sympathy, artistic, social, and
intellectual. Exquisite, fastidious, and refined,
Chopin was less an aristocrat from political causes,
or even by virtue of social caste, than from the
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
249
fact that his art nature, which was delicate, femi-
nine, and sensitive, shrank from all companions
except those molded of the finest clay. We find
this sense of exclusiveness and isolation in all of
the Chopin music, as in some quaint, fantastic,
ideal world, whose master would draw us up to his
sphere, but never descend to ours.
In the treatment of the technical means of the
piano-forte, he entirely wanders from the old
methods. Moscheles, a great pianist in an age of
great players, gave it up iu despair, and confessed
that he could not play Chopin's music. The lat-
ter teaches the fingers to serve his own artistic
uses, without regard to the notions of the schools.
It is said that M. Kalkbrenner advised Chopin to
attend his classes at the Paris Conservatoire, that
the latter might learn the proper fingering. Cho-
pin answered his officious adviser by placing one
of his own“ Études" before him, and asking him
to play it. The failure of the pompous professor
was ludicrous, for the old-established technique
utterly failed to do it justice. Chopin's end as a
player was to faithfully interpret the poetry of his
own composition. His genius as a composer
taught him to make innovations in piano-forte
effects. He was thus not only a great inventor
as a composer, but as regards the technique of the
piano-forte. He not only told new things well
worth hearing which the world would not forget,
but devised new ways of saying them, and it mat-
250 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
tered but little to him whether his more forcible
and passionate dialectic offended what Schumann
calls musical Philistinism or no. Chopin formed
a school of his own which was purely the outcome
of his genius, though as Schumann, in the ex-
tract previously quoted, justly says : “He was
molded by the deep poetic spirit of Beethoven,
with whom form only had value as it expressed
truthfully and beautifully symmetry of concep-
tion."
The forms of Chopin's compositions grew out
of the keyboard of the piano, and their genre is
so peculiar that it is nearly impracticable to trans-
pose them for any other instrument. Some of
the noted contemporary violinists have attempted
to transpose a few of the Nocturnes and Études.
but without success.
Both Schumann and Liszt
succeeded in adapting Paganini's most complex
and difficult violin works for the piano-forte, but
the compositions of Chopin are so essentially horn
to and of the one instrument that they can not
be well suited to any other. The cast of the
melody, the matchless beauty and swing of the
rhythm, his ingenious treatment of harmony, and
the chromatic changes and climaxes through
which the motives are developed, make up a new
chapter in the history of the piano-forte.
Liszt, in his life of Chopin, says of him: “His
character was indeed not easily understood. A
thousand subtile shades, mingling, crossing, con-
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
251
tradicting, and disguising each other, rendered it
almost undecipherable at first view; kind, court-
eous, affable, and almost of joyous manners, he
would not suffer the secret conyulsions which
agitated him to be ever suspected. His works,
concertos, waltzes, sonatas, ballades, polonaises,
mazurkas, nocturnes, scherzi, all reflect a similar
enigma in a most poetical and romantic form.”
Chopin's moral nature was not cast in an he-
roic mold, and he lacked the robust intellectual
marrow which is essential to the highest forms of
genius in art as well as in literature and affairs,
though it is not safe to believe that he was, as
painted by George Sand and Liszt, a feeble youth,
continually living at death's door in an atmos-
phere of moonshine and sentimentality. But
there can be no question that the whole bent of
Chopin's temperament and genius was melan-
choly, romantic, and poetic, and that frequently
he gives us mere musical moods and reveries, in-
stead of well-defined and well-developed ideas.
His music perhaps loses nothing, for, if it misses
something of the clear, inspiring, vigorous quality
of other great composers, it has a subtile, dreamy,
suggestive beauty all its own.
The personal life of Chopin was singularly in-
teresting. His long and intimate connection with
George Sand; the circumstances under which it
was formed ; the blissful idyl of the lovers in the
isle of Majorca ; the awakening from the dream,
252
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
and the separation--these and other striking ciu
cumstances growing out of a close association
with what was best in Parisian art and life, invest
the career of the man, aside from his art, with
more than common charm to the mind of the
reader. Having touched on these phases of Cho-
pin's life at some length in a previous volume of
this series, we must reluctantly pass them by.
In closing this imperfect review of the Polish
composer, it is enough to say that the present
generation has more than sustained the judgment
of his own as to the unique and wonderful beauty
of his compositions. Hardly any concert pro
gramme is considered complete without one o;
more numbers selected from his works ; anc
though there are but few pianists, even in a day
when Chopin as a stylist has been a study, who cani
do his subtile and wonderful fancies justice, there
is no composer for the piano-forte who so fasci
nates the musical mind.
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
Thalberg one of the Greatest of Executants. -Rather a Man of Re-
markable Talents than of Genius.--Moscheles's Description
of him.-The Illegitimate Son of an Austrian Prince.- Early
Introduction to Musical Society in London and Vienna.-Be-
ginning of his Career as a Virtuoso.—The Brilliancy of his
Career.-Is appointed Court Pianist to the Emperor of Aus-
tria.—His Marriage.- Visits to America.—Thalberg's Artistic
Idiosyncrasy.Robert Schumann on his playing.–His Ap-
pearance and Manner.-Characterization by George William
Curtis.-Thalberg's Style and Worth as an Artist.—His Piano-
forte Method, and Place as a Composer for the Piano.-Gott-
schalk's Birth and Early Years.—He is sent to Paris for In-
struction.-Successful Debut and Public Concerts in Paris and
Tour through the French Citics.-Friendship with Berlioz.-
Concert Tour to Spain.-Romantic Experiences.—Berlioz on
Gottschalk.–Reception of Gottschalk in America.-Criticism
of his Stylc.-Remarkable Success of his Concerts.His
Visit to the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America. --
Protracted Absence.-Gottschalk on Life in the Tropics.-
Return to the United States. Three Brilliant Musical Years.
-Departure for South America.—Triumphant Procession
through the Spanish-American Cities.-Death at Rio Janeiro
-Notes on Gottschalk as Man and Artist.
I.
ONE of the most remarkable of the grea
piano-forte virtuosos was unquestionably Sigis
mond Thalberg, an artist who made a profound
sensation in two hemispheres, and filled a large
space in the musical world for more than forty
254
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
five years.
years. Originally a disciple of the Viennese
school of piano-forte playing, a pupil of Mosche-
les, and a rigid believer in making the instru-
ment which was the medium of his talent suffi-
cient unto itself, wholly indifferent to the daring
and boundless ambition which made his great ri-
val, Franz Liszt, pile Pelion on Ossa in his grasp
after new effects, Thalberg developed virtuoso-
ism to its extreme degree by a mechanical dex-
terity which was perhaps unrivaled. But the
fingers can not express more than rests in the
heart and brain to give to their skill, and Thal-
berg, with all his immense talent, seems to have
lacked the divine spark of genius. It goes with-
out saying, to those who are familiar with the
current cant of criticism, that the word genius
is often applied in a very loose and misleading
But, in all estimates of art and artists,
where there are two clearly defined factors, imag-
ination or formative power and technical dex-
terity, it would seem that there should not be
any error in deciding on the propriety of such
a word as a measure of the quality of an artist's
gifts. The lack of the creative impulse could
not be mistaken in Thalberg's work, whether as
player or composer. But the ability to execute
all that came within the scope of his sympathies
or intelligence was so prodigious that the world
was easily dazzled into forgetting his deficiencies
in the loftier regions of art. Trifles are ofter.
manner.
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
255
very significant. What, for example, could more
vividly portray an artist's tendencies than the
description of Thalberg by Moscheles, who knew
him more thoroughly than any other contempo-
rary, and felt a keener sympathy with his genre
as an artist than with the more striking origi-
nality of Chopin and Liszt. Moscheles writes :
“I find his introduction of harp effects on the
piano quite original. His theme, which lies in
the middle part, is brought out clearly in relief
with an accompaniment of complicated arpeggios
which reminds me of a harp. The audience is
amazed. He himself sits immovably calm ; his
whole bearing as he sits at the piano is soldier-
like ; his lips are tightly compressed and his coat
buttoned closely. He told me he acquired this
attitude of self-control by smoking a Turkish pipe
while practicing his piano-forte exercises : the
length of the tube was so calculated as to keep
him erect and motionless.” This exact discipline
and mechanism were not merely matters of tech-
nical culture; they were the logical outcome of the
man and surely a part of himself. But within
his limits, fixed as these were, Thalberg was so
great that he must be conceded to be one of the
most striking and brilliant figures of an age fe-
cund in fine artists.
Thalberg was born at Geneva, January 7, 1812,
and was the natural son of Prince Dietrichstein,
an Austrian nobleman, temporarily resident in,
256 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS,
.
that city. His talent for music, inherited from
both sides, for his mother was an artist and his
father an amateur of no inconsiderable skill, be-
came obvious at a very tender age, following the
law which so generally holds in music that su-
perior gifts display themselves at an early period.
These indications of nature were not ignored, for
the boy was placed under instruction before he
had completed his sixth year. It is a little singu-
lar that his first teacher was not a pianist, though
a very superior musician. Mittag was one of the
first bassoonists of his times, and, in addition to his
technical skill, a thoroughly accomplished man in
the science of his profession. Thalberg was ac-
customed to attribute the wonderfully rich and
mellow tone which characterized his playing to
the influence and training of Mittag. From this
instructor the future great pianist passed to the
charge of the distinguished Hummel, who was
not only one of the greatest virtuosos of the age,
but ranked by his admirers as only a little less
than Beethoven himself in his genius for piano-
forte compositions, though succeeding generations
have discredited his former fame by estimating
him merely a “dull classic.” Contemporaneously
with his pupilage under Hummel, he studied the
theory of music with Simon Sechter, an eminent
contrapuntist. Even at this early age, for Thal-
berg must have been less than ten years old, he
astonished all by the great precision of his finger-
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
257
ing and the instinctive ease with which he mas-
tered the most difficult mechanism of the art of
playing. At the age of fourteen young Thalberg
went to London in the household of his father,
who had been appointed imperial ambassador to
England, and the youth was then placed under
the instruction of the great pianist Moscheles.
The latter speaks of Thalberg as the most distin-
guished of his pupils, and as being, even at that
age, already an artist of distinction and mark. It
was a source of much pleasure to Moscheles that
his brilliant scholar, who played much at private
soirées, was not only recognized by the dilletante
public generally, but by such veteran artists as
Clementi and Cramer. Moscheles, in his diary,
speaks of the wonderful brilliancy of a grand fan
cy dress ball given by Thalberg's princely father
at Covent Garden Theatre. Pit, stalls, and pro-
scenium were formed into one grand room, in
which the crowd promenaded. The costumes
were of every conceivable variety, and many of
the most gorgeous description. The spectators,
in full dress, sat in the boxes ; on the stage was a
court box, occupied by the royal family; and
bands played in rooms adjoining for small parties
of dancers. "You will have some idea,” wrote
Mme. Moscheles, in a letter, "of the crowd at this
ball, when I tell you that we left the ballroom
at two o'clock and did not get to the prince's car
riage till four.” One of the interesting features
258
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
of this ball was that the boy Thalberg played in
one of the smaller rooms before the most distin-
guished people present, including the royal fam-
ily, all crowding in to hear the youthful virtuoso,
whose tacit recognition by his father had al-
ready opened to him the most brilliant drawing-
rooms in London,
Thalberg did not immediately begin to per-
form in public, but, on returning to Vienna in
1827, played continually at private soirées, where
he had the advantage of being heard and criti-
cised by the foremost amateurs and musicians of
the Austrian capital. It had some time since
become obvious to the initiated that another great
player was about to be launched on his career.
The following year the young artist tried his
hand at composition, for he published variations
on themes from Weber's “Euryanthe," which
were well received. Thalberg in after-years
spoke of all his youthful productions with dis-
dain, but his early works displayed not a little
of the brilliant style of treatment which subse-
quently gave his fantasias a special place among
compositions for the piano-forte.
It was not till 1830 that young Thalberg fairly
began his career as a traveling player. The cities
of Germany received him with the most éclatant
admiration, and his feats of skill as a performer
were trumpeted by the newspapers and musical
journals as something unprecedented in the art of
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
259
pianism. From Germany Thalberg proceeded to
France and England, and his audiences were no
less pronounced in their recognition. Liszt had
already been before him in Paris, and Chopin ar-
rived about the same time. Kalkbrenner, Ferdi-
nand Hiller, and Field were playing, but the
splendid, calm beauty of Thalberg's style in-
stantly captivated the public, and elicited the most
extravagant and delighted applause not only from
the public, but from enlightened connoisseurs,
To follow the course of Thalberg's piano-
forte achievements in his musical travels through
Europe would be merely to repeat a record of
uninterrupted successes. He disarmed envy and
criticism everywhere, and even those disposed to
withhold a frank and generous acknowledgment
of his greatness did not dare to question powers
of execution which seemed without a technical
flaw. During his travels Thalberg composed a
concerto for piano and orchestra, to play at his
concerts. But this species of composition was so
obviously unsuited to his abilities that he quickly
forsook it, and thenceforward devoted his efforts
exclusively to the instrument of which he was
such an eminent master. A more extensive am-
bition had been rebuked in more ways than one.
He composed two operas, “Florinda" and " Chris-
tine,” and of course easily yielded to the entreaties
of his admirers to have them produced. But it
was clearly evident that his musical idiosyncrasy,
260
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
though magnificent of its kind, was limited in
range, and after the failure of his operas and
attempts at orchestral writing Thalberg calmly
accepted the situation.
In the year 1834 Thalberg was appointed
pianist of the Imperial Chamber to the court of
Austria, and accompanied the Emperor Ferdi-
nand to Toplitz, where a convocation of the Eu-
ropean sovereigns took place. His performances
were warmly received by the assembled monarchs,
and he was overwhelmed with presents and con-
gratulations. Thalberg's way throughout the
whole of his life was strewn with roses, and,
though his career did not present the same ro-
mantic incidents which make the life of Franz
Liszt so picturesque, it was attended by the same
lavish favors of fortune. From one patron he
received the gift of a fine estate, from another a
magnificent city mansion in Vienna, and testimo-
nials, like snuff-boxes set with diamonds, jeweled
court-swords, superbly set portraits of his royal
and imperial patrons, and costly jewelry, poured
in on him continually. Imperial orders from
Austria and Russia were bestowed on him, and
hardly any mark of favor was denied him by that
good fortune which had been auspicious to him
from his.very birth. In 1845, while still in the
service of the Austrian emperor, though he did
not intermit his musical tours through the princi-
pal European cities, Thalberg married the charm-
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
261
ing widow, whom he had known and admired be-
fore her marriage, the daughter of the great
singer Lablache, Mme. Bouchot, whose first hus-
band had been the distinguished French painter
of that name. The marriage was a happy one,
though scandal, which loves to busy itself about
the affairs of musical celebrities, did not fail to
associate Thalberg's name with several of the
most beautiful women of his time. Mlle. Thal-
berg, a daughter of this marriage, made her début
with considerable success in London, in 1874.
Thalberg's first visit to America was in 1853,
and he came again in 1857, to more than repeat
the enthusiastic reception with which he was
greeted by music-loving Americans. Musical cul-
ture at that time had not attained the refinement
and knowledge which now make an audience in
one of our greater cities as fastidious and intelli-
gent as can be found anywhere in the world. But
Thalberg's wonderful playing, though lacking in
the fire, glow, and impetuosity which would natu-
rally most arouse the less cultivated musical sense,
created a furore, which has never been matched
since, among those who specially prided them-
selves on being good judges. He extended both
tours to Cuba, Mexico, and South America, and it
is said took away with him larger gains than he
had ever made during the same period in Europe.
