Scan 52
Celebrated violinists, past and present; ("The Strad" library), 1897
6 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. Printed page 40. See the scan on archive.org.
1spell which the "Weihe der Töne," the embodiment of the beautiful in music, can cast over us.
3Wilhelmj was born on the 21st September, 1845, at Usingen in Nassau. His father is a lawyer of distinction and the proprietor of a number of famous vineyards on the Rhine. His mother, a clever and cultured musician (a pupil of Chopin) early undertook his education in the art of music; but before he became old enough to be sent to school he had already begun the serious study of the violin under Fischer, a violinist at Wiesbaden, where his parents lived. It chanced that in 1854 Henrietta Sontag, the famous singer, heard the boy play Spohr's 9th Concerto and "The Carnival of Venice," and was so charmed with his performance as to utter the remark that one day he would become "the German Paganini." This remark coming from so distinguished a quarter was not without its influence upon the youthful player, who was thereby stirred to greater efforts.
5Despite the fact that Wilhelmj appeared with success in a concert at Limburg when nine and at Wiesbaden when eleven, his father, a wealthy vine-grower and advocate, was strongly opposed to his son's adoption of an artistic career, and he based his objections on the fact that the majority of infant prodigies came to nothing artistic when grown to riper years. The son was not to be put off, however, and at length he obtained this concession from his father: "Give me the judgment of a musical authority upon your capabilities; if he speak in your favour, then you may become a virtuoso, and go out into the world as such." This authority was not hard to find. On the recommendation of the Prince Emil of Wittgenstein the young artist went in the spring of 1861 to Weimar to Liszt. The great pianist, who in matters artistic at least was invariably the soul of honour, seated himself at the pianoforte, and began to play the accompaniment to Spohr's Scena Cantante and, after that, Ernst Hungarian fantasia. But even with these he was not satisfied, and he caused the lad to play a number of pieces at sight. At the end of all, Liszt sprang from
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.