The Violin Part 6

it may be added to the sum of Viotti's personal merits, that he gained the respect and esteem of the great, with whom he mixed on proper terms, not forgetful of their rank as persons of birth and fortune, nor of his own, as a man of rare talent. The strictest integrity and honour regulated his transactions; and his feelings were kind and benevolent.

Thus it may be seen that his character, as a man, was calculated to give increased dignity and influence to his name as a musician.

In the latter capacity, it has, with great truth, been remarked of him, that though the _virtuosi_ of the present day contrive to execute manual difficulties exceeding those which were attempted in his time, he has never been surpa.s.sed in all the _highest_ qualities that belong to performance on his instrument. His compositions for it remain, to this day, unrivalled in spirit and grandeur of design, graceful melody, and variety of expression; and they still furnish, when performed by the surviving disciples of his school, one of the most delightful treats which a lover of the great and beautiful in music can receive. The _Concerto_, in particular, which attained some of its improvements in the hands of the elegant Jarnowick, and the sweetly-expressive Mestrino, derived a marked advancement from Viotti, who gave to this style the character which seems so peculiarly its own, and brought it to a degree of elevation which it seems incapable of surmounting. The specimens of his composition in this line, that princ.i.p.ally claim the attention of the amateurs of instrumental music, are those in G, in A minor, in D, and in E minor. The theme of the Concerto in D is in the highest degree brilliant, though it must not be forgotten that it is taken from a trio of Pugnani's in E flat.

It has been well suggested, as a hint to the solo-players at our London Concerts, that Viotti's Concertos offer material far more desirable for their use than those eternal "Airs with Variations," which convey to the feelings of the auditor so little sense of variety, and in general tend to exhibit nothing beyond the dexterity of what the Italians call a _s.p.a.cca-nota_, or note-splitter.

The most popular of his _Trios_ are Op. 16, 17, and 18. The whole of his _Duos_ are admirable, as respects both invention and energy: they may be called Concertos in miniature[36].

Among the disciples of the school of this great master, may be enumerated Rode (on the whole regarded as the best), Alday, Labarre, Vacher, Cartier, Pixis, Madame Paravicini, Mademoiselle Gerbini, and our countryman, Mori.

FRANCESCO VACCARI, born at Modena, about the year 1772, commenced his practice of the instrument at the infantine age of five years, under the tutelage of his father, who, delighted with his quickness of apprehension, would frequently encourage him to play at sight, not by the gauds and "immoment toys" that are the common habits of childhood, but by gifts of new music. After four years of domestic study, he was introduced by his father to Pugnani, who, with a natural mistrust of precocious powers, did not like, at first, to be troubled with "child's-play," although, on hearing him, he could not refrain from applauding his execution. The boy went afterwards to Florence, and had instructions from Nardini. The habit so early instilled into him by his father, of playing at first sight, procured him a triumph at Mantua, when he was yet but thirteen; for he was enabled to execute, without hesitation, a new Concerto which Pichl, its composer, placed before him.

In 1804, after he had visited most of the great towns in Italy, he obtained from the King of Spain the appointment of First Violin of his chamber-band. The disturbed state of that country drove him into Portugal; and he was, at two several periods, performing in England.

Vaccari was distinguished by purity of tone and of taste, a tender expression, execution without trick, and a nice exact.i.tude of intonation.

MASONI, a Florentine, born 1799, attained very brilliant powers of execution, which he displayed chiefly in foreign countries-quitting Italy in 1817, for South America, from whence, after various migratory musical labours, he pa.s.sed over to India, and stirred to liveliest emotion the languid people of Calcutta. In the spring of 1834, he visited England, where his _tours de force_, and surprising dexterities of bowing, would have won for him a more copious admiration than they did, if, instead of coming so closely in the rear of the Genoese "Miracle of Man," who had well nigh exhausted our stock of musical sympathies, he had been his antecedent. I would here ask the gentle reader's indulgence towards the following bit of measured hyperbole, perpetrated at the above time, and admitted into a weekly publication of Mr. Leigh Hunt's:-

If your soul be not too _drony_, Haste, to hear renowned Masoni!

Scarce Napoleon (nick-named Boney) Was more wondrous than Masoni!

'Pollo's pet, Euterpe's crony, Is the exquisite Masoni.

All the sweets that live in honey Are concentred in Masoni!

Fiddlers _should_ be rich and _toney_- This-and _more_, is great Masoni.

