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Musical Courier 1908-08-05: Vol 57 Iss 6, 1908
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1FAMOUS VIOLINISTS OF THE PAST.
2(With a Sketch of the Development of Violin Playing.)
3III.—GIOVANNI BATTISTA VIOTTI.
4BY ARTHUR M. ABELL.
6Italy, the birthplace of the violin, was naturally the cradle of great violinists, and for more than a century the Italian nation reigned supreme in this respect. Giovanni Battista Viotti, although not a pupil of Tartini, was his logical successor, and he completed the Italian triumvirate of great old Italian masters. Corelli, Tartini, Viotti—these are three names that Italy may well be proud of. After Viotti the French school predominated, with Rode, his most distinguished pupil, at its head. Viotti marked a new epoch, both as a performer and as a composer, quite especially in the latter capacity. Whereas Tartini's immediate pupils were content to imitate him, and did not get beyond the old sonata forms, Viotti regenerated the violin concerto; he gave it new life and vitality and set up a standard which has been followed more or less closely by all of his successors since. He discarded the simple string quartet accompaniment of Tartini and wrote accompaniments for full orchestra; in short, Viotti created the concerto for violin and orchestra. Vivaldi, it is true, had attempted, in the accompaniments to his violin concertos, to add wind instruments to the strings, but his efforts were largely experimental and were productive of no practical results. Viotti's concertos, which form an organic whole, show in the orchestra unmistakable signs of the influence of Haydn, whose symphonies had found favor in Paris and London as early as 1764.
8Viotti's concertos were a revelation. His treatment of the solo violin was masterly; he wrote beautiful melodies and pleasing, effective passages. His accompaniments, above all, were not merely a harmonization of his themes, but an intrinsical part of the composition. It has been claimed that Cherubini helped him in his instrumentation, but this is probably not true. He wrote twenty-eight concertos, of which the best known is the one in A minor, No. 22. I have heard this concerto played in Berlin with the Philharmonic Orchestra, within the last four years, by Joachim, Kreisler and Ysaye. It is distinguished by beautiful, noble invention, a wealth of the purest harmonies and exquisite orchestration. This concerto represented the culmination point of Viotti's productivity and it is one of the few really great musical works composed by violinists.
10As a virtuoso Viotti stood on an equally high plane. Fétis says that the effect of his first appearance at a Concert Spirituel in Paris in 1782 was tremendous. Nothing like it had ever been heard in the French capital. He played with a beautiful, sweet, noble tone, extreme technical finish, great warmth and with much fire and élan. After his appearance in London, twelve years later, in 1794, a critic wrote: "Viotti now is probably the greatest violinist in Europe; he unites a big full tone, indescribable technic, purity, precision, light and shade, with a most charming simplicity of style, and his compositions excel anything we have heard." His themes are splendid; they are developed with intelligence, tastefully contrasted with passages, and they afford the listener enjoyment every time they recur. His harmonies are rich without being exaggerated, his rhythms are marked, without being stiff, and his use of the wind instruments is very effective. In a word, both Viotti's compositions as well as his playing are enchanting." A Leipsic music paper also wrote at that time: "Viotti is beyond a doubt the greatest violin player of this century. How beautifully he plays an adagio! How brilliantly an allegro! His performance called forth extraordinary enthusiasm."
12Viotti's colleagues admired him no less than the public. Baillot exclaimed on hearing him for the first time: "Je le croyais Achille, mais c'est Agamemnon." Viotti certainly had no lack of success, and yet he was not satisfied; he was not so great an idealist as was Tartini, who lived for his art alone. He also sought material success and the quest of this brought him many bitter disappointments. In later years he even virtually gave up music to become a wine merchant, thus descending from the sublime to the ridiculous.