During the latter years of Thalberg's life he
spent much of his time in elegant ease at his fine
262 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
country estate near Naples, only giving concerts
at some few of the largest European capitals, like
London and Paris. He became an enthusiastic
wine-grower, and wine from his estate gained
a medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1867.
Many of his best piano-forte compositions date
from the period when he had given up the active
pursuit of virtuosoism. His works comprise a con-
certo, three sonatas, many nocturnes, rondos, and
études, about thirty fantasias, two operas, and an
instruction series, which latter has been adopted
by many of the best teachers, and has been the
means of forming a number of able pupils. This
fine artist died at his Neapolitan estate, April 27,
1871.
II.
THALBERG had but little sympathy with the
dreamy romanticism which found such splendid
exponents, while he was yet in his early youth,
in Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt. Imagination
in its higher functions he seemed to lack. A cer-
tain opulence and picturesqueness of fancy united
in his artistic being with an intelligence both
lucid and penetrating, and a sense of form and
symmetry almost Greek in its fastidiousness.
The sweet, vague, passionate aspirations, the sen-
sibility that quivers with every breath of move-
ment from the external world, he could not under-
stand. Placidity, grace, and repose he had in
perfection. Yet he was very highly appreciated
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
263
US.
by those who had little in common with his ar-
tistic nature. As, for example, Robert Schumann
writes of Thalberg and his playing, on the occa-
sion of a charity concert, given in Leipzig in 1841 :
"In his passing flight the master's pinions rested
here awhile, and, as from the angel's pinions in
one of Rucker's poems, rubies and other precious
stones fell from them and into indigent hands, as
the master ordained it. It is difficult to say any-
thing new of one who has been so praise beshow-
ered as he has. But every earnest virtuoso is
glad to hear one thing said at any time—that he
has progressed in his art since he last delighted
This best of all praise we are conscientiously
able to bestow on Thalberg; for, during the last
two years that we have not heard him, he has made
astonishing additions to his acquirements, and, if
possible, moves with greater boldness, grace, and
freedom than ever. His playing seemed to have
the same effect on every one, and the delight that
he probably feels in it himself was shared by all.
True virtuosity gives us something more than
mere flexibility and execution : a man may mirror
his own nature in it, and in Thalberg's playing it
becomes clear to all that he is one of the favored
ones of fortune, one accustomed to wealth and
elegance. Accompanied by happiness, bestowing
pleasure, he commenced his career ; under such
circumstances he has so far pursued it, and so he
will probably continue it. The whole of yester-
18
264 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
day evening and every number that he played
gave us a proof of this. The public did not seem
to be there to judge, but only to enjoy ; they
were as certain of enjoyment as the master was of
his art."
Thalberg in his appearance had none of the
traditional wild picturesqueness of style and man-
ner which so many distinguished artists, even
Liszt himself, have thought it worth while to car-
ry perhaps to the degree of affectation. Smoothly
shaven, quiet, eminently respectable-looking, his
handsome, somewhat Jewish-looking face com-
posed in an expression of unostentatious good
breeding, he was wont to seat himself at the
piano with all the simplicity of one doing any
commonplace thing. He had the air of one who
respected himself, his art, and the public. His
performance was in an exquisitely artistic sense
that of the gentleman, perfect, polished, and
elaborately wrought. The distinguished Ameri-
can litterateur, Mr. George William Curtis, who
heard him in New York in 1857, thus wrote of
him : “He is a proper artist in this, that he com-
prehends the character of his instrument. He
neither treats it as a violoncello nor a full or-
chestra. Those who in private have enjoyed the
pleasure of hearing-or, to use a more accurate
epithet, of seeing-Strepitoso, that friend of man-
kind, play the piano, will understand what we
mean when we speak of treating the piano as if it
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
265
were an orchestra. Strepitoso storms and slams
along the keyboard until the tortured instrument
gives up its musical soul in despair and breaks
its heart of melody by cracking all its strings. ...
Every instrument has its limitations, but Stre-
pitoso will tolerate no such theory. He extracts
music from his piano, not as if he were sifting
the sands for gold, but as if he were raking
oysters. . . . Now, Thalberg's manner is different
from Strepitoso's. He plays the piano; that is
the phrase which describes his performance. He
plays it quietly and suavely. You could sit
upon the lawn on a June night and hear with de-
light the sounds that trickled through the moon-
light from the piano of this master. They would
not melt your soul in you; they would not touch
those longings that, like rays of starry light, re-
spond to the rays of the stars ; they would not
storm your heart with the yearning passion of
their strains, but you would confess it was a good
world as you listened, and be glad you lived in it
-you would be glad of your home and all that
made it homelike; the moonlight as you listened
would melt and change, and your smiling eyes
would seem to glitter in cheerful sunlight as
Thalberg ended.'
Thalberg's style was, perhaps, the best possible
illustration of the legitimate effects of the piano-
forte carried to the highest by as perfect a tech-
nique as could possibly be attained by human skill.
266 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
That he lacked poetic fire and passion, that the
sense of artistic restraint and a refined fastidious-
ness chilled and fettered him, is doubtlessly true.
Whether the absence of the imaginative warmth
and vigor which suffuse a work of art with the
glow of something that can not be fully expressed,
and kindle the thoughts of the hearer to take
hitherto unknown flights, is fully compensated
for by that repose and symmetry of style which
know exactly what it wishes to express, and, be-
ing perfect master of the means of expression,
puts forth an exact measure of effort and then
stops as if shut down by an iron wall—this is
an open question, and must be answered accord-
ing to one's art theories. The exquisite mod-
eling of a Benvenuto Cellini vase, wrought with
patient elaboration into a thing of unsurpass-
able beauty, does not invoke as high a sense of
pleasure as an heroic statue or noble painting by
some great master, but of its kind the pleasure is
just as complete. Apart from Thalberg's power
as a player, however, there was something cap-
tivating in the quality of his talent, which,
though not creative, was gifted with the power
of seizing the very essence of the music to be in-
terpreted. A striking example of this is shown
in the fantasias he composed on the different
operas, a form of writing which reached its per-
fection in him. His own contribution is simply
a most delightful setting of the melodies of his
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
267
subject, and the whole is steeped in the very at-
mosphere and feeling of the original, as if the
master himself had done the work.
A good example is the fantasia on Mozart's
“Don Giovanni.” The little, wild, unformed
melodies rustle in quick gusts along the keys as
if wavering shadows, yet with all the familiar
rhythm and family likeness, filling the mind of
the hearer with the atmosphere and necessity of
what is to follow, while gradually the full harmo-
nies unfold themselves. The introduction of the
minuet is one of the most striking portions. The
scene of the minuet in the opera is a vision of rural
loveliness and repose, whispering of flowers, fields,
and happy flying hours. All this becomes poet-
ized, and the music seems to imply rich reaches of
odorous garden and moonlight, whispering foliage,
and nightingales mad with the delight of their
own singing, and a palace on the lawn sounding
with riotous mirth. The player-composer weaves
the glamour of such a dream, and the hearer
finds himself strolling in imagination through the
moonlit garden, listening to the birds, the waters,
and the rustling leaves, while the stately beat of
the minuet comes throbbing through it all, call
ing up the vision of gayly dressed cavaliers and
beautiful ladies fantastically moving to the tune.
Such poetic sentiment as this of the purely pic-
turesque sort was in large measure Thalberg's
possession, but he could never understand that
268 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
turbulent ground-swell of passion which music
can also powerfully express, and by which the soul
is lifted up to the heights of ecstasy or plunged
in depths of melancholy. Music as a vehicle for
such meanings was mere Egyptian hieroglyphic,
utterly beyond his limitation, absolute bathos and
absurdity.
It is doubtful whether any player ever pos-
sessed a more wonderfully trained mechanism ;
the smallest details were polished and finished
with the utmost care, the scales marvels of even-
ness, the shakes rivaling the trill of a canary
bird. His arpeggios at times rolled like the
waves of the sea, and at others resembled folds
of transparent lace floating airily with the move-
ments of the wearer. The octaves were wonder-
fully accurate, and the chords appeared to be
struck by steel mallets instead of fingers. He
was called the Bayard of pianists, “le Chevalier
sans peur et sans reproche.” His tone was noble,
yet mellow and delicate, and the gradations be-
tween his forte and piano were traced most ex-
quisitely. In a word, technical execution could
go no further. It is said that he never played a
piece in public till he had absolutely made it the
property of his fingers. He was the first to di-
vide the melody between the two hands, making
the right hand perform a brilliant figure in the
higher register, while the left hand exhibited a
full and rich bass part, supplementing it with an
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
269
accompaniment in chords. It was this charac-
teristic which made his fantasias so unique and
interesting, in spite of their lack of orginality of
motive, as compositions. Almost all writers for
the piano have since adopted this device, even
the great Mendelssohn using it in some of his
concertos and 66 Songs without Words”; and in
many cases it has been transformed into a mere
trick of arrant musical charlatanism, designed
to cover up with a sham glitter the utter ab-
sence of thought and motive. No better sug-
gestion of the dominant characteristic of Thal-
berg as a pianist can be found than a critical
word of his friend Moscheles : “ The proper
ground for finger gymnastics is to be found in
Thalberg's latest compositions ; for mind [Geist],
give me Schumann.'
III.
DURING Thalberg's first visit to America he
had an active and dangerous rival in the young
and brilliant pianist, Louis Moreau Gottschalk,
who was as fresh to New York audiences as
Thalberg himself, though the latter had the ad-
vantage over his young competitor in a fame
which was almost world - wide. Of American
pianists Louis Gottschalk stands confessedly at
the head by virtue of remarkable native gifts,
which, had they been assisted by greater industry
and ambition, might easily have won him a very
270 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
eminent rank in Europe as well as in his own
country. An easy, pleasure-loving, tropical na-
ture, flexible, facile, and disposed to sacrifice
the future to the present, was the only obstacle
to the attainment to a place level with the fore-
most artists of his age.
Edward Gottschalk, who came to America in
his young manhood and settled in New Orleans,
and his wife, a French Creole lady, had five
children, of whom the future pianist was the
eldest, born in 1829. His feeling for music
manifested itself when he was three years old by
his ability to play a melody on the piano which
he had heard. Instantly he was strong enough,
he was placed under the instruction of a good
teacher, and no pains were spared to develop his
precocious talent. At the age of six he had made
such progress on the piano that he was also in-
structed on the violin, and soon was able to play
pieces of more than ordinary difficulty with taste
and expression. We are told that the lad gave a
benefit concert at the age of eight to assist an
unfortunate violin-player, with considerable suc-
cess, and was soon in great request at evening
parties as a child phenomenon. The propriety of
sending the little Louis to Paris had long been
discussed, and it was finally accomplished in
1842.
On reaching Paris he was first put under the
teaching of Charles Hallé, but, as the latter mas-
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK,
271
ter was a little careless, he was replaced by M.
Camill: Stamaty, who had the reputation of be-
ing the ablest professor in the city. The fol-
lowing year he began the study of harmony and
counterpoint with M. Maledan, and the rapid
progress he evinced in his studies was of a kind
to justify his parents in their wish to devote him
to the career of a pianist.
Young Louis Gottschalk was much petted in
the aristocratic salons of Paris, to which he had
admission through his aunts, the Comtesse de La-
grange and the Comtesse de Bourjally. His re-
markable musical gifts, and more especially his
talent for improvisation, excited curiosity and
admiration, even in a city where the love of
musical novelty had been sated by a continual
supply of art prodigies. Young as he was, he
wrote at this time not a few charming composi-
tions, which were in after-years occasional fea-
tures of his concerts. His delicate constitution
succumbed under hard work, and for a while a
severe attack of typhoid fever interrupted his
studies. On his recovery, our young artist spent
a few months in the Ardennes. On returning to
Paris, he became the pupil of Hector Berlioz, who
felt a deep interest in the young American, as an
art prodigy from a land of savages in harmony,
and devoted himself so assiduously to the study
that he declined an invitation from the Spanish
queen to become a guest of the court at Madrid.
272 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
An amusing incident occurred in a pedestrian
trip which he made to the Vosges in 1846. He
had forgotten his passport, and, on arriving at a
small town, was arrested by a gendarme and
taken before the maire. The latter official was
reading a newspaper containing a notice of his
last concert, and through this means he assured
the worthy functionary of his identity, and was
cordially welcomed to the hospitality of the offi-
cial residence.
His friend Berlioz, who was ever on the alert
to help the American pupil who promised to do
him so much credit, arranged a series of concerts
for him at the Italian Opéra in the winter of 1846–
'47, and these proved brilliantly successful, not
merely in filling the young artist's purse, but in
augmenting his fast-growing reputation. Steady
labor in study and concert-giving, many of his
public performances being for charity, made two
years pass swiftly by. A musical tour through
France in 1849 was highly successful, and the
young American returned to Paris, loaded down
with gifts, and rich in the sense of having justly
earned the congratulations which showered on
him from all his friends. A second invitation
now came from Spain, and Louis Gottschalk on
arriving at Madrid was made a guest at the royal
palace. From the king he received two orders,
the diamond cross of Isabella la Catholique and
that of Leon d'Holstein, and from the Duke de
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
273
Montpensier he received a sword of honor. We
are told that at one of the private court concerts
Gottschalk played a duet with Don Carlos, the
father of the recent pretender to the Spanish
throne.
Among the romantic incidents narrated of this
visit of Gottschalk to Madrid, one is too charac-
teristic to be overlooked, as showing the tender,
generous nature of the artist. An imaginative
Spanish girl, whose fancy had been excited by
the public enthusiasm about Gottschalk, but was
too ill to attend his concerts, had a passionate de-
sire to hear him play, and pined away in the fret-
fulness of ungratified desire. Her family were
not able to pay Gottschalk for the trouble of giv-
such an exclusive concert, but, to satisfy the sick
girl, made the circumstances known to the artist.
Gottschalk did not hesitate a moment, but ordered
his piano to be conveyed to the humble abode of
the patient. Here by her bedside he played for
hours to the enraptured girl, and the strain of
emotion was so great that her life ebbed away
before he had finished the final chords. Gott-
schalk remained in Spain for two years, and it
was not till the autumn of 1852 that he returned
to Paris, to give a series of farewell concerts before
returning again to America, where his father and
brothers were anxiously awaiting him.
274 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
IV.
BEFORE Gottschalk's departure from Paris,
Hector Berlioz thus wrote of his protégé, for whom
we may fancy he had a strong bias of liking; and
no judge is so generous in estimation as one ar-
tist of another, unless the critic has personal
cause of dislike, and then no judge is so sweepingly
unjust : “ Gottschalk is one of the very small
number who possess all the different elements of
a consummate pianist, all the faculties which sur-
round him with an irresistible prestige, and give
him a sovereign power. He is an accomplished
musician ; he knows just how far fancy may be
indulged in expression. He knows the limits be-
yond which any freedom taken with the rhythm
produces only confusion and disorder, and upon
these limits he never encroaches. There is an ex-
quisite grace in his manner of phrasing sweet
melodies and throwing off light touches from the
higher keys. The boldness, brilliancy, and origi-
nality of his play at once dazzle and astonish,
and the infantile naivéte of his smiling caprices,
the charming simplicity with which he renders
simple things, seem to belong to another individ-
uality, distinct from that which marks his thun-
dering energy
Thus the success of M. Gott-
schalk before an audience of musical cultivation
is immense."