Swifter, far, than hare or poney, Run the triplets of Masoni- And Astonishment bends _low_ knee To the flights of high Masoni!

Utterly _himself_ unknown he Should be, who _not_ knows Masoni.

Dead must be the heart, and _stony_, That is moved not by Masoni!

Money, without ceremony, _Shower'd_ should be on Masoni!

E'en from Greece Colocotroni Well might come, to hear Masoni!

So, again I tell ye, _on'y_ Go, and listen to Masoni!

The length to which these notices of the artists of Italy has already extended, is one of the reasons precluding detail with respect to some others of the later names belonging to that country. Paganini, however, is neither to be thus dismissed, nor to be here briefly treated of at the end of a chapter. To him, as standing alone in the history and practice of his art, and as forming an object of very widely-diffused curiosity, I propose devoting a separate notice in the ensuing chapter.

I cannot, in the mean time, omit wholly to advert to the name of Spagnoletti, whose taste and refinement, in the conspicuous situation which he filled for so many years in London, rendered him a highly valued model for the attention of our own cultivators of the instrument.

Who is there amongst those who were frequenters of the King's Theatre, during his time of office, that will not recollect, with feelings of interest, the delicate grace of Spagnoletti's playing-his obviously intense, yet not obtrusive, enthusiasm-and his oft-repeated sidelong depressions of the head, as if to drink in more fully, at the left ear, the delicious tones which he enticed from his own instrument? His peculiar sensitiveness under the impression of a false note, and his liberality of spirit, and readiness to speak commendingly of his brethren of the bow, are among the further traits which denoted him to those who had the opportunity of closer observation. Spagnoletti's original name is said to have been Paolo Diana. I have heard an anecdote which, if it may be depended on, exemplifies his quickness of temper. It was to the effect that Spagnoletti, having chanced to quarrel one morning with Ambrogetti, challenged him on the spot; and that the singer put aside the abrupt invitation, by the phlegmatic remark that he had _not breakfasted_!

CHAPTER III.

PAGANINI.

"Natura il fece, e poi ruppe la stampa."-_Ariosto._

"The glory, jest, and riddle of the world."-_Pope._

Who has not heard of Paganini-and who, that boasts of an ear, has not heard Paganini himself? Fame, catching up the echoes of his glory, has caused them to reverberate through her trump, and to _far furore_ even to the uttermost parts of the civilized world; and the hero himself, following in her rear, has gone forth to fulfil her proclamations, to reap his laurels, to achieve the general conquest of ears, and to receive in gold the tribute of admiring nations! Tongues and pens have vied with each other in celebrating his name; and _'Ercles' vein_ has been drawn upon in his behalf, till its exhausted stream could no further go.

NICOLO PAGANINI came into this breathing world at Genoa. The date of his birth, like most of the circ.u.mstances of his life, has been variously represented; but the most probable account fixes it on the 18th of February, 1784. His parents were of humble rank, but not so low as has been pretended in some of the "supposures hypothetical" that have been mixed up with the history of their marvel-moving son. To suit the humor of these fancies, the _conjectured_ father has been depressed to the condition of a street-porter, bearing (along with his burdens) some name too obscure to be recorded; while the person known as Paganini _pere_ has been a.s.serted to possess no other rights of paternity than what are conferred by adoption. This story, were it a true one, would reflect no discredit on an artist who has owed to his own genius the wide celebrity attaching to his name. "Miserum est aliorum inc.u.mbere famae," says the Roman poet; and the feeling of modern times is daily more and more confirming the sentiment. By another version, the father of Paganini has been styled a small trader, with a large tendency to seek his fortune through the calculation of lottery-chances. His actual station, as appears most likely, was originally that of a mercantile clerk; and it is concurrently allowed that this father, putative or positive, had music enough in his soul, or in his head, to perceive the indications of the faculty in his infant son, and to resolve on its full development; although the means he took for this purpose were as little creditable to his paternal pretensions, as they were injudicious with reference to their object. Ere yet the boy, however, had received into his tiny hands the instrument that was destined to make him "a miracle of man," the world, it appears, was very near being deprived of him altogether! It is stated that, at the age of four years, he was attacked by the measles, attended, in his case, with unusually aggravated symptoms. So extraordinary an influence did the disease exercise on his nervous system, that he remained during an entire day in the state of catalepsy, or apparent death, and had actually been enveloped in a shroud, when a slight movement fortunately revealed the fact of his existence, and saved him from the horrors of a premature interment.

