Great Violinists and Pianists

In originality as a composer for the violin, probably no one can surpass De Bériot except Paganini, who exerted a remarkable modifying influence on him after he had formed his o...

Spohr was most graciously received by the duke, who was satisfied with the proofs of industry and ambition shown by his _protege_. The celebrated Rode, Viotti's most brilliant p...

"Nothing can be more intense in feeling," said a contemporary critic, "than his conception and delivery of an adagio passage. His tone is, perhaps, not quite so full and round a...

Garat, who relates this conversation, tells us that at the appointed time he returned to the house. All the barrels and wagons that had encumbered the courtyard were cleared awa...

The youthful player had already begun to search out new effects on the violin, and to create for himself characteristics of tone and treatment hitherto unknown to players. After...

Robert Schumann's Place as a National Composer.--Peculiar Greatness as a Piano-forte Composer.--Born at Zwickau in 1810.--His Father's Aversion to his Musical Studies.--Becomes...

Veracini played upon a fine Steiner violin. The only master he ever had was his uncle Antonio, of Florence; and it was by traveling all over Europe, and by numerous performances...

During Thalberg's first visit to America he had an active and dangerous rival in the young and brilliant pianist, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who was as fresh to New York audiences...

Thalberg one of the Greatest of Executants.--Bather a Man of Remarkable Talents than of Genius.--Moscheles's Description of him.--The Illegitimate Son of an Austrian Prince.--Ea...

In a few hours Ole Bull was performing before a distinguished audience in the concert-hall of the Philharmonic Society. Among the pieces he played, all of his own composition, w...

De Bériot's High Place in the Art of the Violin and Violin Music.--The Scion of an Impoverished Noble Family.--Early Education and Musical Training.--He seeks the Advice of Viot...

Soon after Liszt's connection with Mme. D'Agoult began, he retired with his devoted companion to Geneva, Switzerland, a city always celebrated in the annals of European literatu...

Haydn and Mozart, who composed somewhat for the harpsichord (for until the closing years of the eighteenth century this instrument had not entirely yielded to the growing popula...

He composed the opera of "The Crusaders" in 1845, and he was invited to conduct the first performance in Berlin. He relates two pleasing incidents in his "Autobiography." He had...

The spring of 1869 brought Gottschalk to the last scene of his musical triumphs, for the span of his career was about to close over him. Rio Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, gave...

As an illustration of Schumann's style and method of treating musical subjects, we can not do better than give his article on Chopin's "Don Juan Fantasia": "Eusebius entered not...

This scheme was followed out strictly, and Moscheles at the age of fourteen had acquired a sufficient mastery of the piano to give a concert at Prague with brilliant success. Th...

The great artist whose work is thus made the subject of Longfellow's verse was born at Cremona in 1644. His renown is beyond that of all others, and his praise has been sounded...

The title of this little book may be misleading to some of its readers, in its failure to include sketches of many eminent artists well worthy to be classed under such a head. T...

In a letter from Berlioz to Liszt, the writer gives us a vivid idea of the great virtuoso's playing and its effects. Berlioz is complaining of the difficulties which hamper the...