Books › Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896 › scan 75
Scan 75
Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 55. See the scan on archive.org.
1Vieuxtemps, among others, that are quite as difficult as anything that Paganini wrote. All these were men who delighted more to astonish than to charm. Indeed, there are many virtuosi who find it difficult or impossible to charm, and for them such music is most appropriate.
3As the art of violin playing, like all other branches of art, progresses year by year, so at the present day we find a notable number of artistes that have ventured to play the compositions of Paganini in their concerts, who, had they lived fifty or sixty years ago, could not have attempted such a thing. This may be taken as a word of compliment to our modern professors, some of whom are really giants in the land.
5Nevertheless, I have known a simple but charming melody played by a pretty girl of eighteen summers, who really could make her violin vibrate in accordance with the poetry in her heart, bring forth bursts of applause as loud and prolonged as were ever awarded to the most intricate compositions of the greatest masters. Music, as the voice of love and nature, knows no difficulties, as I have before hinted; but a little of the demon in it, now and then, does no harm.
7Now Paganini, from the very beginning, was all demon, not only in his dramatic playing, but in his unusually weird appearance. If he ever failed, it was precisely in those cantabile passages which are
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