The musical discipline adopted by his father appears to have begun in pretty close sequence to this shock; and the days of hard work for poor little Paganini were made to commence, by a shameful perversion, before he could plainly speak. As soon as he could hold a violin, his father put one into his hands, and made him sit beside him from morning till night, to practise it. The willing enthusiasm of the child, as well as the tenderness of his age, might have disarmed the severity of any ordinary preceptor; but the rigor of a stern father, when sharpened by ambition and avarice, _can_ forget the measure of an infant's powers.

The slightest fault, the most pardonable inadvertence, was harshly visited upon the Liliputian performer; and even the privation of food was sometimes resorted to, as part of the barbarous system to enforce precocity. A lasting influence of baneful kind was thus wrought upon a const.i.tution naturally delicate and sensitive: the sickly child, incapable of attaining a healthful maturity, was merged into the suffering man.

His mother, with equal but more tender zeal for the development of the talent of young Paganini, succeeded in inspiring him with no slight portion of her own enthusiasm, by persuading him that an angel had appeared to her in a vision, and had a.s.sured her that he should outstrip all compet.i.tion as a performer on the violin. Whether this vision was the result of a pardonable stratagem, or whether it was really the dream of a southern imagination, it is certain that it had the greatest effect on the mind of the infant artist, whose instinctive and irresistible inclination for the art made him an easy recipient of this maternal tale of encouragement. He began also to relish the domestic plaudits which were occasionally awarded to him for the boldness wherewith he produced new, if not legitimate, effects, indicative of future mastery over the powers of the instrument; for the instinct of his mind towards _the extraordinary_ was, even thus early, a thing clearly discernible. He speedily outstripped his father's slender reach of musical knowledge, as well as that of a minor violinist named Cervetto, who, for a short time, attempted to teach him. Giacomo Costa, director of the orchestra, and first violin in the princ.i.p.al churches, at Genoa, was next charged with his musical direction, and led him more rapidly onwards. At this period (when he was about eight years old), he was to be seen performing some three times a week in the churches, and at private musical parties, upon a fiddle that looked nearly as large as himself. At this time, too, he composed his first Violin Sonata, which, with others of his early musical pennings, is, unfortunately, not extant. A year later, he made what was considered his public _debut_, in the great theatre of Genoa, at the request of the noted singers, Marchesi and Albertinotti, who begged of his father to allow the youthful artist to play for their benefit, undertaking, in return, to sing for Paganini at the first concert he should offer to the public. On both occasions, he played a series of variations, believed to be his own, on the French republican air, "La Carmagnole," which were received with a force of approbation that seemed to carry with it the conviction of his future fame. Already, indeed, had his native genius urged him into a new path, both as to _fingering_ and the management of the _bow_.

Stimulated by the opening prospects of solid advantage, his father next carried him to Parma, then the residence of Alessandro Rolla, in order to place him under the care of that celebrated composer. It so happened on their arrival, that Rolla was confined to his room by indisposition; and the strangers, having been shown into a neighbouring apartment, found there, on a table, the score of a work which the composer had just finished. At the suggestion of his father, Paganini took up the violin which lay by the ma.n.u.script, and performed the new concerto at sight, with so much point and precision as to raise the sick composer from his bed, that he might ascertain to what master's hand he owed this agreeable surprise! The father, having explained the object of their visit, was a.s.sured by Rolla that he was incapable of adding any thing to his son's acquirements: he advised them to go to Paer, who was then the director of the Conservatory at Parma. Paer, in his turn, directed his visitors to his old master, Giretti, who received young Paganini as one of his pupils, and for six months gave him regular lessons in counterpoint. The good use which he made of this short apprentices.h.i.+p is proved by the four-and-twenty fugues which he composed in the course of it. His rapid progress inspired Paer with so lively an interest in his success, that he also devoted several hours a day to his instruction, and, at the end of four months, entrusted him with the composition of a _duo_, which was eminently successful. But these advantages were interrupted by the removal of Paer to Venice, where he had undertaken the composition of an opera.

