Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday

by Henry Charles Lahee

Viotti, pleased with the implied compliment, did not hesitate to give the forty francs, and then walked off with his newly acquired curiosity. The nephew, however, who now arrived to take the old man home, on hearing the story ran after Viotti, and offered to supply him with as many as he would like for six francs apiece.

Violin literature owes much to Viotti, for his compositions are numerous and contain beauties that have never been surpassed. His advice was sought by many young musicians, and among these was Rossini, who was destined to become great. De Bériot also sought out Viotti and played before him, but the old violinist told him that he had already acquired an original style which only required cultivating to lead to success, and that he could do nothing for him.

Viotti was one of the first to use the Tourte bow, and he studied its effects closely, so that the sweep of his bow became his great characteristic, and was alike the admiration of his friends and the despair of his rivals. He died in 1824, after about two years of retirement.

Among Viotti's most prominent pupils were Roberrechts, Pixis, Alday le jeune, Cartier, Rode, Mori, Durand, and Baillot, also Mlle. Gerbini and Madame Paravicini. Roberrechts became the teacher of De Bériot, who in turn taught Vieuxtemps, Teresa Milanollo, and Lauterbach. Baillot taught Habeneck, who taught Alard, Léonard, Prume, Cuvillon, and Mazas. From Alard we have Sarasate, and from Léonard, Marsick and Dengremont, while through Rode we have Böhm, and from him a large number of eminent violinists, including G. Hellmesberger, Ernst, Dont, Singer, L. Strauss, Joachim, Rappoldi. Some of them we shall refer to at length as great performers, others were celebrated more as teachers.

Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was born at Versailles in 1766, is the third in order of development of the four great representative masters of the classical violin school of Paris; the others being Viotti, first, Rode, second, and Baillot, fourth. With Baillot he compiled the famous "Methode de Violon" for the use of the students at the Conservatoire. Kreutzer's first teacher was his father, who was a musician in the king's chapel, but he was soon placed under Anton Stamitz, and at the age of thirteen he played a concerto in public, with great success. This is said by some writers to have been his own composition, though by others it was attributed to his teacher.

Kreutzer made a tour through the north of Italy, Germany, and Holland, during which he acquired the reputation of being one of the first violinists in Europe. On his return to Paris, he turned his attention to dramatic music, and composed two grand operas, which were performed before the court, and secured for him the patronage of Marie Antoinette. He also became first violin at the Opéra Comique, and professor at the Conservatoire, where he formed some excellent pupils, among them being D'Artot, Rovelli, the teacher of Molique, Massart, the teacher of Wieniawski and Teresina Tua, and Lafont, who also became a pupil of De Bériot. On Rode's departure for Russia, Kreutzer succeeded him as solo violin at the Opéra, later becoming Chef d'Orchestre, and after fourteen years' service in this capacity he was decorated with the insignia of the Legion of Honour, and became General Director of the Music at the Opéra. In 1826 he resigned his post and retired to Geneva, where he died in 1831. Kreutzer was a prolific composer, and his compositions include forty dramatic works and a great number of pieces for the violin.

In 1798, when Kreutzer was at Vienna in the service of the French ambassador, Bernadotte, he made the acquaintance of Beethoven, and was afterwards honoured by that great composer with the dedication to him of the famous Sonata, Op. 47, which was first played by Beethoven and the vio linist Bridgetower, at the Augarten, in May, 1803, either the 17th or the 24th. This is the sonata the name of which Count Leo Tolstoi took for his famous book, though to the vast majority of hearers it will always remain a mystery how the classical harmonies of the sonata could have aroused the passions which form the raison d'être of the book.

Kreutzer was noted for his style of bowing, his splendid tone, and the clearness of his execution.

With three such masters as Baillot, Rode, and Kreutzer, besides Viotti, who was frequently in Paris, the French school of violin playing had now superseded the Italian.

Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot, who was associated with Rode and Kreutzer in the compilation of the celebrated "Methode du Violon," was born at Passy, near Paris, in 1771, and became one of the most excellent violinists that France ever produced. His eminence in his profession was not obtained without a long struggle against great difficulties, for at the age of twelve he lost his father, who had kept a school, and became dependent upon friends for his education. His musical talent was remarkable at an early age, and he received his first instruction from an Italian named Polidori. At the age of nine he was placed under a French teacher named Sainte-Marie, whose training gave him the severe state and methodical qualities by which his playing was always distinguished.