But even this enthusiastic praise was pale in
comparison with the eulogiums of some of the
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
2765
Now York journals, after the first concert of Gott-
schalk at Niblo's Garden Theatre. One newspa-
per, which arrogated special strength and good
judgment in its critical departments, intimated
that after such a revelation it was useless any
longer to speak of Beethoven ! Whether Beetho-
ven as a player or Beethoven as a composer was
meant was left unknown. Gottschalk at his ear-
lier concerts played many of his own composi-
tions, made to order for the display of his virtuo-
soism, and their brilliant, showy style was very
well calculated to arouse the enthusiasm of the
general public. Perhaps the most sound and
thoughtful opinion of Gottschalk expressed dur-
ing the first enthusiasm created by his playing
was that of a well-known musical journal pub-
lished in Boston :
Well, at the concert, which, by the way, did
not half fill the Boston Music Hall, owing partly,
we believe, to the one-dollar price, and partly, we
hope, to distrust of an artist who plays wholly his
own compositions, our expectation was confirmed.
There was, indeed, most brilliant execution ; we
have heard none more brilliant, but are not yet
prepared to say that Jaell's was less so. Gott-
schalk's touch is the most clear and crisp and
beautiful that we have ever known. His play is
free and bold and sure, and graceful in the ex-
treme; his runs pure and liquid ; his figures
always clean and perfectly defined ; his command
276
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
of rapid octave passages prodigious ; and so we
might go through with all the technical points of
masterly execution. It was great execution. But
what is execution, without some thought and
meaning in the combinations to be executed ? ...
Skillful, graceful, brilliant, wonderful, we own his
playing was. But players less wonderful have
given us far deeper satisfaction. We have seen a
criticism upon that concert, in which it was re-
gretted that his music was too fine for common
apprehension, 'too much addressed to the reason-
ing faculties,' etc. To us the want was, that it
did not address the reason; that it seemed empty
of ideas, of inspiration ; that it spake little to the
mind or heart, excited neither meditation nor
emotion, but simply dazzled by the display of
difficult feats gracefully and easily achieved. But
of what use were all these difficulties ? (Diffi-
cult! I wish it was impossible,' said Dr. Johnson.)
Why all that rapid tossing of handfuls of chords
from the middle to the highest octaves, lifting
the hand with such conscious appeal to our eyes ?
To what end all those rapid octave passages ?
since in the intervals of easy execution, in the
seemingly quiet impromptu passages, the music
grew so monotonous and commonplace : the same
little figure repeated and repeated, after listless
pauses, in a way which conveyed no meaning, no
sense of musical progress, but only the appearance
of fastidiously critical scale-practicing.
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
2719
In the series of concerts given by Gottschalk
throughout the United States, the public gener-
ally showed great enthusiasm and admiration,
and the young pianist sustained himself very suc-
cessfully against the memories of Jaell, Henri
Herz, and Leopold de Meyer, as well as the im-
mediate rivalry of Thalberg, who appealed more
potently to a select few. The hold the American
pianist had secured on his public did not lessen
during the five years of concert-giving which
succeeded. No player ever displayed his skill
before American audiences who had in so large
degree that peculiar quality of geniality in his
style which so endears him to the public. This
characteristic is something apart from genius or
technical skill, and is peculiarly an emanation
from the personality of the man.
In the spring of 1837 Gottschalk found him-
self in Havana, whither he had gone to make the
beginning of a musical tour through the West In-
dies. His first concert was given at the Tacon
Theatre, which Mr. Maretzek, who was giving
operatic representations then in Havana, yielded
to him for the occasion. The Cubans gave the
pianist a tropical warmth of welcome, and Gott-
schalk's letters from the old Spanish city are full
of admiration for the climate, the life, and the
people, with whom there was something strongly
sympathetic in his own nature. The artist had
not designed to protract his musical wanderings
2178 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
in the beautiful island of the Antilles for any
considerable period, but his success was great,
and the new experiences admirably suited his
dreaming, sensuous, pleasure-loving temperament.
Everywhere the advent of Gottschalk at a town
was made the occasion of a festival, and life
seemed to be one continued gala-day with him.
V.
In the early months of 1860 the young pianist,
Arthur Napoleon, joined Gottschalk at Havana,
and the two gave concerts throughout the West
Indies, which were highly successful. The early
summer had been designed for a tour through Cen-
tral America and Venezuela, but a severe attack of
illness prostrated Gottschalk, and he was not able
to sail before August for his new field of musical
conquest. Our artist did not return to New
York till 1862, after an absence of five years,
though his original plan had only contemplated
a tour of two years. It must not be supposed
that Gottschalk devoted his time continually to
concert performances and composition, though
he by no means neglected the requirements of
musical labor. As he himself confesses, the balmy
climate, the glorious landscapes, the languid dolce
far niente, which tended to enervate all that
came under their magic spell, wrought on his
susceptible temperament with peculiar effect. A
quotation from an article written by Gottschalk,
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
279
and published in the “Atlantic Monthly," enti-
tled “Notes of a Pianist,” will furnish the reader
a graphic idea of the influence of tropical life on
such an imaginative and voluptuous character,
passionately fond of nature and outdoor life :
"Thus, in succession, I have visited all the An-
tilles—Spanish, French, English, Dutch, Swed-
ish, and Danish; the Guianas, and the coasts
of Para. At times, having become the idol of
some obscure pueblo, whose untutored ears I had
charmed with its own simple ballads, I would
pitch my tent for five, six, eight months, defer-
ring my departure from day to day, until finally
I began seriously to entertain the idea of remain-
ing there for evermore. Abandoning myself to
such influences, I lived without care, as the bird
sings, as the flower expands, as the brook flows,
oblivious of the past, reckless of the future, and
sowed both my heart and my purse with the
ardor of a husbandman who hopes to reap a hun-
dred ears for every grain he confides to the earth.
But, alas ! the fields where is garnered the har-
vest of expended doubloons, and where vernal
loves bloom anew, are yet to be discovered ; and
the result of my prodigality was that, one fine
morning, I found myself a bankrupt in heart,
with my purse at ebb-tide. Suddenly disgusted
with the world and myself, weary, discouraged,
mistrusting men (ay, and women too), I fled to a
desert on the extinct volcano of M
where,
19
280 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
for several months, I lived the life of a cenobite,
with no companion but a poor lunatic whom I
had met on a small island, and who had attached
himself to me. He followed me everywhere, and
loved me with that absurd and touching constan-
cy of which dogs and madmen alone are capable.
My friend, whose insanity was of a mild and
harmless character, fancied himself the greatest
genius in the world. He was, moreover, under
the impression that he suffered from a gigantic,
monstrous tooth. Of the two idiosyncrasies, the
latter alone made his lunacy discernible, too many
individuals being affected with the other symp-
tom to render it an anomalous feature of the hu-
man mind. My friend was in the habit of pro-
testing that this enormous tooth increased peri-
odically, and threatened to encroach upon his
entire jaw. Tormented, at the same time, with
the desire of regenerating humanity, he divided
his leisure between the study of dentistry, to
which he applied himself in order to impede the
progress of his hypothetical tyrant, and a volumi-
nous correspondence which he kept up with the
Pope, his brother, and the Emperor of the French,
his cousin. In the latter occupation he pleaded
the interests of humanity, styled himself 'the
Prince of Thought,' and exalted me to the digni-
ty of his illustrious friend and benefactor. In the
midst of the wreck of his intellect, one thing still
survived-his love of music. He played the vio-
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
281
lin ; and, strange as it may appear, although in-
sane, he could not understand the so-called music
of the future.
“My hut, perched on the verge of the crater,
at the very summit of the mountain, commanded
a view of all the surrounding country. The rock
upon which it was built projected over a preci-
pice whose abysses were concealed by creeping
plants, cactus, and bamboos. The species of
table-rock thus formed had been encircled with
a railing, and transformed into a terrace on a
level with the sleeping-room, by my predecessor
in this hermitage.
His last wish had been to be
buried there ; and from my bed I could see his
white tombstone gleaming in the moonlight a few
steps from my window. Every evening I rolled
my piano out upon the terrace; and there, fac-
ing the most incomparably beautiful landscape,
all bathed in the soft and limpid atmosphere of
the tropics, I poured forth on the instrument,
and for myself alone, the thoughts with which
the scene inspired me. And what a scene! Pic-
ture to yourself a gigantic amphitheatre hewn
out of the mountains by an army of Titans ;
right and left, immense virgin forests full of
those subdued and distant harmonies which are,
as it were, the voices of Silence; before me, a
prospect of twenty leagues marvelously enhanced
by the extreme transparency of the air ; above,
the azure of the sky: beneath, the creviced sides
282 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
of the mountain sweeping down to the plain ;
afar, the waving savannas; beyond them, a gray-
ish speck (the distant city); and, encompassing
them all, the immensity of the ocean closing the
horizon with its deep-blue line. Behind me was
a rock on which a torrent of melted snow dashed
its white foam, and there, diverted from its
course, rushed with a mad leap and plunged
headlong into the gulf that yawned beneath my
window.
“Amid such scenes I composed "Réponds-
moi la Marche des Gibaros, Polonia, Columbia,
'Pastorella e Cavaliere,''Jeunesse,' and many other
unpublished works. I allowed my fingers to run
over the keys, wrapped up in the contemplation
of these wonders; while my poor friend, whom
I heeded but little, revealed to me with a childish
loquacity the lofty destiny he held in reserve for
humanity. Can you conceive the contrast pro-
duced by this shattered intellect expressing at
random its disjointed thoughts, as a disordered
clock strikes by chance any hour, and the majes-
tic serenity of the scene around me? I felt it
instinctively. My misanthropy gave way. I be-
came indulgent toward myself and mankind, and
the wounds of my heart closed once more. My de-
spair was soothed ; and soon the sun of the trop-
ics, which tinges all things with gold-dreams as
well as fruits-lestored me with new confidence
and vigor to my wanderings.
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
283
"I relapsed into the manners and life of these
primitive countries : if not strictly virtuous, they
are at all events terribly attractive. Existence
in a tropical wilderness, in the midst of a volup-
tuous and half-civilized race, bears no resem-
blance to that of a Londen cockney, a Parisian
lounger, or an American Quaker. Times there
were, indeed, when a voice was heard within me
that spoke of nobler aims. It reminded me of
what I once was, of what I yet might be ; and
commanded imperatively a return to a healthier
and more active life. But I had allowed myself
to be enervated by this baneful languor, this in-
sidious far niente; and my moral torpor was such
that the mere thought of reappearing before a
polished audience struck me as superlatively ab-
surd. · Where was the object ?' I would ask my-
self. Moreover, it was too late ; and I went on
dreaming with open eyes, careering on horseback
through the savannas, listening at break of day to
the prattle of the parrots in the guava-trees, at
nightfall to the chirp of the grillos in the cane-
fields, or else smoking my cigar, taking my coffee,
rocking myself in a hammock-in short, enjoy-
ing all the delights that are the very heart-blood
of a guajiro, and out of the sphere of which he
can see but death, or, what is worse to him, the
feverish agitation of our Northern society. Go
and talk of the funds, of the landed interest, of
stock-jobbing, to this Sybaritę lord of the wilder-
284 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ness, who can live all the year round on luscious
bananas and delicious cocoa-nuts which he is not
even at the trouble of planting ; who has the best
tobacco in the world to smoke; who replaces to-
day the horse he had yesterday by a better one,
chosen from the first caballada he meets; who
requires no further protection from the cold than
a pair of linen trousers, in that favored clime
where the seasons roll on in one perennial sum-
mer ; who, more than all this, finds at eve, under
the rustling palm-trees, pensive beauties, eager to
reward with their smiles the one who murmurs in
their ears those three words, ever new, ever beau-
tiful, 'Yo te quiero.'»
VI.
MR. GOTTSCHALK's return to America in Feb-
ruary, 1862, was celebrated by a concert in Irving
Hall, on the anniversary of his debut in New
York. This was the beginning of another brill-
iant musical series, in pursuance of which he ap-
peared in every prominent city of the country.
While many found fault with Gottschalk for de-
scending to pure "claptrap" and bravura playing,
for using his great powers to merely superficial and
unworthy ends, he seemed to retain as great a hold
as ever over the masses of concert-goers. Gott-
schalk himself, with his epicurean, easy-going na-
ture, laughed at the lectures read him by the critics
and connoisseurs, who would have him follow out
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
285
ideals for which he had no taste. It was like
asking the butterfly to live the life of the bee.
Great as were the gifts of the artist, it was not to
be expected that these would be pursued in lines
not consistent with the limitations of his temper-
ament. Gottschalk appears to have had no de-
sire except to amuse and delight the world,
and to have been foreign to any loftier musical
aspiration, if we may judge by his own record-
ed words. He passed through life as would a
splendid wild singing - bird, making music be-
cause it was the law of his being, but never di-
recting that talent with conscious energy to some
purpose beyond itself.
In 1863 family misfortunes and severe illness
of himself coöperated to make the year vacant of
musical doings, but instantly he recovered he was
engaged by M. Strakosch to give another series
of concerts in the leading Eastern cities. With-
out attempting to linger over his career for the
next two years, let us pass to his second expedi-
tion to the tropics in 1865. Four years were
spent in South America, each country that he
visited vieing with the other in doing him honor.
Magnificent gifts were heaped on him by his en-
thusiastic Spanish-American admirers, and life
was one continual ovation.
In Peru he gave
sixty concerts, and was presented with a costly
decoration of gold, diamond, and pearl. In Chili
the Government voted him a grand gold medal,
286 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
which the board of public schools, the board of
visitors of the hospitals, and the municipal govern-
ment of Valparaiso supplemented by gold medals,
in recognition of Gottschalk's munificence in the
benefit concerts he gave for various public and hu-
mane institutions. The American pianist, through
the whole of his career, had shown the traditional
benevolence of his class in offering his services to
the advancement of worthy objects. A similar re-
ception awaited Gottschalk in Montevideo, where
the artist became doubly the object of admiration
by the substantial additions he made to the popu-
lar educational fund. While in this city he or-
ganized and conducted a great musical festival in
which three hundred musicians engaged, exclu-
sive of the Italian Opera company then at Monte-
video.
The spring of 1869 brought Gottschalk to the
last scene of his musical triumphs, for the span of
his career was about to close over him. Rio Ja-
neiro, the capital of Brazil, gave Gottschalk an
ardent reception, which made this city properly
the culmination of his toils and triumphs. Gott-
schalk wrote that his performances created such a
furore that boxes commanded a premium of
seventy-five dollars, and single seats fetched
twenty-five. He was frequently entertained by
Dom Pedro at the palace ; in every way the Bra-
zilians testified their lavish admiration of his
artistic talents. In the midst of his success Gott-
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
287
ness.
schalk was seized with yellow fever, and brought
very low. Indeed, the report came back to New
York that he was dead, a report, however, which
his own letters, written from the bed of convales-
scence, soon contradicted.