Thus additionally qualified for the gratification of the "auri sacra fames" in the paternal breast, Paganini was now hawked about the country in a professional tour (at the commencement of 1797), through the princ.i.p.al cities of Lombardy; after which the father and son returned to Genoa, where the youthful artist was again subjected to those daily toils which had previously been forced on him with such wanton rigor: but the bonds were not to be of much longer endurance. In his 14th year, he was permitted, under the protection of an elder brother, to attend the Musical Festival of St. Martin, which is annually celebrated at Lucca, in the month of November; and, after meeting with a very flattering reception in all his public appearances, he extended his tour among the towns in the neighbourhood. The extreme degree of severity and restraint, with which his education had hitherto been conducted, was now beginning to work its natural result. At the age of fifteen, finding himself relieved from all effectual control by means of the ascendancy of his talent, and capable of attaining, through the same means, unlimited pecuniary supplies, he commenced the itinerant system on his own account; and soon, by a reaction of mind, that is in no degree surprising, acquired a decided partiality for a course of life that was accompanied by freedom from the trammels of such a father. The bonds of affection towards that persecuting parent were only loosened, however, not severed; for, after acquiring, by his independent exertions, a sum equal to about a thousand pounds, he proposed to a.s.sign a portion of it towards the maintenance of his father and mother. The cupidity of the former rejected this, and demanded the whole. The interest of the capital was then offered, equally in vain; and the violence of the father proceeded to the extent (as it has been a.s.serted) of threatening Paganini with instant death, unless the whole of the princ.i.p.al were relinquished to him. This outrage, supposing it true, appears but a concentration, as it were, of the ill usage more diffusely applied before. To procure peace-perhaps to save his life-Paganini gave up the greater part of the sum.

Resuming the exercise of his emanc.i.p.ated powers, Paganini visited many parts of Italy, and was flattered and rewarded in all. The intoxication of his rapid successes, combined with his joy at the escape from domestic fetters, seem to have led him into some youthful excesses at this period, and to have made the roving course of his travel rather _too_ close a type of his moral career-

Erring here, and wandering there, Pleas'd with transgression every where.

The increased celebrity which he afterwards acquired, or rather, perhaps, the jealous envy by which such celebrity is commonly pursued, has exercised a magnifying effect upon these early aberrations, and presented them as crimes of a serious and disgraceful nature. Whenever duly examined, they will be probably found to shrink back into something not greatly beyond peccadillo proportions. The feverish and unhealthy excitement besetting his peculiar position should be taken into full account, in forming a moral estimate of his youthful course. That the seductions of the gaming-table for a while swayed his fancy, and checquered his fortunes, is made clear by his own confession, which I will here extract from the interesting "Notice Biographique" by Monsieur Fetis (written as a _pendant_ to the Collection of Paganini's Compositions, about to appear in Paris), to which pamphlet I am indebted for some of the additional facts in the present sketch.

"I shall never forget," says Paganini, "that I once placed myself in a position which was to form the turning point of my whole career. The Prince De * * * * * had long felt a desire to become the possessor of my excellent violin, which I still retain, and which was _then_ the only one I had. He sent to me one day, in the endeavour to make me fix a price for it; but, reluctant to part with my instrument, I declared that I would only do so for 250 gold Napoleons. The Prince remarked to me, shortly afterwards, that I was probably joking when I asked so much, but that he was disposed to go as far as 2000 francs. I was, that very day, in much embarra.s.sment as to funds, owing to a considerable loss encountered at _play_; so that I was on the point of resolving to give up my violin for the sum offered, when a friend came in, with an invitation to join a party in the evening. My whole supply amounted to thirty francs; and I had already stripped myself of my watch, jewels, rings, pins, &c. I formed the instant resolve to hazard my last pittance, and then, if fortune were adverse, to sell the violin for what had been offered, and set off for Petersburgh, without either instrument or property, there to re-establish my circ.u.mstances. My thirty francs were presently reduced to _three_,-and I fancied myself already on the road towards the great city, when fortune, s.h.i.+fting like the glance of an eye, turned my petty remainder into a gain of 160 francs. That favorable moment rescued my fiddle, and set me on my feet. From that day, I renounced gaming, to which a portion of my youth had been sacrificed; and, in the conviction that a gambler is universally despised, I abandoned for ever that fatal pa.s.sion."

The imperilled instrument above referred to, appears to have been the same that figures in the following anecdote, as related by M. Fetis.