14Viotti had a checkered and interesting career. Born at Fontanetto in the district of Piedmont, Italy, May 23, 1753, as the son of a blacksmith, who was an amateur horn player, he in early childhood displayed his genius for music. Without any instruction and with almost no practice, he played, on a toy fiddle, popular melodies in a way that astonished everybody; his father was farsighted enough to realize that what the child did on this fiddle was the manifestation of genius and he determined to make a musician of him. A better violin was procured and the boy had lessons with a lute player named Giovanni, yet, until his thirteenth year, Viotti was chiefly selftaught. At this time, in 1766, his father had him take part in a church festival at Strambino, where he was heard by the Prelate Francesco Rova, who at once recognized the boy's extraordinary talent. He gave him a letter of introduction to the Marchioness of Voghera in Turin. When Viotti called on the Marchioness, it chanced that Celognetti, a member of the Turin Royal Orchestra, was present and he requested the lad to play for him. A sonata by Besozzi was laid before Viotti, which he read off at sight without a mistake. On the musician expressing his astonishment at this feat, the child remarked: "Oh, that is nothing." Celognetti thought this a piece of impudence, and to bring the little violinist down a peg, he put before him a much more difficult sonata by Ferrari, which also Viotti read off perfectly, prima vista. The now thoroughly interested Celognetti asked the boy if he had ever heard an opera, and on his replying in the negative, the musician immediately took him to the theater and placed him at a desk among the first violins. Viotti played his part through at first sight so well that the musicians would not believe that the opera was unknown to him.
16On returning to the house of the Marchioness, Viotti was asked which parts of the opera he liked best; he replied by taking his violin, and playing all the principal themes from memory. With this exhibition of his extraordinary gifts his future was assured. The son of the Marchioness assumed the entire expense of his education. In later years, in his interesting recollections of Viotti, which he published, this gentleman made the following statement:
18"I was so impressed by such an exhibition of native talent, that I determined to do everything in my power to develop Viotti's beautiful gifts. I gave him an apartment in my palace and engaged Pugnani for his teacher. The education of Viotti cost me more than 20,000 francs, but I do not regret it; the instruction of such an artist cannot be too dear."
20Viotti studied with Pugnani for many years, and in 1780 he undertook his first concert-tour in his company. The two artists visited Germany, Poland, Russia, England and France. They were two years on the way, and Viotti met everywhere with enormous success. At St. Petersburg, Katharina II overwhelmed him with attention and endeavored to retain him permanently at her court. In Berlin and London he met with no less flattering recognition. Of all the cities he visited, however, he found Paris most to his liking. He enjoyed great favor with Marie Antoinette, who gave him an annual salary of 6,000 francs. He repeatedly played at court, and was toasted, feted and made much of generally.
22From 1782 to 1784 Viotti was the particular star of the Concerts Spirituels, which were then the most important public concerts in Paris. In 1784 the artist met with the first disappointment in his public career. One day a concert happened to be poorly attended. In consequence of this, Viotti, who was accustomed to full houses, did not play as well as usual, and the applause was lukewarm. When a new violinist, far inferior to Viotti, appeared the next day, and scored a much greater success than Viotti, by his playing of a brilliant but cheap rondo, the Italian maestro's cup of bitterness was full, and he swore he would appear no more in public. Absurd as it seems, for Viotti was only thirty-one years old, and in the very zenith of his powers, he remained true to his oath, at least during the remainder of his stay in Paris, until 1792. However, he kept a private orchestra and played his new compositions at his own house before a selected circle of friends and pupils. In 1788, Viotti applied for the directorship of the Paris Grand Opera, but his request was ignored by the authorities. However, he was empowered by Marie Antoinette to found an Italian Opera in Paris, and he did so, remaining its director for four years. In 1791 he built a permanent home for his opera, the Theatre Feydeau, investing in it his entire fortune and that of M. Feydeau, whose name was given to the theater. Viotti now thought he had a permanent and congenial field of activity, but the outbreak of the Revolution the following year blasted all his hopes. He left Paris a bankrupt and went to London.
24In England, the great violinist underwent many vicissitudes. At first he appeared at the celebrated Salomon concerts, which were directed by Haydn, meeting with all his old time success, but the tables of fortune soon turned; an intrigue was instituted against him, he was denounced as a French spy, and was compelled by the authorities to leave England. He went to Germany and remained till 1795, the guest of his friend Smith, who had a country estate near Hamburg, devoting himself chiefly to composition. His best violin duets were written during this period. The mood in which he composed these beautiful works is mirrored in the preface to one of the books, where he wrote: "This work is the fruit of the leisure which ill fortune procured for me. Some of the pieces were dictated by pain, others by hope." Meanwhile, suspicion against him in England having been allayed, he returned to London, where he remained for twenty-three years, until 1818. A virtuoso career had now lost its charm for him, and he stoutly and consistently refused to play any more in public. Yet, he had
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