In October of 1869 Gottschalk was appointed
by the emperor to take the leadership of a great
festival, in which eight hundred performers in or-
chestra and chorus would take part. Indefatig-
able labor, in rehearsing his musicians and organ-
izing the almost innumerable details of such an
affair, acted on a frame which had not yet re-
covered its strength from a severe attack of ill-
With difficulty he dragged himself through
the tedious preparation, and when he stood up to
conduct the first concert of the festival, on the
evening of November 26, he was so weak that he
could scarcely stand. The next day he was too
ill to rise, and, though he forced himself to go
to the opera-house in the evening, he was so
weak as to be unable to conduct the music, and
he had to be driven back to his hotel. The
best medical skill watched over him, but his
hour had come, and after three weeks of severe
suffering he died, December 18, 1869. The fun-
eral solemnities at the Cathedral of Rio were of
the most imposing character, and all the indi-
cations of really heart-felt sorrow were shown
among the vast crowd of spectators, for Gott-
schalk had quickly endeared himself to the pub-
288 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
lic both as man and artist. At the time of Gott-
schalk's death, it was his purpose to set sail for
Europe at the earliest practicable moment, to
secure the publication of some of his more im-
portant works, and the production of his operas,
of which he had the finished scores of not less
than six.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an artist and
composer whose gifts were never more than half
developed ; for his native genius as a musician
was of the highest order. Shortly before he
died, at the age of forty, he seemed to have ri-
pened into more earnest views and purposes, and,
had he lived to fulfill his prime, it is reasonable
to hazard the conjecture that he would have
richly earned a far loftier niche in the pantheon
of music than can now be given him. A rich,
pleasure-loving, Oriental temperament, which
tended to pour itself forth in dreams instead of
action ; vivid emotional sensibilities, which en-
abled him to exhaust all the resources of pleasure
where imagination stimulates sense; and a thor-
ough optimism in his theories, which saw every-
thing at its best, tended to blunt the keen
ambition which would otherwise inevitably have
stirred the possessor of such artistic gifts. Gott-
schalk fell far short of his possibilities, though
he was the greatest piano executant ever produced
by our own country. He might have dazzled the
world even as he dazzled his own partial country-
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
289
men. His style as a pianist was sparkling, dash-
ing, showy, but, in the judgment of the most
judicious, he did not appear to good advantage in
comparison with Thalberg, in whom a perfect,
technique was dominated by a conscious intel-
lectualism, and a high ideal, passionless but se-
verely beautiful.
Gottschalk's idiosyncrasy as a composer ran
in parallel lines with that of the player. Most of
the works of this musician are brilliant, charm-
ing, tender, melodious, full of captivating excel-
lence, but bright with the flash of fancy, rather
than strong with the power of imagination. We
do not find in his piano-forte pieces any of that
subtile soul-searching force which penetrates to
the deepest roots of thought and feeling. Sundry
musical cynics were wont to crush Gottschalk's
individuality into the coffin of a single epigram :
“A musical bonbon to tickle the palates of senti-
mental women.” But this falls as far short of
justice as the enthusiasın of many of his admirers
overreaches it. The easy and genial tempera-
ment of the man, his ability to seize the things
of life on their bright side, and a naive indolence
which indisposed the artist to grapple with the
severest obligations of an art life, prevented Gott-
schalk from attaining the greatness possible to
him, but they contributed to make him singularly
lovable, and to justify the passionate attachment
which he inspired in most of those who knew him
290 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
well. But, with all of Gottschalk's limitations,
he must be considered the most noticeable and
able of pianists and composers for the piano yet
produced by the United States.
FRANZ LISZT.
The Spoiled Favorite of Fortune.—His Inherited Genius.—Birth
and Early Training.–First Appearance in Concert. — Adam
Liszt and his Son in Paris.–Sensation made by the Boy's
Playing.-His Morbid Religious Sufferings.-Franz Liszt
thrown on his own Resources. -The Artistic Circle in Paris.
Liszt in the Ranks of Romanticism.-His Friends and Asso-
ciates.-Mme. D'Agoult and her Connection with Franz
Liszt. - He retires to Geneva.--Is recalled to Paris by the
Thalberg Furore.-Rivalry between the Artists, and their
Factions. ---He commences his Career as Traveling Virtuoso.
-The Blaze of Enthusiasm throughout Europe. -Schumann
on Liszt as Man aud Artist.—He ranks the Hungarian Virtu-
oso as the Superior of Thalberg.-Liszt's Generosity to his own
Countrymen.-The Honors paid to him in Pesth.-Incidents
of his Musical Wanderings.—He loses the Proceeds of Three
Hundred Concerts.—Contributes to the Completion of the Co-
logne Cathedral.—His Connection with the Becthoven Statue
at Bonn, and the Celebration of the Unveiling.-Chorley on
Liszt. -Berlioz and Liszt.-Character of the Enthusiasm
called out by Liszt as an Artist.—Remarkable Personality as
a Man.-Berlioz characterizes the Great Virtuoso in a Letter.
-Liszt ceases his Life as a Virtuoso, and becomes Chapel-
Master and Court Conductor at Weimar. --Avowed Belief in
the New School of Music, and Production of Works of this
School.—Wagner's Testimony to Liszt's Assistance. - Liszt's
Resignation of his Weimar Post after Ten Years. His Sub-
sequent Life.—He takes Holy Orders.-Liszt as a Virtuoso
and Composer. -Entitled to be placed among the most Re-
markable Men of his Age.
I.
THERE are but few names in music more
interesting than that of Franz Liszt, the spoiled
292
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
favorite of Europe for more than half a century
and without question the greatest piano-forte vir-
tuoso that ever lived. His life has passed through
the sunniest regions of fortune and success, and
from his cradle upward the gods have showered on
him their richest gifts. His career as an artist and
musician has been most remarkable, his personal
life full of romance, and his connection with
some of the most vital changes in music which
have occurred during the century interesting and
significant. From his first appearance in public,
at the age of twelve, his genius was acknowledged
with enthusiasm throughout the whole republic
of art, from Beethoven down to the obscurest
dilletante, and it may be asserted that the history
of music knows no instance of success approach-
ing that achieved by the performances of this
great player in every capital of Europe, from
Madrid to St. Petersburg. When he wearied of
the fame of the virtuoso, and became a compos-
er, not only for the piano-forte, but for the or-
chestra, his invincible energy soon overcame all
difficulties in his path, and he has lived to see
himself accepted as one of the greatest of living
musical thinkers and writers.
The life of Liszt is so crowded with important
incidents that it is difficult to condense into the
brief limits of a sketch any fairly adequate state-
ment of his career. He was born October 22,
1811, in the village of Raiding, in Hungary, and
FRANZ LISZT.
293
it is said that his father Adam Liszt, who was
in the service of the Prince Esterhazy, was firmly
convinced that the child would become distin.
guished on account of the appearance of a remark-
able comet during the year. Adam Liszt him-
self was a fine pianist, gifted indeed with a talent
which might have made him eminent had he pur-
sued it. All his ambition and hope, however,
centered in his son, in whom musical genius
quickly declared itself; and the father found
teaching this gifted child not only a labor of
love, but a task smoothed by the extraordinary
aptness of the pupil. He was accustomed to say
to the young Franz : “My son, you are destined
to realize the glorious ideal that has shone in
vain before my youth. In you that is to reach
its fulfillment which I have myself but faintly
conceived. In you shall my genius grow up and
bear fruit; I shall renew my youth in you even
after I am laid in the grave. Such prophetic
words recall the vision of the Genoese woman,
who foresaw the future greatness of the little
Nicolo Paganini, a genius who resembled in many
ways the phenomenal musical force embodied in
Franz Liszt. When the lad was very young, per-
haps not more than six, he read the “René” of
Chateaubriand, and it made such an indelible
impression on his mind that he in after years
spoke of it as having been one of the most potent
influences of his life, since it stimulated the natu-
ور
294 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ral melancholy of his character when his nature
was most flexible and impressible.
At the age of nine he made his first appear-
ance in public at Odenburg, playing Ries's con-
certo in three flats, and improvising a fantasia
so full of melodic ideas, striking rhythms, and
well-arranged harmony as to strike the audience
with surprise and admiration. Among the hear-
ers was Prince Esterhazy, who was so pleased
with the precocious talent shown that he put a
purse of fifty ducats in the young musician's
hand. Soon after this Adam Liszt went to Pres-
burg to live, and several noblemen, among whom
were Prince Esterhazy, and the Counts Amadée
and Szapary, all of them enthusiastic patrons of
music, determined to bear the burden of the
boy's musical education. To this end they agreed
to allow him six hundred florins à year for six
years. Young Liszt was placed at Vienna under
the tutelage of the celebrated pianist and teacher
Czerny, and soon made such progress that he was
able to play such works as those even of Beetho-
ven and Hummel at first sight. When Liszt did
this for one of Hummel's most difficult concertos,
at the rooms of the music publisher one day, it
created a great sensation in Vienna, and he quickly
became one of the lions of the drawing-rooms of
the capital.
Czerny himself was so much de-
lighted with the genius of his charge that he
refused to accept the three hundred florins stipu-
1
FRANZ LISZT.
295
lated for his lessons, saying he was but too well
repaid by the success of the pupil.
Though toiling with incessant industry in mu-
sical study and practice, for the boy was working
at composition with Salieri and Randhartinger,
as well as the piano-forte with Czerny, he found
time to indulge in those strange, mystical, and
fantastic dreams which have molded his whole
life, oscillating between pietistic delirium, where-
in he saw celestial visions and felt the call to a
holy life, and the most voluptuous images and as-
pirations for earthly pleasures. Franz Liszt at
this early age had a sensibility so delicate, and an
imagination so quickly kindled, that he himself
tells us no one can guess the extremes of ecstasy
and despair through which he alternately passed.
These spiritual experiences were perhaps fed by
the mysticism of Jacob Boehme, whose works
came into his possession, and furnished a most
delusive and dangerous guide for the young en-
thusiast's fancy. But, dream and suffer as he
mnight, nothing was allowed to quench the ardor
of his musical studies.
Eighteen months were passed in diligent labor
under the guidance of the masters, who found
teaching almost unnecessary, as the wonderful
lad needed but a hint to work out for himself the
most difficult problems, and he toiled so inces-
santly that he often became conscious of the
change of day into night only by the failure of
20
296 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
the light and the coming of the candles. Finally,
by advice of Salieri, after eighteen months of
labor, he determined to appear in concert in
Vienna. On this occasion the audience was com-
posed of the most distinguished people of Vienna,
drawn thither to hear the young musical wonder
of whom every one talked. Among the hearers
was Beethoven, who after the concert gave the
proud boy the most cordial praise, and prophesied
a great career for him.
The elder Liszt was already in Paris, and it
was determined that Franz should go to that city,
to avail himself of the instructions of Cherubini,
at the Conservatoire, who as a teacher of counter-
point had no equal in Europe. The Prince Met-
ternich sent letters of the warmest recommenda-
tion, but they were of no avail, for Cherubini,
who was singularly whimsical and obstinate in his
notions, refused to accept the new candidate, on
account of the rule of the Conservatoire exclud-
ing pupils of foreign birth, a plea which the
famous director did not hesitate to break when
he chose. Franz, however, continued his stud-
ies under Reicha and Paer, and, while the gates
of the Conservatoire were closed, all the salons
of Paris opened to receive him. Everywhere he
was fêted, courted, caressed. This fair-haired,
blue-eyed lad, with the seal of genius burning
on his face, had made the social world mad over
him. The young adventurer was sailing in a
FRANZ LISZT.
297
treacherous channel, full of dangerous reefs.
Would he, in the homage paid to him, an un-
matured youth, by scholars, artists, wealth, beau-
ty, and rank, forgot in mere self-love and van-
ity his high obligations to his art and the sin-
cere devotion which alone could wrest from art
its richest guerdon ? This problem seems to
have troubled his father, for he determined to
take his young Franz away from the palace of
Circe. The boy had already made an attempt at
composition in the shape of an operetta, in one
act, “Don Sanche," which was very well received
at the Academie Royale. Adolph Nourrit, the
great singer, had led the young composer on the
stage, where he was received with thunders of ap-
plause by the audience, and was embraced with
transport by Rudolph Kreutzer, the director of
the orchestra.
Adam Liszt and his son went to England, and
spent about six months in giving concerts in Lon-
don and other cities. Franz was less than four-
teen years old, but the pale, fragile, slender boy
had, in the deep melancholy which stamped the
noble outline of his face, an appearance of matu-
rity that belied his years. English audiences
everywhere received him with admiration, but
he seemed to have lost all zest for the intoxi-
cating wine of public favor. A profound gloom
stole over him, and we even hear of hints at an
attempt to commit suicide. Adam Liszt attrib-
298 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
uted it to the sad English climate, which Hein-
rich Heine cursed with such unlimited bitter-
ness, and took his boy back again to sunnier
France. But the dejection darkened and deep-
ened, threatening even to pass into epilepsy. It
assumed the form of religious enthusiasm, alter-
nating with fits of remorse as of one who had
committed the unpardonable sin, and sometimes
expressed itself in a species of frenzy for the mo-
nastic life. These strange experiences alarmed
the father, and, in obedience to medical advice, he
took the ailing, half-hysterical lad to Boulogne-
sur-Mer, for sea-bathing.
II,
WHILE by the seaside Franz Liszt lost the
father who had loved him with the devotion of
father and mother combined. This fresh stroke
of affliction deepened his dejection, and finally
resulted in a fit of severe illness. When he was
convalescent new views of life seemed to inspire
him. He was now entirely thrown on his own
resources for support, for Adam Liszt had left
his affairs so deeply involved that there was but
little left for his son and widow. A powerful
nature, turned awry by unhealthy broodings, is
often rescued from its own mental perversities
by the sense of some new responsibility sudden-
ly imposed on it. Boy as Liszt was, the Titan
in him had already shown itself in the agonies
FRANZ LISZT.
299
and struggles which he had undergone, and, now
that the necessity of hard work suddenly came,
the atmosphere of turmoil and gloom began to
clear under the imminent practical burden of
life. He set resolutely to work composing and
giving concerts. The religious mania under
which he had rested for a while turned his
thoughts to sacred music, and most of his com-
positions were masses. But the very effort of re-
sponsible toil set, as it were, a background against
which he could appoint the true place and dimen-
sions of his art work. There was another dis-
turbance, however, which now stirred up his
excitable mind. He fell madly in love with a
lady of high rank, and surrendered his young
heart entirely to this new passion. The unfortu-
nate issue of this attachment, for the lady was
much older than himself, and laughed with a
gentle mockery at the infatuation of her young
adorer, made Liszt intensely unhappy and mis-
anthropical, but it did not prevent him from
steady labor. Indeed, work became all the more
welcome, as it served to distract his mind from
its amorous pains, and his fantastic musings, in-
stead of feeding on themselves, expressed them-
selves in his art. Certainly no healthier sign of
one beginning to clothe himself in his right mind
again can easily be imagined.
Liszt was now twenty years of age, and had
regularly settled in Paris. He became acquainted
300
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
intimately with the leaders of French literature,
and was an habitué of the brilliant circles which
gathered these great minds night after night.
Lamartine and Chateaubriand were yielding place
to a young and fiery school of writers and think-
ers, but cordially clasped hands with the succes-
sors whom they themselves had made possible.
Mme. George Sand, Balzac, Dumas, Victor Hugo,
and others were just then beginning to stir in
the mental revolution which they made famous.
Liszt felt' a deep interest in the literary and scien-
tific interests of the day, and he threw himself
into the new movement with great enthusiasm,
for its strong wave moved art as well as letters
with convulsive throes. The musician found in
this fresh impulse something congenial to his
own fiery, restless, aspiring nature. He entered
eagerly into all the intellectual movements of
the day. He became a St. Simonian and such
a hot-headed politician that, had he not been
an artist, and as such considered a harmless
fanatic, he would perhaps have incurred some
penalties. Liszt has left us, in his “Life of
Chopin," and his letters, some very vivid portrai-
tures of the people and the events, the fascinating
literary and artistic reunions, and the personal
experiences which made this part of his life so
interesting; but, tempting as it is, we can not lin-
ger. There can be no question that this section of
his career profoundly colored his whole life, and
FRANZ LISZT.