Whilst the youthful artist was still under the dominion of the pa.s.sion for play, that sometimes robbed him, in a single evening, of the produce of more than one concert, and sometimes did not leave to him even his violin, he had recourse (at Leghorn) to the kindness of a French merchant, Monsieur Livron, a zealous musical amateur, who very readily lent him a fine Guarnerius instrument. After the concert for which it had been required, Paganini took it back to the owner, who, however, declined to receive it, saying, "I shall take good care how I profane the strings that your fingers have touched! It is to _you_ that my violin now belongs." The instrument was afterwards used by Paganini at all his concerts.

A similar incident occurred to him at Parma, though under different circ.u.mstances. Pasini, a painter, with musical propensities, had refused to credit the prodigious facility attributed to Paganini, in the way of playing the _crabbedest_ music at sight, like one who had fully studied it. The sceptic therefore placed before him a ma.n.u.script concerto, in which all manner of difficulties had been brought together, and, handing to him an excellent Straduarius instrument, exclaimed, "This is _yours_, if you play that at sight, like a master." "In that case," observed Paganini, "you may say farewell to it at once;" and, in fact, his _fulminating_ execution presently threw the convinced Pasini into an ecstasy of admiration.

To those earlier days belongs also the fact of Paganini's transient pa.s.sion for the _guitar_, or rather for a certain fair Tuscan lady, who incited him to the study of that feebler instrument-of which she was herself a votary. Applying his acute powers to the extension of its resources, he soon made the guitar an object of astonishment to his fair friend; nor did he resume in earnest that peculiar symbol of his greatness, the violin, till after a lapse of nearly three years.

Paganini tickling the guitar, may almost suggest, for a.n.a.logy, Hercules dallying with the distaff!

After declining, for the freer indulgence of his rambles, various offers of profitable engagement on permanent grounds, he was induced to enter, in 1805, the service of Napoleon's sister with the exquisite name (Elisa Bacciocchi), then Princess of Lucca and Piombino, to whose elegant little court several distinguished artists were at that time attracted.

Paganini became concertist and director of the orchestra there; and it was in this situation that he first attempted the execution of those triumphs of art under _diminished resources_, that have had, in the sequel, so large a share in the production of his success with the mult.i.tude. I allude to his acquired habit, displayed from time to time, of dispensing with the aid of _two_ or even _three_ of the strings of his instrument, and working apparent impossibilities with the remaining _two_ or _one_-a habit which, owing to his occasional abuse of it, has laid him open to a charge of charlatanism, even from the Italians. His incredible address in these extraordinary efforts, produced a degree of astonishment which may probably have given rise to some of those rumours, both romantic and ludicrous, that have been so freely a.s.sociated with his name. The explanation he has himself given of the origin of these performances, in the following letter to a friend, seems so consistent with his disposition at the period, that it may very readily command the preference in point of credibility:-

"At Lucca," he says, "I led the orchestra whenever the Reigning Family attended the opera. I was often sent for also to the court circle,-and once a fortnight I gave a grand concert,-but the Princess Eliza retired always before the conclusion, declaring that her nerves were too keenly affected by the sounds of my instrument. A certain lady, on the contrary, whom I had long adored in secret, was constant and a.s.siduous in her attendance at these musical meetings. I thought I could perceive that some secret influence attracted her towards me. Our mutual pa.s.sion insensibly increased; but, as motives of prudence made secrecy indispensable, and forbade any open declaration, the idea occurred to me of surprising her with a piece of musical gallantry, which would convey to her the expression of my feelings. Having announced my intention to produce a novelty at Court, under a t.i.tle (that of "A Love Scene") well calculated to excite the general curiosity, I could observe that that feeling was not diminished on my entering the music-room, with a violin provided with only _two strings_, the first and the fourth. The _first_ was intended to express the sentiments of a lady; the _fourth_, those of a despairing lover. Between the two, I established a sort of impa.s.sioned dialogue, in which the tenderest accents succeeded the violence of repeated fits of jealousy. Alternately plaintive and insinuating, there was at one moment a cry of grief or anger, and the next, of joyful reconciliation. The whole scene was eminently successful; the lady to whom it referred rewarded me by looks full of delighted amiability; and the princess Eliza, after loading me with praises, enquired if, after doing the impossible with _two_ strings, _one_ might not possibly suffice me. I instantly gave my promise to make the attempt; and, a few weeks afterwards, I produced a _Sonata on the fourth string_, which I ent.i.tled "Napoleon," and executed it on the 25th of August, before a brilliant and numerous Court. Its success having far surpa.s.sed my expectation, I may date from that period my predilection for the lower string; and, as my audience seemed never to tire of the pieces I had composed for it, I have at length arrived at that degree of facility which appears to have so much surprised you."

