Books › Voice and violin, 1898 › scan 108
Scan 108
Voice and violin, 1898
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 88. See the scan on archive.org.
1in his native town, Genoa, heard accidentally that the French violinist Lafont was at Milan; and being very curious to hear him play, he left at once for that city, a much longer journey in those days than it is now.
3"His performance," says the Italian virtuoso, "pleased me exceedingly."
5A week later Paganini himself announced a concert at the opera-house La Scala, on which occasion Lafont was present. The day after the concert, Paganini received a letter from the latter, in which it was proposed that they should both play in the same concert.
7"I excused myself," said Paganini, "alleging that such experiments were highly impolitical, as the public invariably looked upon these matters as duels, and that it would be so in this case; for as he was acknowledged to be the best violinist in France, so the public indulgently considered me the best of Italian violinists. Lafont, not looking at it in this light, I was obliged to accept the challenge. I allowed him to arrange the programme.
9"We each played a concerto of our own composition; after which we played together a duet by Kreutzer. In this I did not deviate in the least from the composer's text whilst we played together; but in the solo parts I yielded freely to my own imagination, and introduced several novelties, which seemed to annoy my adversary. Then followed a Russian
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