301
that the influence of Victor Hugo, Balzac, and
Mme. George Sand is very perceptible in his com-
positions not merely in their superficial tone and
character, but in the very theory on which they
are built. Liszt thenceforward cut loose from all
classic restraints, and dared to fling rules and
canons to the winds, except so far as his artistic
taste approved them. The brilliant and daring
coterie, defying conventionality and the dull de-
corum of social law, in which our artist lived,
wrought also another change in his character.
Liszt had hitherto been almost austere in his self-
denial, in restraint of passion and license, in a re-
ligious purity of life, as if he dwelt in the cold
shadow of the monastery, not knowing what mo-
ment he should disappear within its gates. There
was now to be a radical change.
One of the brilliant members of the coterie in
which he lived a life of such keen mental activity
was Countess D’Agoult, who afterward became
famous in the literary world as "Daniel Stern.”
Beautiful, witty, accomplished, imaginative, thor-
oughly in sympathy with her friend George Sand
in her views of love and matrimony, and not less
daring in testifying to her opinion by actions, the
name of Mme. D'Agoult had already been widely
bruited abroad in connection with more than one
romantic escapade. In the powerful personality
of young Franz Liszt, instinct with an artistic
genius which aspired like an eagle, vital with a
302
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
resolute, reckless will, and full of a magnetic en-
ergy that overflowed in everything-looks, move-
ments, talk, playing—the somewhat fickle nature
of Mme. D’Agoult was drawn to the artist like
steel to a magnet. Liszt, on the other hand, easily
yielded to the refined and delicious sensuousness
of one of the most accomplished women of her
time, who to every womanly fascination added
the rarest mental gifts and high social place.
The mutual passion soon culminated in a tie
which lasted for many years, and was perhaps as
faithfully observed by both parties as could be
expected of such an irregular connection. Three
children were the offspring of this attachment, a
son who died, and two daughters, one of whom
became the wife of M. Ollivier, the last imperial
prime minister of France, and the other succes-
sively Mme. Von Bülow and Mme. Wagner, un-
der which latter title she is still known. The
chroniques scandaleuses of Paris and other great
cities of Europe are full of racy scandals purport-
ing to connect the name of Liszt with well-known
charming and beautiful women, but, aside from
the uncertainty which goes with such rumors,
this is not a feature of Liszt’s life on which it is
our purpose to dilate. The errors of such a man,
exposed by his temperament and surroundings to
the fiercest breath of temptation, should be rather
veiled than opened to the garish day. Of the
connection with Mme. D’Agoult something has
FRANZ LISZT.
303
been briefly told, because it had an important
influence on his art career. Though the Church
had never sanctioned the tie, there is every reason
to believe that the lady's power over Liszt was
consistently used to restrain his naturally eccen-
tric bias, and to keep his thoughts fixed on the
loftiest art ideals.
III.
Soon after Liszt's connection with Mme.
D'Agoult began, he retired with his devoted com-
panion to Geneva, Switzerland, a city always cele-
brated in the annals of European literature and
art. In the quiet and charming atmosphere of
this city our artist spent two years, busy for the
most part in composing. He had already at-
tained a superb rank as a pianist, and of those
virtuosos who had then exhibited their talents in
Paris no one was considered at all worthy to be
compared with Liszt except Chopin. Aside from
the great mental grasp, the opulent imagination,
the fire and passion, the dazzling technical skill of
the player, there was a vivid personality in Liszt
as a man which captivated audiences. This ele-
ment dominated his slightest action. He strode
over the concert stage with the haughty step of a
despot who ruled with a sway not to be contested.
Tearing his gloves from his fingers and hurling
them on the piano, he would seat himself with a
proud gesture, run his fingers through his waving
blonde locks, and then attack the piano with the
304
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
vehemence of a conqueror taking his army into
action. Much of this manner was probably the
outcome of natural temperament, something the
result of affectation ; but it helped to add to the
glamour with which Liszt always held his au-
diences captive. When he left Paris for a studi-
ous retirement at Geneva, the throne became va-
cant. By and by there came a contestant for the
seat, a player no less remarkable in many respects
than Liszt himself, Sigismond Thalberg, whose
performances aroused Paris, alert for a new sen-
sation, into an enthusiasm which quickly mounted
to boiling heat. Rumors of the danger threatened
to his hitherto acknowledged ascendancy reached
Liszt in his Swiss retreat. The artist's ambition
was stirred to the quick ; he could not sleep at
night with the thought of this victorious rival
who was snatching his laurels, and he hastened
back to Paris to meet Thalberg on his own ground.
The latter, however, had already left Paris, and
Liszt only felt the ground-swell of the storm he
had raised. There was a hot division of opinion
among the Parisians, as there had been in the days
of Gluck and Piccini. Society was divided into
Lisztians and Thalbergians, and to indulge in
this strife was the favorite amusement of the
fashionable world. Liszt proceeded to reëstablish
his place by a series of remarkable concerts, in
which he introduced to the public some of the
works wrought out during his retirement, among
FRANZ LISZT.
305
them transcriptions from the songs of Schubert
and the symphonies of Beethoven, in which the
most free and passionate poetic spirit was ex-
pressed through the medium of technical difficul-
ties in the scoring before unknown to the art of
the piano-forte. There can be no doubt that the
influence of Thalberg's rivalry on Liszt's mind
was a strong force, and suggested new combina-
tions. Without having heard Thalberg, our ar-
tist had already divined the secret of his effects,
and borrowed from them enough to give a new
impulse to an inventive faculty which was fertile
in expedients and quick to assimilate all things of
value to the uses of its own insatiable ambition.
Franz Liszt's career as a traveling virtuoso
commenced in 1837, and lasted for twelve years.
Hitherto he had resisted the impulsion to such
a course, all his desires rushing toward composi-
tion, but the extraordinary rewards promised
coöperated with the spur of rivalry to overcome
all scruples. The first year of these art travels
was made memorable by the great inundation
of the Danube, which caused so much suffering
at Pesth. Thousands of people were rendered
homeless, and the scene was one that appealed
piteously to the humanitarian mind. The heart
of Franz Liszt burned with sympathy, and he
devoted the proceeds of his concerts for nearly
two months to the alleviation of the woes of his
countrymen. A princely sum was contributed
306
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ers.
by the artist, which went far to assist the suffer-
The number of occasions on which Liszt
gave his services to charity was legion. It is
credibly stated that the amount of benefactions
contributed by his benefit concerts, added to the
immense sums which he directly disbursed, would
have made him several times a millionaire.
The blaze of enthusiasm which Liszt kindled
made his track luminous throughout the musical
centers of Europe. Cæsar-like, his very arrival
was a victory, for it aroused an indescribable
ferment of agitation, which rose at his concerts
to wild excesses. Ladies of the highest rank tore
their gloves to strips in the ardor of their ap-
plause, flung their jewels on the stage instead of
bouquets, shrieked in ecstasy and sometimes
fainted, and made a wild rush for the stage at
the close of the music to see Liszt, and obtain
some of the broken strings of the piano, which
the artist had ruined in the heat of his play, as
precious relics of the occasion. The stories told
of the Liszt craze among the ladies of Germany
and Russia are highly amusing, and have a value
as registering the degree of the effect he pro-
duced on impressible minds. Even sober and
judicious critics who knew well whereof they
spoke yielded to the contagion. Schumann
writes of him, apropos of his Dresden and Leip-
zig concerts in 1840 : • The whole audience
grected his appearance with an enthusiastic
FRANZ LISZT.
307
storm of applause, and then he began to play.
I had heard him before, but an artist is a differ-
ent thing in the presence of the public compared
with what he appears in the presence of a few.
The fine open space, the glitter of light, the
elegantly dressed audience all this elevates the
frame of mind in the giver and receiver. And
now the demon's power began to awake ; he first
played with the public as if to try it, then gave
it something more profound, until every single
member was enveloped in his art ; and then the
whole mass began to rise and fall precisely as he
willed it. I never found any artist except Paga-
nini to possess in so high a degree this power of
subjecting, elevating, and leading the public. It
is an instantaneous variety of wildness, tender-
ness, boldness, and airy grace; the instrument
glows under the hand of its master. . . It is
most easy to speak of his outward appearance.
People have often tried to picture this by com-
paring Liszt's head to Schiller's or Napoleon's;
and the comparison so far holds good, in that
extraordinary men possess certain traits in com-
mon, such as an expression of energy and
strength of will in the eyes and mouth. He has
some resemblance to the portraits of Napoleon as
a young general, pale, thin, with a remarkable
profile, the whole significance of his appearance
culminating in his head. While listening to
Liszt's playing, I have often almost imagined
308 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
myself as listening to one I heard long before.
But this art is scarcely to be described. It is
not this or that style of piano-forte playing ; it
is rather the outward expression of a daring
character, to whom Fate has given as instru-
ments of victory and command, not the danger-
ous weapon of war, but the peaceful ones of art.
No matter how many and great artists we possess
or have seen pass before us of recent years,
though some of them equal him in single points,
all must yield to him in energy and boldness.
People have been very fond of placing Thalberg
in the lists beside him, and then drawing com-
parisons. But it is only necessary to look at
both heads to come to a conclusion. I remember
the remark of a Viennese designer who said, not
inaptly, that his countryman's head resembled
that of a handsome countess with a man's nose,
while of Liszt he observed that he might sit to
every painter for a Grecian god. There is a simi-
lar difference in their art. Chopin stands nearer
to Liszt as a player, for at least he loses nothing
beside him in fairy-like grace and tenderness;
next to him Paganini, and, among women, Mme.
Malibran ; from these Liszt himself says he has
learned the most. .. Liszt’s most genial per-
formance was yet to come, Weber's Concert-
stück,' which he played at the second perform-
ance. Virtuoso and public seemed to be in the
freshest mood possible on that evening, and the
FRANZ LISZT.
309
enthusiasm during and after his playing almost
exceeded anything hitherto known here. Al-
though Liszt grasped the piece from the begin-
ing with such force and grandeur that an attack
on the battle-field seemed to be in question, yet
he carried this on with continually increasing
power, until the passage where the player seems
to stand at the summit of the orchestra, leading
it forward in triumph. Here, indeed, he resem-
bled that great commander to whom he has been
compared, and the tempestuous applause that
greeted him was not unlike an adoring Vive
l'Empereur.'
Flattering to his pride, however, as were the
universal honors bestowed on the artist, none
were so grateful as those from his own country-
men. The philanthropy of his conduct had made
a deep impression on the Hungarians. Two cit-
ies, Pesth and Odenburg, created him an honorary
citizen ; a patent of nobility was solicited for him
by the comitat of Odenburg ; and the “sword
of honor,” according to Hungarian cutsom, was
presented to him with due solemnities. A brief
account from an Hungarian journal of the time is
of interest.
s« The national feeling of the Magyars is well
known; and proud are they of that star of the
first magnitude which arose out of their nation.
Over the countries of Europe the fame of the
Hungarian Liszt came to them before they had
310 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
as yet an opportunity of admiring him. The
Danube was swollen by rains, Pesth was inun-
dated, thousands were mourning the loss of
friends and relations or of all their property.
During his absence in Milan Liszt learned that
many of his countrymen were suffering from
absolute want. His resolution was taken. The
smiling heaven of Italy, the dolce far niente of
Southern life, could not detain him. The follow-
ing morning he had quitted Milan and was on
his way to Vienna. He performed for the bene-
fit of those who had suffered by the inundation
at Pesth. His art was the horn of plenty from
which streamed forth blessings for the afflicted.
Eighteen months afterward he came to Pesth, not
as the artist in search of pecuniary advantage,
but as a Magyar. He played for the Hungarian
national theatre, for the musical society, for the
poor of Pesth and of Odenburg, always before
crowded houses, and the proceeds, fully one hun-
dred thousand francs, were appropriated for these
purposes. Who can wonder that admiration and
pride should arise to enthusiasm in the breasts of
his grateful countrymen ? He was complimented
by serenades, garlands were thrown to him ; in
short, the whole population of Pesth neglected
nothing to manifest their respect, gratitude, and
affection. But these honors, which might have
been paid to any other artist of high distinction,
did not satisfy them. They resolved to bind him
FRANZ LISZT.
311
for ever to the Hungarian nation from which he
sprang.
The token of manly honor in Hungary
is a sword, for every Magyar has the right to
wear a sword, and avails himself of that right.
It was determined that their celebrated country-
man should be presented with the Hungarian
sword of honor. The noblemen appeared at the
theatre, in the rich costume they usually wear
before the emperor, and presented Liszt, midst
thunders of applause from the whole assembled
people, with a costly sword of honor.” It was
also proposed to erect a bronze statue of him in
Pesth, but Liszt persuaded his countrymen to
give the money to a struggling young artist in-
stead.
IV.
In the autumn of 1840 Liszt went from Paris,
at which city he had been playing for some time,
to the north of Germany, where he at first found
the people colder than he had been wont to expe-
rience. But this soon disappeared before the
magic of his playing, and even the Hamburgers,
notorious for a callous, bovine temperament, gave
wild demonstrations of pleasure at his concerts.
He specially pleased the worthy citizens by his
willingness to play off-hand, without notes, any
work which they called for, a feat justly regarded
as a stupendous exercise of memory. From Ham-
burg he went to London, where he gave nine con-
certs in a fortnight, and stormed the affections and
21
312
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
admiration of the English public as he had al-
ready conquered the heart of Continental Europe.
While in London a calamity befell him.
A ras-
cally agent in whom he implicitly trusted disap-
peared with the proceeds of three hundred con-
certs, an enormous sum, amounting to nearly fifty
thousand pounds sterling. Liszt bore this reverse
with cheerful spirits and scorned the condolences
with which his friends sought to comfort him,
saying he could easily make the money again, that
his wealth was not in money, but in the power of
making money.
The artist's musical wanderings were nearly
without ceasing. His restless journeying carried
him from Italy to Denmark, and from the British
Islands to Russia, and everywhere the art and social
world bowed at his feet in recognition of a genius
which in its way could only be designated by the
term "colossal.” It seems cumbersome and mo-
notonous to repeat the details of successive tri-
umphs; but some of them are attended by feat-
ures of peculiar interest. He offered, in the sum-
mer of 1841, to give the proceeds of a concert to
the completion of the Cathedral of Cologne (who
that loves music does not rememeber Liszt's
setting of Heine's song "Im Rhein," where he
translates the glory of the Cathedral into music?).
Liszt was then staying at the island of Nonne-
worth, near Bonn, and a musical society, the
Liedertafel, resolved to escort him up to Co-
FRANZ LISZT.
313
logne with due pomp, and so made a grand ex-
cursion with a great company of invited guests
on a steamboat hired for the purpose. A fine
band of music greeted Liszt on landing, and an
extensive banquet was then served, at which
Liszt made an eloquent speech, full of wit and
feeling. The artist acceded to the desire of the
great congregation of people who had gathered
to hear him play ; and his piano was brought
into the ruined old chapel of the ancient nun-
nery, about which so many romantic Rhenish le-
gends cluster. Liszt gave a display of his won-
derful powers to the delighted multitude, and the
long-deserted hall of Nonneworth chapel, which
for many years had only heard the melancholy
call of the owl, resounded with the most magnifi-
cent music. Finally the procession with Liszt
at the head marched to the steamboat, and the
vessel glided over the bosom of the Rhine amid
the dazzling glare of fireworks and to the music
of singing and instruments. All Cologne was
assembled to meet them, and Liszt was carried
on the shoulders of his frantic admirers to his
hotel.