To find out sufficient scope for an entire field of melody, as the produce of a single musical string, must have demanded great study, as well as unremitting manual practice. Paganini extended the capability of the string to three octaves, including the harmonic sounds, which he developed into a most important resource. The success of this novelty was prodigiously increased, after he had presented it beyond the courtly circle, and made it public[37].

When the Princess Eliza became Grand d.u.c.h.ess of Tuscany, Paganini followed her to Florence, where he became an object of even fanatic admiration. His talent developed itself daily in new forms; but he had as yet very imperfectly learned to regulate its exercise. The amount of study, however, to which he had subjected himself, after ceasing to be the slave of his father, is a thing to excite astonishment. He had abandoned himself, in solitude, to the research with which his mind was occupied; and had then formed the plan of the _Studies_ which are known under his name, and wherein he proposed difficulties that he himself could not surmount without immense labour. It is a remarkable fact, also, that he suddenly interrupted his enquiries as to the possibility of augmenting the resources of the violin, in order to study seriously the works of Corelli, Vivaldi, Tartini, Pugnani and Viotti, and to ascertain the successive progress of his instrument. He afterwards familiarized himself with the works of the Violinists of France.

In the summer of 1808, after three years pa.s.sed at Lucca, Paganini, with the consent of his patroness, visited Leghorn, which city had been a scene of triumph to him seven years previously. How, at his first concert on this re-appearance, a cloud was converted into suns.h.i.+ne, has been pleasantly enough recorded by himself:-

"Having accidentally run a nail into my heel, I came on the stage _limping_-and the public greeted me with _a laugh_. At the moment when I was beginning my concerto, the tapers fell from my music-stand, drawing a fresh burst of laughter from the audience. Again, after the first few bars of the solo, my upper string broke-which raised the merriment to a climax:-but I went through the piece upon three strings-and the laughter was turned into shouts of enthusiasm."

Still retaining his engagement in the service of the Princess Bacciocchi, who was now become Grand d.u.c.h.ess of Tuscany, and established at Florence with her court, the great artist made professional excursions to various Italian cities-including one to Turin (where he was first attacked by the abdominal ailment which, in the sequel, so much enfeebled his health, and so often interrupted his travels, and disturbed the order of his concerts)-and another to Ferrara, where his grotesque mode of retaliation for an affront received in public, led to such a misunderstanding with the townspeople, as caused some jeopardy to his life.

About the commencement of 1813, his position at the Court of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Eliza was suddenly and disagreeably abolished. On a certain state occasion, Paganini appeared in the orchestra in the full-blown uniform of a Captain of the _Gendarmerie Royale_, which, as a general privilege, his fair patroness had authorized him to wear. He was now requested, however, to exchange it immediately for a suit of plain black. The sudden shock to his dignity was met by a refusal to comply with the order, and the result of this bearding of authority was his precipitate retreat from Florence, with (it is probable) a resolution to decline all future offers of a "fixed position."

In the city of Milan, where Paganini found many congenial attractions, he pa.s.sed a considerable time, at various epochs of his life. There he first saw, and entered into friends.h.i.+p with, Rossini. There, too (in March 1816), occurred, within the walls of _La Scala_, his contest with Lafont, the champion of French renown in the fiddle field. The story has been variously represented. It appears that Lafont challenged Paganini to join him in a concert, and conceived great hopes of beating him, when, after acceptance of the proposal, the wary Italian was found to make a very indifferent exhibition of power at the previous rehearsal.

When the rival display came on in earnest, however, the impression produced by Lafont, with his fine tone, and his graceful and elegant performance, was presently eclipsed _in toto_ by the superlative mastery shewn in the performance of the Genoese enchanter, who purposely followed in the track of his compet.i.tor, to establish his superiority at all points-outweighing him in the deliberate _adagio_, and outstripping him in all the agile feats of execution, besides transcending him wholly in the nicer _arcana_ of the art. Of this purport, at least, is the more common and probable account of the affair. But, if the Frenchman was thus conspicuously beaten, it would seem that (as in the case of Falstaff) it would "discolor too much the complexion of his greatness"

