In the person of the celebrated Viotti we recognize the link connecting
the modern school of violin-playing with the schools of the past. He
was generally hailed as the leading violinist of his time, and his
influence, not merely on violin music but music in general, was of a
very palpable order. In him were united the accomplishments of the great
virtuoso and the gifts of the composer. At the time that Viotti's star
shot into such splendor in the musical horizon, there were not a few
clever violinists, and only a genius of the finest type could have
attained and perpetuated such a regal sway among his contemporaries. At
the time when Viotti appeared in Paris the popular heart was completely
captivated by Giornowick, whose eccentric and quarrelsome character as
a man cooperated with his artistic excellence to keep him constantly
in the public eye. Giornowick was a Palermitan, born in 1745, and his
career was thoroughly artistic and full of romantic vicissitudes. His
style was very graceful and elegant, his tone singularly pure. One of
the most popular and seductive tricks in his art was the treating of
well-known airs as rondos, returning ever and anon to his theme after
a variety of brilliant excursions in a way that used to fascinate his
hearers, thus anticipating some of his brilliant successors.
Michael Kelly heard him at Vienna. "He was a man of a certain age," he
tells us, "but in the full vigor of talent. His tone was very powerful,
his execution most rapid, and his taste, above all, alluring. No
performer in my remembrance played such pleasing music." Dubourg relates
that on one occasion, when Giornowick had announced a concert at Lyons,
he found the people rather retentive of their money, so he postponed the
concert to the following evening, reducing the price of the tickets to
one half. A crowded company was the result. But the bird had flown! The
artist had left Lyons without ceremony, together with the receipts from
sales of tickets.
In London, where he was frequently heard between 1792 and 1796, he once
gave a concert which was fully attended, but annoying to the player
on account of the indifference of the audience and the clatter of
the tea-cups; for it was then the custom to serve tea during the
performance, as well as during the intervals. Giornowick turned to the
orchestra and ordered them to cease playing. "These people," said he,
"know nothing about music; anything is good enough for drinkers of warm
water. I will give them something suited to their taste." Whereupon he
played a very trivial and commonplace French air, which he disguised
with all manner of meretricious flourishes, and achieved a great
success. When Viotti arrived in Paris in 1779, Giornowick started on
his travels after having heard this new rival once.
A distinguished virtuoso and composer, with whom Viotti had already been
thrown into contact, though in a friendly rather than a competitive way,
was Boccherini, who was one of the most successful early composers of
trios, quartets, and quintets for string instruments. During the latter
part of Boccherini's life he basked in the sunlight of Spanish royalty,
and composed nine works annually for the Royal Academy of Madrid, in
which town he died in 1806, aged sixty-six. A very clever saying is
attributed to him. The King of Spain, Charles IV, was fond of playing
with the great composer, and was very ambitious of shining as a great
violinist; his cousin, the Emperor of Austria, was also fond of the
violin, and played tolerably well. One day the latter asked Boccherini,
in a rather straightforward manner, what difference there was between
his playing and that of his cousin Charles IV. "Sire," replied
Boccherini, without hesitating for a moment, "Charles IV plays like a
king, and your Majesty plays like an emperor."
Giovanni Battista Viotti was born in a little Piedmontese village called
Fontaneto, in the year 1755. The accounts of his early life are
too confused and fragmentary to be trustworthy. It is pretty well
established, however, that he studied under Pugnani at Turin, and that
at the age of twenty he was made first violin at the Chapel Royal of
that capital. After remaining three years, he began his career as a
solo player, and, after meeting with the greatest success at Berlin and
Vienna, directed his course to Paris, where he made his _debut_ at the
"Concerts Spirituels."