In common with all other great musicians,
Liszt has throughout life been a reverential ad-
mirer of the genius of Beethoven, an isolated
force in music without peer or parallel. In his
later years Liszt bitterly reproached himself be-
cause, in the vanity and impetuosity of his youth,
314
TAE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS,
he had dared to take liberties with the text of
the Beethoven sonatas. Many interesting facts
in Liszt's life connect themselves, directly or in-
directly, with Beethoven. Among these is worthy
of mention our artist's part in the Beethoven fes-
tival at Bonn in 1845, organized to celebrate the
erection of a colossal bronze statue. The enter-
prise had been languishing for a long time, when
Liszt promptly declared he would make up the
deficiency single-handed, and this he did with
great celerity. In an incredibly short time the
money was raised, and the commission put in the
hands of the sculptor Häbnel, of Dresden, one of
the foremost artists of Germany.
The programme for the celebration was drawn
up by Liszt and Dr. Spohr, who were to be the
joint conductors of the festival music. A thou-
sand difficulties intervened to embarrass the or-
ganization of the affair, the jealousies of promi-
nent singers, who revolted against the self-efface-
ment they would needs undergo, a certain truly
German parsimony in raising the money for the
expenses, and the envious litt'eness of certain
great composers and musicians, who feared that
Liszt would reap too much glory from the promi-
nence of the part he had taken in the affair.
But Liszt's energy had surmounted all these
obstacles, when finally, only a month before the
festival, which was to take place in August, it
was discovered that there was no suitable Fest.
FRANZ LISZT.
315
halle in Bonn. The committee said, “What if
the affair should not pay expenses? would they
not be personally saddled with the debt?” Liszt
promptly answered that, if the proceeds were not
sufficient, he himself would pay the cost of the
building. The architect of the Cologne Cathe-
dral was placed at the head of the work, a waste
plot of ground selected, the trees grubbed up,
timber fished up from one of the great Rhine
rafts, and the Festhalle rose with the swiftness
of Aladdin's palace. The erection of the statue
of Beethoven at his birthplace, and the musical
celebration thereof in August, 1845, one of the
most interesting events of its kind that ever oc-
curred, must be, for the most part, attributed
to the energy and munificence of Franz Liszt.
Great personages were present from all parts of
Europe, among them King William of Prussia
and Queen Victoria of England. Henry Chorley,
who has given a pretty full description of the
festival, says that Liszt's performance of Bee-
thoven's concerto in E flat was the crowning
glory of the festival, in spite of the richness and
beauty of the rest of the programme. . “I must
lastly commemorate, as the most magnificent
piece of piano-forte playing I ever heard, Dr.
Liszt's delivery of the concerto in E flat .
Whereas its deliverer restrained himself within
all the limits that the most sober classicist could
have prescribed, he still rose to a loftiness, in
.
316 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
part ascribable to the enthusiasm of time and
place, in part referable to a nature chivalresque,
proud, and poetic in no common degree, which
I have heard no other instrumentalist attain.
The triumph in the mind of the executant
sustained the triumph in the idea of the composi-
tions without strain, without spasm, but with a
breadth and depth and height such as made the
genius of the executant approach the genius of
the inventor. ... There are players, there are
poets; and as a poet Liszt was possibly never so
sublimely or genuinely inspired as in that per-
formance, which remains a bright and precious
thing in the midst of all the curiously parti-col-
ored recollections of the Beethoven festival at
Bonn."
In 1846, among Liszt's other musical experi-
ences, he played in concerts with Berlioz through-
out Austria and Southern Germany. The im-
petuous Csechs and Magyars showed their hot
Tartar blood in the passion of enthusiasm they
displayed. Berlioz relates that, at his first con-
cert at Pesth, he performed his celebrated version
of the “Rákóczy March," and there was such a
furious explosion of excitement that it wellnigh
put an end to the concert. At the end of the
performance Berlioz was wiping the perspiration
from his face in the little room off the stage, when
the door burst open, and a shabbily dressed man,
his face glowing with a strange fire, rushed in,
FRANZ LISZT.
317
.
Pardon ...
.
.
throwing himself at Berlioz's feet, his eyes brim-
ming with tears.
He kissed the composer over
and over again, and sobbed out brokenly: "Ah,
sir ! Me Hungarian
poor devil ... not
speak French ... un poco l'Italiano.
my ecstasy Ah! understand
your cannon Yes! yes ! the great battle
... Germans, dogs !” Then, striking great blows
with his fists on his chest, “In
“In my heart I carry
you ... A Frenchman, revolutionist .. know
how to write music for revolutions.” At a supper
given after the performance, Berlioz tells us Liszt
made an inimitable speech, and got so gloriously
be-champagned that it was with great difficulty
that he could be restrained from pistolling a Bo-
hemian nobleman, at two o'clock in the morning,
who insisted that he could carry off more bottles
under his belt than Liszt. But the latter played
at a concert next day at noon assuredly as he
had never played before," says Berlioz.
Before passing from that period of Liszt's
career which was distinctly that of the virtuoso,
it is proper to refer to the unique character of the
enthusiasm which everywhere followed his track
like the turmoil of a stormy sea. Europe had been
familiar with other great players, many of them
consummate artists, like Hummel, Henri Herz,
Czerny, Kalkbrenner, Field, Moscheles, and Thal-
berg, the most brilliant name of them all. But,
the feeling which these performers aroused was
318
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
pale and passionless in comparison with that
evoked by Franz Liszt. This was not merely the
outcome of Liszt as a player and musician, but
of Liszt as a man. The man always impressed
people as immeasurably bigger than what he did,
great as that was. His nature had a lavishness
that knew no bounds. He lived for every dis-
tinguished man and beautiful woman, and with
every joyous thing. He had wit and sympathy
to spare for gentle and simple, and his kindliness
was lavished with royal profusion on the scum as
well as the salt of the earth. This atmosphere
of personal grandeur radiated from him, and in-
vested his doings, musical and otherwise, with
something peculiarly fine and fascinating. And
then as a player Liszt rose above his mates as
something of a different genius, a different race,
a different world, to every one else who has ever
handled a piano. He is not to be considered
among the great composers, also pianists, who
have merely treated their instrument as an inter-
preting medium, but as a poet, who executively
employed the piano as his means of utterance and
material for creation. In mere mechanical skill,
after every one else has ended, Liszt had still
something to add, carrying every man's discovery
further. If he was surpassed by Thalberg in rich-
ness of sound, he surpassed Thalberg by a variety
of tone of which the redoubtable Viennese player
had no dream. He had his delicate, light, freak-
FRANZ LIZST.
319
ish moods in which he might stand for another
Chopin in qualities of fancy, sentiment, and fairy
brilliancy. In sweep of hand and rapidity of
finger, in fire and fineness of execution, in that
interweaving of exquisite momentary fancies
where the work admits, in a memory so vast as
to seem almost superhuman; in that lightning
quickness of view, enabling him to penetrate in-
stantaneously the meaning of a new composition,
and to light it up properly with its own inner
spirit (some touch of his own brilliancy added);
briefly, in a mastery, complete, spontaneous, en-
joying and giving enjoyment, over every style and
school of music, all those who have heard Liszt
assert that he is unapproached among players and
the traditions of players.
In a letter from Berlioz to Liszt, the writer
gives us a vivid idea of the great virtuoso's play-
ing and its effects. Berlioz is complaining of the
difficulties which hamper the giving of orchestral
concerts. After rehearsing his mishaps, he says:
“After all, of what use is such information to
you ? You can say with confidence, changing the
mot of Louis XIV, ("L'orchestre, c'est moi ; le
chaur, c'est moi; le chef c'est encore moi.” My
piano-forte sings, dreams, explodes, resounds; it
defies the flight of the most skillful forms; it has,
like the orchestra, its brazen harmonies ; like it,
and without the least preparation, it can give to
the evening breeze its cloud of fairy chords and
320 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
vague melodies. I need neither theatre, nor box
scene, nor much staging. I have not to tire
myself out at long rehearsals. I want neither a
hundred, fifty, nor twenty players. I do not even
need any music. A grand hall, a grand piano-
forte, and I am master of a grand audience.
show myself and am applauded ; my memory
awakens, dazzling fantasies grow beneath my fin-
gers. Enthusiastic acclamations answer them. I
sing Schubert's “Ave Maria," or Beethoven's
“Adelaida” on the piano, and all hearts tend
toward me, all breasts hold their breath. ... Then
come luminous bombs, the banquet of this grand
firework, and the cries of the public, and the
flowers and the crowns that rain around the priest
of harmony, shuddering on his tripod ; and the
young beauties, who, all in tears, in their divine
confusion kiss the hem of his cloak; and the sin-
cere homage drawn from serious minds and the
feverish applause torn from many; the lofty brows
that bow down, and the narrow hearts, marvel-
ing to find themselves expanding'. . . . It is a
dream, one of those golden dreams one has when
one is called Liszt or Paganini.
That such a man as this, brilliant in wit, ex-
travagant in habit and opinion, courted for his
personal fascination by every one greatest in
rank and choicest in intellect from his prodig-
ious youth to his ripe manhood, should suddenly
cease from display at the moment when his popu-
FRANZ LISZT.
321
larity was at its highest, when no rival was in
being, is a remarkable trait in Dr. Franz Liszt's
remarkable life. But this he did in 1849, by set-
tling in Weimar as conductor of the court thea-
tre, his age then being thirty-eight years.
V.
LISZT closed his career as a virtuoso, and ac-
cepted a permanent engagement at Weimar, with
the distinct purpose of becoming identified with
the new school of music which was beginning to
express itself so remarkably through Richard
Wagner. His new position enabled him to bring
works before the world which would otherwise
have had but little chance of seeing the light of
day, and he rapidly produced at brief intervals
eleven works, either for the first time, or else re-
vived from what had seemed a dead failure.
Among these works were “Lohengrin,” “Rienzi,”
and “ Tannhäuser" by Wagner, “ Benvenuto
Cellini" by Berlioz, and Schumann's “Geno-
veva,” and music to Byron's “Manfred.” Liszt's
new departure and the extraordinary band of
artists he drew around him attracted the atten-
tion of the world of music, and Weimar became a
great musical center, even as in the days of Goethe
it had been a visiting shrine for the literary pil-
grims of Europe. Thus a nucleus of bold and
enthusiastic musicians was formed whose mission
it was to preach the gospel of the new musical faith.
322
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Richard Wagner says that, after the revolution
of 1849, when he was compelled to fly for his life,
he was thoroughly disheartened as an artist, and
that all thought of musical creativeness was dead
within him. From this stagnation he was res-
cued by a friend, and that friend was Franz
Liszt. Let us tell the story in Wagner's own
words :
“I met Liszt for the first time during my
earliest stay in Paris, at a period when I had re-
nounced the hope, nay, even a wish of a Paris
reputation, and, indeed, was in a state of internal
revolt against the artistic life which I found
there. At our meeting he struck me as the most
perfect contrast to my own being and situation.
In this world into which it had been my desire
to fly from my narrow circumstances, Liszt had
grown up from his earliest age so as to be the
object of general love and admiration at a time
when I was repulsed by general coldness and
want of sympathy. In consequence, I looked
upon him with suspicion. I had no opportunity
of disclosing my being and working to him, and
therefore the reception I met with on his part
was of a superficial kind, as was indeed natural
in a man to whom every day the most divergent
impressions claimed access. But I was not in a
mood to look with unprejudiced eyes for the nat-
ural cause of this behavior, which, though friendly
and obliging in itself, could not but wound me
FRANZ LISZT.
323
I am
in the then state of my mind. I never repeated
my first call on Liszt, and, without knowing or
even wishing to know him, I was prone to look
on him as strange and adverse to my nature.
My repeated expression of this feeling was after-
ward told to him, just at the time when my
“Rienzi” at Dresden was attracting general at-
tion. He was surprised to find himself mis-
understood with such violence by a man whom
he had scarcely known, and whose acquaintance
now seemed not without value to him.
still moved when I think of the repeated and
eager attempts he made to change my opinion of
him, even before he knew any of my works. He
acted not from any artistic sympathy, but led by
the purely human wish of discontinuing a casual
disharmony between himself and another being ;
perhaps he also felt an infinitely tender misgiv-
ing of having really hurt me unconsciously. He
who knows the selfishness and terrible insensibil-
ity of our social life, and especially of the relations
of modern artists to each other, can not be struck
with wonder, nay, delight, with the treatment I
received from this remarkable man.
At
Weimar I saw him for the last time, when I was
resting for a few days in Thuringia, uncertain
whether the threatening persecution would com-
pel me to continue my flight from Germany. The
very day when my personal danger became a cer-
tainty, I saw Liszt conducting a rehearsal of my
.
.
324 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
"Tannhäuser,' and was astonished at recogniz-
ing my second self in his achievement. What
I had felt in inventing this music, he felt in per-
forming it; what I had wanted to express in
writing it down, he expressed in making it sound.
Strange to say, through the love of this rarest
friend, I gained, at the very moment of becoming
homeless, a real home for my art which I had
hitherto longed for and sought for in the wrong
place. . . . At the end of my last stay in Paris,
when, ill, miserable, and despairing, I sat brood-
ing over my fate, my eye fell on the score of
my 'Lohengrin,' which I had totally forgotten.
Suddenly I felt something like compassion that
this music should never sound from off the death-
pale paper. Two words I wrote to Liszt; the
answer was that preparation was being made for
the performance on the grandest scale which the
limited means of Weimar permitted. Every-
thing that man or circumstances could do was
done to make the work understood. ... Errors
and misconceptions impeded the desired success.
What was to be done to supply what was want-
ed, so as to further the true understanding on all
sides and, with it, the ultimate success of the
work ? Liszt saw it at once, and did it. He
gave to the public his own impression of the
work in a manner the convincing eloquence and
overpowering efficacy of which remain unequaled.
Success was his reward, and with this success he
FRANZ LISZT.
325
now approaches me, saying, “Behold, we have
come so far! Now create us a new work, that
we may go still farther.” »
Liszt remained at Weimar for ten years, when
he resigned his place on account of certain narrow
jealousies and opposition offered to his plans.
Since 1859 he has lived at Weimar, Pesth, and
Rome, always the center of a circle of pupils and
admirers, and, though no longer occupying an
active place in the world, full of unselfish devotion
to the true interests of music and musicians. In
1868 he took minor orders in the Roman priest-
hood. Since his early youth Liszt had been the
subject of strong paroxysms of religious feeling,
which more than once had nearly carried him into
monastic life, and thus his brilliant career would
have been lost to the world and to art. After he
had gained every reward that can be lavished on
genius, and tasted to the very dregs the wine of
human happiness, so far as that can come of a
splendid prosperity and the adoration of the mu-
sical world for nearly half a century, a sudden
revulsion seems to have recalled again to the sur-
face that profound religious passion which the
glory and pleasure of his busy life had never
entirely suppressed. It was by no means aston-
ishing to those who knew Liszt’s life best that he
should have taken holy orders.
Abbé Liszt lives a portion of each year with
the Prince-Cardinal Höhenlohe, in the well-known.
326 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
Villa d'Este, near Rome, à château with whose
history much romance is interwoven. He is said
to be very zealous in his religious devotions, and
to spend much time in reading and composing.
He rarely touches the piano, unless inspired by
the presence of visitors whom he thoroughly
likes, and even in such cases less for his own
pleasure than for the gratification of his friends.
Even his intimate friends would hardly venture
to ask Liszt to play. His summer months are
divided between Pesth and Weimar, where his
advent always makes a glad commotion among
the artistic circles of these respective cities. Of
the various pupils who have been formed by Liszt,
Hans von Bülow, who married his daughter Cosi-
ma, is the most distinguished, and shares with
Rubenstein the honor of being the first of Euro-
pean pianists, now that Liszt has for so long a
time withdrawn himself from the field of com-
petition.
