That this celebrated composer was a man of humour and pleasantry may
be inferred from the following story, related by Walther, in his
account of Nicholas Adam Strunck, violinist to Ernestus Augustus,
Elector of Hanover. This person being at Rome, upon his arrival,
made it his business to see Corelli: upon their first interview,
Strunck gave him to understand that he was a musician. “What is
your instrument?” asked Corelli. “I can play,” answered Strunck,
“upon the harpsichord, and a little on the violin; and should esteem
myself extremely happy, might I hear your performance on this latter
instrument, on which, I am informed, you excel,” Corelli very politely
condescended to this request of a stranger. He played a solo, Strunck
accompanied him on the harpsichord, and afterwards played a foccata,
with which Corelli was so much taken, that he laid down his instrument
to admire him. When Strunck had done at the harpsichord, he took up the
violin, and began to touch it in a very careless manner; upon which
Corelli remarked, that he had a good bow-hand, and wanted nothing but
practice to become a master of the instrument. At this instant, Strunck
put the violin out of tune; and, applying it to its place, played on
it with such dexterity, attempering the dissonances occasioned by the
mistuning of the instrument with such amazing skill and dexterity, that
Corelli cried out, in broken German, “I am called _Arcangelo_, a name
that, in the language of my country, signifies an _Archangel_; but let
me tell you, that _you_, Sir, are an _arch-devil_.”
_Sir John Hawkins’s History of Music._