Books › Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896 › scan 63
Scan 63
Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 43. See the scan on archive.org.
1anything more horribly ludicrous! That was Cherubini's last performance on the violin.
3In 1792 the talented Viotti fled to England; and in 1793, just over a hundred years ago, when the storm had burst in all its fury, and the unfortunate, good-natured king, at the age of thirty-eight, mounted the scaffold, Cherubini had taken refuge at the country house of a friend, an architect, near Rouen, where he lived in tranquillity and safety, and only returned to Paris the following year.
5In 1795 he was made inspector of the newly formed Conservatoire, a musical school which was an offshoot of the Revolution, and from that time forward his position was assured. His great talent and perseverance enabled him to conquer all obstacles, even the hatred and jealousy of the Petit Caporal himself.
7Why Napoleon Buonaparte should have detested Cherubini, and persecuted him in the way he did, it is not easy to imagine. But nothing less than the greatest talent could have resisted such noxious influence.
9Those who wish to see how the middle classes, bankers, lawyers, musicians, &c., fared during the great French Revolution, I may refer to my "Scenes from the Reign of Louis XVI." (London: Bentley & Son, 1878).
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