VI.
Liszt has been a very industrious and prolific
writer, his works numbering thirty-one composi-
tions for the orchestra ; seven for the piano-forte
and orchestra ; two for piano and violin.; nine for
the organ; thirteen masses, psalms, and other
sacred music ; two oratorios ; fifteen cantatas and
chorals ; sixty-three songs; and one hundred and
seventy-nine works for the piano-forte proper. The
bulk of these compositions, the most important of
FRANZ LISZT.
327
them at least, were produced in the first forty
years of his life, and testify to enormous energy
and capacity for work, as they came into being
during his active period as a virtuoso. In addi-
tion to his musical works, Liszt has shown distin-
guished talent in letters, and his articles and pam-
phlets, notably the monographs on Robert Franz,
Chopin, and the Music of the Gypsies, indicate
that, had he not chosen to devote himself to mu-
sic, he might have made himself an enviable name
in literature.
Perhaps no better characterization of Liszt
could be made than to call him the musical Victor
Hugo of his age. In both these great men we
find the same restless and burning imagination, a
quickness of sensibility easily aroused to vehe-
mence, a continual reaching forward toward the
new and untried and impatience of the old, the
same great versatility, the same unequaled com-
mand of all the resources of their respective
crafts, and, until within the last twenty years, the
same ceaseless fecundity. Of Liszt as a player it
is not necessary to speak further. Suffice it that
he is acknowledged to have been, while pursuing
the path of the virtuoso, not only great, but the
greatest in the records of art, with the possible
exception of Paganini. To the possession of a
technique which united all the best qualities of
other players, carrying each a step further, he
added a powerful and passionate imagination
22
328 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
which illuminated the work before him. Wagner
wrote of him: “He who has had frequent oppor-
tunities, particularly in a friendly circle, of hear-
ing Liszt play, for instance, Beethoven, must have
understood that this was not mere reproduction,
but production. The actual point of division
between these two things is not so easily deter-
mined as most people believe, but so much I have
ascertained without a doubt, that, in order to re-
produce Beethoven, one must produce with him.”
It was this quality which made Liszt such a vital
interpreter of other composers, as well as such a
brilliant performer of his own works. As a com-
poser for the piano Franz Liszt has been accused
of sacrificing substantial charm of motive for the
creation of the most gigantic technical difficulties,
designed for the display of his own skill. This
charge is best answered by a study of his tran-
scriptions of songs and symphonies, which, diffi-
cult in an extreme degree, are yet rich in no less
excess with musical thought and fullness of mu-
sical color. He transcribed the “ Études” of Pa-
ganini, it is true, as a sort of tour de force, and no
one has dared to attempt them in the concert
room but himself; but for the most part Liszt's
piano-forte writings are full of substance in their
being as well as splendid elaboration in their
form. This holds good no less of the purely
original compositions, like the concertos and
“Rhapsodies Hongroises,” than of the transcrip-
FRANZ LISZT.
329
66
tions and paraphrases of the Lied, the opera, and
symphony
As à composer for the orchestra Liszt has
spent the ripest period of his life, and attained a
deservedly high rank. His symphonies belong to
what has been called, for want of a better name,
programme music," or music which needs the
key of the story or legend to explain and justify
the composition. This classification may yet be
very misleading. Liszt does not, like Berlioz, refer
every feature of the music to a distinct event,
emotion, or dramatic situation, but concerns him-
self chiefly with the pictorial and symbolic bear-
ings of his subject. For example, the "Mazeppa
symphony, based on Victor Hugo's poem, gets its
significance, not in view of its description of Ma-
zeppa's peril and rescue, but because this famous
ride becomes the symbol of man :
- Lié vivant
sur la croupe fatale, Genie, ardent Coursier."
The spiritual life of this thought burns with sub-
tile suggestions throughout the whole symphony.
Liszt has not been merely a devoted adherent
of the “ Music of the Future as expressed in
operatic form, but he has embodied his belief in
the close alliance of poetry and music in his sym-
phonies and transcriptions of songs. Anything
more pictorial, vivid, descriptive, and passionate
can not easily be fancied. It is proper also to
say in passing that the composer shows a com-
mand over the resources of the orchestra similar
330 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
ear'.
to his mastery of the piano, though at times a
tendency to violent and strident effects offends the
Franz Liszt, take him for all in all, must
be regarded as one of the most remarkable men of
the last half century, a personality so stalwart,
picturesque, and massive as to be not only a land-
mark in music, but an imposing figure to those
not specially characterized by their musical sym-
pathies. His influence on his art has been deep
and widespread ; his connection with some of the
most important movements of the last two gen-
erations well marked ; and his individuality a
fact of commanding force in the art circles of
nearly every country of Europe, where art bears
any vital connection with social and public life.

ANTON GREGORIEVITCH RUBINSTEIN.
RUBINSTEIN
The Striking Personality of the Man.--His Early Training -
Self-support and Independence.-Court Pianist.–Founding
of the Great Russian Couservatory.—The American Tour.-
The Rival of Liszt. ---Characteristics as a Player.- Estimate
of Rubinstein as a Composer.
MANY of the giants in music have borne the
stamp of a salient personality molded in the fea-
tures of the face and etched in its lines. What
was true of Gluck, Handel, Beethoven, Liszt, Wag-
ner, and Gounod is not less true of Rubinstein.
The resemblance of the great Russian, indeed, to
Beethoven is so marked as to provoke comment.
The same rugged features with compressed lips
and massive chin, the same square, beetling brow,
the same brooding eyes, which look at us from a
Beethoven portrait, became familiar to thousands
of Americans twenty years since. The personal
force of temperament streams from the fingers of
the human battery into Rubinstein's art-work
and makes it electric, as so many of us will recall
with a tingle of reminiscent pleasure. Rubinstein
the player is more than mere interpreter. Crea-
tive passion always vitalizes, sometimes distorts,
his readings, but sets him apart from other vir-
tuosi. He himself disdains the title of virtuoso,
insisting that he plays only as a musician, for,
332
TIIE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
consummate in the mechanics of his art, he yet
despises the fanfaronade of the concert-stoo!.
The key-note of sincerity and simplicity tunes
the whole man as artist and maker.
Anton Gregorievitch Rubinstein, born Novem-
ber 16, 1829, in Vichvatijnetz, a Bessarabian village
of south west Russia, comes of middle-class family,
Hebraic in blood though Orthodox in faith. The
child inherited musical temperament from his
mother, herself an excellent pianist, who gave
him his first lessons when scarcely more than a
baby. At the age of eight he could play the mas-
terpieces of Mozart, Hummel, Herz, Moschelles,
Kalkbrenner, and Czerny, and from that time he
became the pupil of Alexander Villoing, the lead-
ing Moscow professor. Five years with this mas-
ter finished his technical schooling on the piano.
For three years of the period he traveled with
Villoing as an “infant prodigy” through Europe, ,
and Rubinstein has enthusiastically attributed to
this teacher's method the great qualities of his
own technique, at once so solid and so flexible.
It was at Paris during this tour that Liszt met
the young player and gave him much sage advice,
prophesying that he would inherit the mantle of
his own greatness. So, too, in London the lad,
though he failed to set the public agog, drew
from the veteran judgment of Moschelles the
plaudit, “ Here is a young Russian with fingers
as light as feathers and strong as any man's, al-
RUBINSTEIN.
333
ready nearly the match of Thalberg." At a pri-
vate concert before the Queen the boy was intro-
duced to Mendelssohn, and the delightful per-
sonality of the latter made an undying impression
on him. It is curious that the Mendelssohnian
cult, which smoldered so rapidly as a vital force
in music, molded Rubinstein as a composer more
than any other influence.
The year 1843 saw him back at the Russian
capital, and he was at once summoned to the
Winter Palace and chucked under the chin with
imperial condescension. He says of this callow
period in his evolution : "I was a devoted imita-
tor of Liszt, of his manners and movements, his
trick of tossing back his hair, his way of holding
his hands, of all the peculiar movements of his
playing, which naturally called forth a smile from
those who had heard Liszt, and perhaps also in-
creased the interest felt in the boy-virtuoso."
Rubinstein also notes the impression made on
him by the singing of Rubini, and avows that he
sought in his playing to imitate the vocal effects
of that most marvelous of tenors. A year later
the young musician was domesticated with the
rest of his family at Berlin, following Liszt’s dic-
tum that in Germany alone could be found the
rock-bottom of musical training. Of mere tech-
nique he was now master, and it was time to dig
below the surface. He took lessons of Dehn, the
finest master of counterpart in Europe, and Marks
334
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
was his teacher in the theory of music. His broth-
er Nicholas, who also became a noted musician and
head of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, shared his
pupilage. Anton saw much of Mendelssohn and
Meyerbeer, who took a keen interest in his future
and visited his family; and his first composition,
an étude for the piano, was now published, get-
ting a cordial notice from Robert Schumann.
When the Rubinstein family returned to Russia
in 1846, Anton, then sixteen years old, launched
his bark on the stormy seas of self-support. He
went to Vienna, most musical of cities, gave piano
lessons, took concert engagements when he could,
and suffered the vicissitudes of Bohemia, pretty
much the same in all lands---champagne and
truffles one day, beer and pretzels the next. But
he worked hard at composition, though an occa-
sional “opus” only found a publisher, and took
the medicine of life with a dauntless heart. One
day there was not a kreutzer in his purse, when
Liszt, followed by a retinue of his courtiers, a
prince, a count, a doctor, and an artist in train,
burst into his attic and whirled off the starveling
artist to a splendid: dinner. He returned that
night with money in his pocket and hope in his
soul.
The great historic year 1848, when all Eu
rope was heaving with revolutionary yeast, found
Rubinstein back in Berlin, and among other cu
rious sights he saw little, old, weazened Dehn, hi
RUBINSTEIN.
335
former teacher, doing sentry duty with a musket
much longer than himself before a government
building. He confided to Dehn the project over
which he had been brooding for a year-emigra-
tion to the United States. “ Are you mad ?”
dissuaded the great contrapuntist; “is there noth-
ing to do in Europe, you still a lad, that you
should rush recklessly to a land of art-savages,
where you are likely to meet all kinds of misfor-
tunes?” As Berlin proved a worse step-mother
than Vienna, Rubinstein packed his clothes and
music-scores and set out for the Russian frontier.
He did not meet a kiss of welcome. The "third
section" was in a frenzy of suspicion, and mou-
chards swarmed everywhere. His passport for
some reason had been left behind, and he was sent
to the capital under arrest. His trunks revealed
strange documents, scrawled with hieroglyphics,
and the chief of police was with difficulty per-
suaded that the queer manuscript did not conceal
conspiracy and high-treason.
Rubinstein now settled down quietly to his life-
work-teaching, composing, and playing in concert
with steadily growing success. He was taken up
by the imperial family, and Grand-Duchess Helena
Paulovna, sister of Nicholas, became his enthusi-
astic patroness and warm personal friend. He was
an intimate at the Winter Palace, and gave cham-
ber recitals there every week. While he taught
the most distinguished pupils, he did not disdain
336 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
the humble, taking as fee what each could afford.
This characteristic benevolence has stamped his
whole life ; and it was stated that, at the time
he undertook his American tour, he had given
away nearly all the proceeds of his concertizing-
nearly three hundred thousand rubles—in charity.
Thus twenty quiet and fruitful years passed, inter-
spersed with frequent professional tours through-
out Europe, where his fame as a great player grew
till it equaled that of Franz Liszt, while his operas
and symphonies stamped his genius as a composer,
though the former have rather delighted musicians
than the general public, and provoked serious criti-
cism even from those who concede his great and
original powers. It has always been a grief to
Rubinstein that the consensus of opinion about
the player has not extended to the composer-a
sorrow which, perhaps, has sometimes dipped his
pen in gall, and betrayed his native generosity of
temper.
It was while staying with the imperial family
at Nice, in the winter of 1856–57, that the chaos
of musical culture in Russia, being the topic under
discussion one night, suggested to Rubinstein the
notion of reorganizing musical education. On his
return, he and a few others, with the heartiest
backing from the court, founded the Imperial
Russian Society, and this again withiu a few years
became the mother of the St. Petersburg and Mos-
cow Conservatories, now ranking among the great
RUBINSTEIN.
337
institutions of the world. Both Rubinstein and
his brother Nicholas were at different periods
heads of the St. Petersburg school, at which were
graduated not a few who became famous, notably
Tschaikowsky and Madame Essipov. When Anton
Rubinstein signed his American contract in 1872,
he was still a poor man, owing to his prodigal
giving, and it is pleasant to know that the fifty
thousand dollars he received laid the foundation
of his present independence. He was associated
with another artist, eminent as a violinist, the late
Henri Wieniawski, then professor at the Brussels
Conservatoire. This American tour was brilliantly
successful, and the éclat of his performances has
never been surpassed in the musical excitement
created, though a more recent player has achieved
larger financial returns. Rubinstein gave two
hundred and fifteen concerts in the United States,
but seems to have been devoured with a deep ennui
during his long journeys. He says: “It was so
tedious that I began to despise myself and my art.
So profound was my dissatisfaction that, when
several years later I was asked to repeat my Ameri-
can tour with half a million guaranteed to me, I
refused point blank." Rubinstein ranks musical
knowledge and appreciation in America as higher
than those of England. The writer of this sketch
asked him what he thought of the chances of an
American school of music. His answer was epi-
grammatic and suggestive: “A national musical
338
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
cult can not exist unless its roots grow from a
national childhood. America had no childhood.
Its civilization was born full-grown.” Since his
return to Europe Rubinstein has divided his life,
as before, with no very notable happenings, be-
tween the St. Petersburg Conservatory, composing,
and concert-playing.
It is probable that posterity will assign a higher
rank to his work as a composer than his contem-
poraries allow This was the fate of the two
supremely gifted men, Beethoven and Schubert.
It is as the pianist that Rubinstein is most ad-
mired to-day. Here he may be regarded as bear-
ing the scepter amid a swarm of gifted rivals.
His distinction as a player is found in the indi-
vidual passion and poetry which permeate his read-
ings, interpretation glowing sometimes to incan-
descence with imaginative power, so pictorial and
stimulating indeed that the obtuse spirit is swept
away by its magic no less than the sensitive mu-
sician. Small-minded pedants have pecked feebly
at his interpretations as sometimes arbitrary, or
false to the composer's design. Let it be so, as
long as the artist sets us on his own pedestal and
makes us see with the clairvoyance of his own
vision. A single illustration may be cited out of
à score—the rendering of Chopin's B minor so-
nata. The funeral-march movement is made to
begin in the most fairy-like pianissimo, as of a
band playing in the far distance. The gradual
RUBINSTEIN.
339
crescendo of the music approaching finally swells
into a fortissimo, and thence again graduates
subtly into the mutter of distant sound. The
movement which follows this march has always
perplexed musicians as chaotic and meaningless.
Rubinstein, however, fills us with shivers of de-
light in his weird reading, and the experience of
something analogous to what he says he sees and
hears in playing it—“the vision of moonlit graves
in the cemetery and the wailing of the breeze in
the cypresses." If all this is trickery, it is the
trickery of the transcendent artist. The inter-
pretation is that of the poet, not of the peda-
gogue.