to acknowledge it: Monsieur Lafont wrote a letter of negation to a French journal, some fourteen years after the momentous day. In this letter he even decides himself to have obtained a partial advantage, alluding to some particular "phrase de chant,"-and he indulges in this pa.s.sage:-"On all occasions I have taken pleasure in rendering homage to his great talent but I have never said that he was the _first violinist in the world_: I have not done such injustice to the celebrated men, Kreutzer, Rode, Baillot, and Habeneck and I declare now, as I have always done, that the French school is the first in this world for the violin!"-To this self-and-country-vaunting epistle, as translated in the _Harmonicon_, Lafont found a respondent (April 7, 1830) in Signor Francesco Cianchettini, who a.s.serts, as one present on the occasion, that the public decision was in favour of the Italian, and compares the vain glory of French fiddlers, in their talk of Paganini, to the empty freedom of the gladiators of the Neronian age, in speaking of Hercules.

Paganini's own account of the affair exhibits a modest simplicity, tending to confirm any previous impressions of his having been the victor. After quoting it, however, Monsieur Fetis, who has repeatedly heard Lafont's relation of the circ.u.mstances, offers some remarks, which it is but right here to subjoin:-"It is not to be denied," says he, "that Lafont displayed much imprudence on that occasion. Doubtless he possessed qualities of a cla.s.sic order, more pure, and more a.n.a.logous to the French taste of his time, than those of Paganini. Doubtless he had greater volume and evenness of tone: but, with respect to original fancy, the poetry of playing, and the mastery over difficulties, he could place himself in no comparison with his antagonist. In a concert at the Paris _Conservatoire_, the palm, in 1816, would perhaps have been awarded to _him_ (Lafont): but, in presence of an Italian audience, eager for novelty, originality, and impulsion, he must needs have succ.u.mbed." To continue our narrative of Paganini's "life, behaviour and conversation,"-the French musical Amateur, Count de Stendhal (Monsieur Beyle) has alluded to him descriptively at two periods. In 1814, he observes, "Paganini, the Genoese, is, it appears to me, the first violinist in Italy. He cultivates an exceeding softness of expression. He plays concertos as unmeaning as those which set us gaping at Paris; but his delicate softness is always a distinction in his favour. I love especially to hear him execute variations on the fourth string of his instrument." And again, in 1817, he writes of him, as of a Genoese who played very finely on the violin-being "_equal to the French_ in execution, and superior in fire and originality!"-Mathews, the author of the "Diary of an Invalid," offers the following remarks on him in the year 1818:-"He is a man of eccentric character and irregular habits. Though generally resident at Turin, he has no fixed engagement, but, as occasion may require, makes a trading voyage through the princ.i.p.al cities of Italy, and can always procure a theatre, upon the condition of equal partic.i.p.ation in the receipts. Many stories are told of the means by which he has acquired his astonis.h.i.+ng style; such as having been imprisoned ten years, with no other resource. His performance bears the stamp of the eccentricity of his character. His tone, and the thrilling intonation of his double stops, are electric.

His bow moves as if it were part of himself, and endued with life and feeling."

In proof of the extensive sphere of his attraction, the following anecdote, having reference to the year 1824, has been published. A northern traveller, and pa.s.sionate lover of music, M. Bergman, reading accidentally, the evening before, in the Journal, at Leghorn, an announcement of Paganini's concert, instantly set out for Genoa, a distance of 100 miles, and luckily reached the spot just half an hour before the concert began! He came with his expectations raised to the utmost; but, to use his own expression, the reality was as far above his antic.i.p.ations, as the heavens are above the earth. Nor could this enthusiastic amateur rest content with once hearing Paganini, but actually followed him to Milan, to hear him _de novo_. Of the two concerts which the great artist gave at _La Scala_ at that time, the first consisted entirely (as far as regarded his own performance) of exhibitions on the fourth string! and may be said to form a remarkable ant.i.thesis to the case of the man so specially indicated by the late Charles Mathews, as having _lost_ his G! The public were in ecstacies; but it was observed, with some regret, by the judicious among Paganini's auditors at these two concerts, that he was neglecting the _cantabile_, and the n.o.bler powers of his instrument, for the difficult and astonis.h.i.+ng. Yet it was to no want of sensibility in the soul of the artist, that this deviation was to be attributed; for he had before expressed his high admiration of Spohr, the German violinist, so celebrated for the excellence of his _cantabile_, and had given him full credit for being the greatest and most perfect _singer_ upon his instrument-retaining, however, the satisfactory consciousness, as it has been supposed, of his own immeasurable superiority in the _aggregate_ of the qualities for which all the greatest masters have been distinguished.