A Biographical Dictionary of Fiddlers di A. Mason Clarke
Biographical Dictionary of Fiddlers. 1.09
from our own countrymen, we will now turn to France with a view to confirming what may appear, at first sight, the outcome of an over-heated imagination.
Here is the text of a criticism by G. Imbert de Laphaleque:—To bring the art of performing upon the violin to such perfection that what is material or mechanical in the process shall no longer be apparent, is a difficult problem to solve. Such a result is only to be attained by those who are born musicians. Tartini, Pugnani, Mestrino, Jarnowick, had each great reputation. They obtained it not only by astonishing powers of execution, but by the soul with which they imbued the sounds they produced. One of the most celebrated of Pugnani's pupils, Viotti (of whom we should have but a poor idea were we to judge of him by the report of a biographer, who, in order to describe his talent, makes use of the following ridiculous image, ' a bow of cotton, governed by the arm of Hercules,'')—Viotti, it will be well remembered, knew how to make his hearers participate in the emotions he himself experienced. He was eloquent, pathetic, and sometimes affecting even to tears; nevertheless, in common with Tartini, Pugnani, and Mestrino, he must have been master of all the resources of the instrument on which he possessed such an incontestable superiority. Since
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Dictionary Fiddlers France Imbert Laphaleque Pugnani Mestrino Jarnowick Pugnani Viotti Hercules Tartini Pugnani Mestrino Tartini They One Viotti
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