The catalogue of Rubinstein's compositions
bears witness to the versatility of his genius, in-
cluding thirteen operas, two oratorios, five sym-
phonies, a dozen overtures, many trios and quar-
tettes, and half a hundred songs. Gifted with
great affluence of melody, his motifs, though fre-
quently Russo-Oriental in spirit, do not seem to
have been drawn to any large extent from the
wealth of national folk-song, as his own country-
men-Glinka and Tschaikowsky-s0 freely bor-
rowed from this “ Dragon's Hoard ” of treasure;
as Weber and Schubert used that of Teuton-land;
as Rossini, the Italian ; or Liszt, the Hungarian
Gypsy; or Grieg, the Norwegian; or Dvorák, the
Czech. This is the more singular as Rubinstein
is intensely Panslavic in his views, and says of
340 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
this beautiful people's music: “ Russian folk-songs
stand alone; only those of Norway and Sweden
are worthy to be compared with them for enchant-
ing melody."
Rubinstein is ever lyrical, however, in his mu.
sical impulse, and not dramatic, and he shares the
strongly avowed feeling of Brahms, his great Ger-
man contemporary, that the true object of music
begins where words end. His devotion to the old
classical forms has limited his development along
the lines where music has made its greatest recent
advances. This laudator temporis acti tells us
that“ with the supremacy of Bismarck on the one
hand and Wagnerism on the other, with men's
ideals all reversed, dawns the critical moment for
music. Technique has taken gigantic strides, but
composition, to speak frankly, has come to an end.
Its parting knell was rung when the last incom-
parable notes of Chopin died away.” (This, of
course, more specially refers to the music of the
piano.)
Closely adhering to traditional forms, into
which the composer pours an embarras de richesses
of melody, there is a lack of the compression and
self-criticism which stamp the highest works of
art. This is less noticeable in the symphonies,
three of which—the “Ocean," “Dramatic," and
“ Russian ”-rank among the greatest compositions
in symmetry of form and richness of coloring.
The concertos and sonatas are favorites in the con-
RUBINSTEIN,
341
cert-room, and many of the songs are deliciously
fresh in motive and treatment. The best known
of his operas are the “ Demon” and the “ Macca-
bees,” which have been frequently given in Russia
and Germany, but are not much known in other
countries except in piano transcriptions. His op-
eratic work, affluent in melody and wrought with
orchestral mastership, seems to lack the poignant
accents of dramatic passion. Rubinstein has in-
dulged in controversy, and his “Die Musik und
Ihre Meister" is a quaint masterpiece of invective,
while his “image-breaking” rages against nearly
all the composers except Gluck, Bach, Beethoven,
Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Chopin.
Wagner is his bête noir, and his satire amuses with
its clever sword-play without disturbing our con-
victions. Let whatever one may think of Rubin-
stein the composer and critic, the world's hail of
“Vivat rex !” acclaims Rubinstein the player as
the artist, who above all others carries the soul of
an indomitable and shaping genius into the forms
left by others. It is a matter of poignant regret
that this great artist has definitely declared his
resolution to play no more in public concert ex-
cept for purposes of charity.
BÜLOW
A King of Interpreters.---His Peculiar Equipment as a Player.--
Bred to the Law, he becomes a Pianist.-Association with
Liszt and Wagner.--Enthusiastic Propaganda of the Music of
the Future.-Bülow in the United States.--- Individual Traits.
- His Style and Theory of the Art of Playing.
IF creation or poetic passion, scarcely to be re-
strained within the limits of the set task before
him, gives distinction to the playing of Rubin-
stein, acute subtlety of interpretation, quenching
self in an intellectual process, stamped the art
of the late Hans von Bülow, whose death is a
matter of recent record. There was something of
the drill-sergeant in the bearing of the puny figure
surmounted by a regal head, the assertion of a di-
dactic mission. And what surpassing qualities for
the work! Power of analysis attaining genius;
sympathy alike ardent and versatile, equally tactile
in laying hold of the heart of every school; con-
science in art which never deviated from the
straight line; grasp of detail little less than micro-
scopic, yet ordered by the sense of proportion;
his memory a chart that never tricked him in a
dot; power of technique which no comparison can
belittle---surely the fairy god-mother gave this
master every gift but one, the creative instinct.
Dr. Hans Guido von Bülow, born in Dresden,
BÜLOW.
343
January 8, 1830, and son of the novelist, Baron
von Bülow, took early music-lessons of Wieck, the
father of Clara Schumann, more Germanico, with
no ulterior motive at that time. When he went
to Leipsic University, at the age of eighteen,
to study law, his innate passion struggled hard
against the family wish; and, on taking his de-
gree, Liszt's advice turned the scale with him.
He had already studied counterpart and composi-
tion under Hauptman while digging at the law,
and shortly after we find him conducting an or-
chestra at Zürich. Bülow was stirred by the revo-
lutionary fury of 1848, borne along by that stream
of revolt which convulsed politics and art alike.
He made Wagner's acquaintance at Zürich with a
mind ripe for seeding, and the music-drama struck
into the soil with roots of conviction sturdy
enough in after years to withstand the most terri-
ble strain which the passion and pride of man can
endure. He was Wagner's pupil for a while, and
thence he hastened to Weimar, where he studied
the piano for several years under Liszt.
His first appearance as a public pianist was in
1852 at a festival conducted by Liszt. He con-
quered prompt recognition as one with whom there-
after the musical world must reckon. Following
the track of Liszt, he had burst the bonds of clan-
spirit, and, with catholic largeness of soul, made
the most divergent masterpieces luminous by his
skill. His concert tours evoked unaffected enthu-
23
344
THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
siasm. He played and he wrote, for he used his
pen most adroitly, and plunged into the thick of the
raging Wagner controversy, leading the charge of
the new propaganda with the élan of a Murat or a
Ziethen. He ceased nomadism for a while by
taking Kullak's place at the Berlin Conservatoire,
and here he remained with interruptions of con-
cert-touring for nine years. But it was not merely
as pianist that he stormed public interest. He was
recognized as one of the most brilliant orchestral
conductors who ever lived. He played on the or-
chestra as he would on a piano. Ach, hein!” he
would say, rubbing his hands with naïve delight,
"didn't I do well on my Bechstein to-night?" after
some superb symphony performance.
In 1864 Bülow, with his wife Cosima, the
natural daughter of Liszt and Countess d'Agoult
(the brilliant“ Daniel Stern ”), who had then been
his wife for seven years, became domesticated at.
Munich, as he had accepted the appointment of
director of the Royal Opera and of the Conserva-
toire. The Bülows, Liszt, and Wagner lived on
terms of the closest intimacy, and it is much to be
regretted that this musical copartnership should
have ended in a burning scandal which broke
utterly the personal friendship between Wagner
and his most dashing partisan. The catastrophe
occurred in 1869, culminating in Fralı Cosima's
divorce from Bülow and her espousing Wagner.
This betrayal of friendship is the more notable
BÜLOW.
345
as Bülow alike as musician and writer had served
Wagner more effectively than any other apostle of
the new school, Liszt excepted. But Bülow drew
the distinction between the composer and the man,
and the sore wound which he had received did not
in the least abate his zeal for the Wagner cult.
He resumed his concert tours, playing in Italy,
France, and England, in all of which countries
musical sentiment had been decidedly alien to
Wagnerism, and devoted a considerable place on
his programmes to the so-called advanced music
with signal success.
In 1875 the first appearance
of Bülow on his American tour occurred Novem-
ber 15th, at Chickering Hall, New York. He gave
one hundred and thirty-nine concerts, and found
transatlantic audiences not less appreciative than
those of the Old World. His receipts were large,
but it is said he lost the profits of the enterprise
through the dishonesty of a rogue connected with
the management. After his return to Europe,
with the exception of one or two brief concert
trips, he gave himself up to conducting opera and
orchestra at Hanover, Meiningen, Berlin, and
Hamburg. In 1882 he contributed $10,000 to the
fund for the “ Parsifal” festival at Bayreuth, and
at once scandal gave tongue that he was about to
marry
his former wife. The illness which carried
off Bülow at Cairo, Egypt, February 13, 1893, was
of long standing, though it had never invalided
him.
346 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
In further characterizing Bülow as a player it
is not needful to discuss technique. More than a
few living players are fully his equals in the me-
chanics of the art, great adept as he was. His dis-
tinction was a certain passionate intellectualism
and veracity of purpose. His searching insight,
for example, made Bach and Beethoven a revela-
tion even to musicians, a power of interpretation
as striking in orchestra-leading as in piano-play-
ing, and he completely obliterated himself in the
opus which it was his duty to make alive. His
playing was like a lamp set inside of a porcelain
vase, revealing the exactest definition of line and
tint imposed by the maker's design. He was thus
foremost of teachers in musical ethics. His mem-
ory was so prodigious that playing even the most
complicated work once left it indelible. Whether
in playing or conducting he never used a score,
never made a blunder. His artist work aside,
Bülow won the admiration of all students by an
edition of the piano-forte classics, which was a mar-
vel of painstaking study in textual interpretation.
The man was not less interesting than the mu-
sician. Noble-born, vivacious, witty, with globules
of Gallic quicksilver dancing in his veins, German
of Germans that he was, he was fitted to score his
mark in other fields. When Germany was making
history so fast in the sixties and seventies, his art
could not altogether quench his regrets for the
flesh-pots of Egypt, for he came of the blood of
BÜLOW.
347
those who had been famous in camp and council,
and a brilliant, many-sided intellect kept him in-
tensely alive to all the interests of his age. He
had been associated with many great lives. He
knew and loved Heine, dying on his “mattress
grave," and was an intimate of the great socialist,
Ferdinand Lassalle, his published correspondence
with whom has become a part of the history of the
epoch. A personal friend and fiery partisan of
Prince Bismarck, he could keep neither tongue
nor pen out of politics. He met young Emperor
William's pompous warning to his subjects—that
those who objected to his rule “might shake the
dust of Germany from their feet”-in a character-
istic way at a symphony concert. The last per-
formance on the stage that night was a smart dust-
ing of his pumps, and the parting shot that he
should quit Berlin by the first train.
Great musician as he was, he did not scale the
topmost heights, for this requires wings. But
within the limits of his temperament Bülow was
an artist of superb equipment. He was one to
have gone to the stake for an opinion, so intense
was his conviction. And, oddly, with this tenacity
and passion of enthusiasm, he united such versa-
tile gifts that he could have adorned almost any
career-soldier, man of the pen, lawyer, or what
not. If his own art had not embalmed him in its
amber, some other profession would have made
him memorable.
PADEREWSKI.
Transcendent Success of the Polish Artist.–Fame won through
his American Laurels.--Early Education. His Attempts in
Composition.—Secret of his Fascination as Player.—The Most
Genial and Sympathetic of Executants.
SINCE the tours of Rubinstein and Bülow in
America, we have heard many fascinating pianists,
such as Essipov, Joseffy, Pachmann, D’Albert,
Rummel, Scharwenka, and others, but none of
them so incontestably rises to that dignity assured
by originality of genius working through tech-
nical skill as the great player who perpetuates the
birthright of Chopin in race and temperament.
The impression made by Paderewski during his
two recent visits reached the proportions of a mu-
sical craze, and this artist has the distinction, if
such it be, of having received the greatest finan-
cial reward ever won by a pianist in the American
El Dorado. The last season is said to have yielded
him a sum in excess of a quarter million dollars.
His standing can not be better generalized than
in the words of one of our own most finished per-
formers : “Paderewski is unquestionably an in-
spired and phenomenal pianist. He possesses the
power of interesting and arousing the enthusiasm
of an audience of the highest musical culture, as

IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI.
PADEREWSKI.
349
the ore.
at Berlin, and of giving pleasure and delight to
one of less musical intelligence and simpler taste,
as in some English provincial town."
Ignace Jan Paderewski was born in Podolia,
a province of Russian Poland, in 1860, of a family
of the country gentry, a class so closely interwoven
with the most splendid things in Polish life and
history. Left to run almost wild—for his youth
was motherless—his untutored fancies were steeped
in the sights and sounds of Nature, though his
gifts for music, which lisped from babyhood, had
but haphazard training for a long time. But a
marvelous musical ear, and the brain power behind
the jugglery of the fingers, extracted gold from
It is said that the thrilling tone quality
of his ripened art was not lacking when the lad,
only twelve years old, first went to the Conserva-
tory of Warsaw and took to study in earnest.
Here he plunged into the intricacies of harmony
and counterpoint under Roguski, and studied the
piano with Janotha, then a veteran of eighty, the
father of Natalie, so often mentioned by Rubin-
stein in his autobiography. Young Paderewski,
whose education had been neglected, pursued his
literary studies side by side with music, and worked
with tireless ardor for four years, swallowing lan-
guages with Sclavic ease, and widening the bounds
of culture without which art misses its finer bloom.
The Russian tour, which he made at sixteen, too,
was a new impulse in his education. Crude in
350 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
technique, he played with wild, spontaneous magic,
as Orpheus might have sung on his lute, a message
straight to the heart, for he seems to have had
even then that subtle touch of his audience which
is one of the secrets of his fascination, and this
musical Wanderjahre gave him fresh insight as
well as outlook.
A short married life of a year—for he was mar-
ried at nineteen--followed by the passionate grief
of loss, seems to have plowed up the depths of the
nether man. He had been made professor at
Wa
arsaw, but he could not remain there in his
desolation, and so went to Berlin for further
study in composition under Kiel and Heinrich
Urban, where he lived in great poverty. It is
said, under authority of Madame Modjeska, who
knew him at this period, that his playing was
only becoming technically good, and, though bril-
liant, could scarcely be called that of a virtuoso,
though he extemporized exquisitely in the charac-
teristic style of all the composers from Palestrina
to Chopin. It was not till after he studied under
Leschelitzky in 1886 that he became one of the
great master-players and his powers of execution
reached full development. To the suggestions
and oversight of this teacher, Paderewski attrib-
utes the finish and security of his method, that
automatic work of the fingers in registering mu-
sical emotion and purpose, which is called vir-
tuosity. He was with Leschelitzky only seven
PADEREWSKI.
351
months, but he was finishing work built on solid
masonry, and he packed the toil of seven years
into its compass.
Paderewski's true début was at Vienna in 1887,
and it crowned him as one of the princes of
the blood. His concert tours through Germany,
France, England, and America (in this country in
1891-'92 and 1892–93) have consistently augment-
ed the greatness of his name, and added another
shining figure to that procession where Thalberg,
Liszt, Bülow, and Rubinstein tower above their
brilliant fellows. As composer, he has produced
some delightful dance-music, several minor master-
pieces for the piano, and two concertos. Rumor
affirms that he is now busy on an opera, but his
musical fame is as yet chiefly associated with
achievement as a player.
In an age of extreme virtuosity his technical
accomplishment goes without saying. To re-
hearse the jargon of criticism does not reveal his
secret. This lives in the deep sympathies of the
poet, irradiating music as with a sunburst, mak-
ing graphic its lights and shadows; making in-
carnate its pathos, "rerum lacrymas"; making
its gayety infectiously sparkling. Such insight
of temperament, “commingled of fire and dew,''
enables Paderewski to kindle primitive emotion
through its musical symbols with a fire as catch-
ing to the unsophisticated soul as to the connois-
It must have fed richly on its suffering,
seur.
352 THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.
for the artist is said to have drained the bitter
cup of sorrow to the dregs, before it could pour
“... into one startled bour a life's felicity
And highest bliss of knowledge that all life, grief, wrong,
Turns at the last to beauty and to song."
It is not the vision of Rubinstein, sitting in rapt
isolation; nor of a Bülow with his calm, keen
look as of a chess-master solving a problem. The
memory of Paderewski is that of a gracious, vivid
image, who plays to a thousand with a finger on
every stop of the heart, with an intimate tender-
ness, as if he were addressing the one person who
was his own twin spirit.
(14)
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