A Biographical Dictionary of Fiddlers di A. Mason Clarke
370
SUPPLEMENT.
One of the Italian musical periodicals contained the following report:—
M. Ole Bull plays the music of Spohr, Mayseder, Pugnani, and others, without knowing the true character of the music he plays ; and partly spoils it by adding a colour of his own. It is manifest that this colour of his own proceeds from an original,poetical and musical individuality, but of this originality he is himself unconscious. He has not formed himself ; in fact, he has no style ; he is an uneducated musician. Whether he is a diamond or not is uncertain; but certain it is that the diamond is not polished.
This criticism led Ole Bull to seriously review his abilities as a performer, and in the result he discovered himself to be sadly deficient in that style of playing upon which the Italians set so high a value, viz., the cantabile. Ole Bull, however, determined to remedy this at once, and six months' hard study and practice effected wonderful results. From Milan he went to Venice, where his performances aroused the warmest enthusiasm, and he was thereupon created a member of the Philharmonic Society. It was at Bologna, however, that Ole Bull scored his real first success. On arriving in that town he found De Beriot and Malibran about to fulfil an engagment to play at one of the Philharmonic Society's concerts. At the
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Italian Ole Bull Spohr Mayseder Pugnani Ole Bull Italians Bull Milan Venice Philharmonic Society Bologna Ole Bull De Beriot Malibran Philharmonic Society Whether Ole
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