Scan 36
Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of Celebrated Violinists, 1877
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Neapolitan 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 afterwards requested him to perform one of his sonatas; 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 waited 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
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.