Great Violinists And Pianists | Page 3

Piano.--His Powerful Influence on the
Musical Culture and Tendencies of his Age.
THE SCHUMANNS AND CHOPIN.
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 a Student of Jurisprudence
in Leipzig.--Makes the Acquaintance of Clara Wieck.--Tedium of his
Law Studies.--Vacation Tour to Italy.--Death of his Father, and
Consent of his Mother to Schumann adopting the Profession of
Music.--Becomes Wieck's Pupil.--Injury to his Hand which prevents all
Possibilities of his becoming a Great Performer.--Devotes himself to
Composition.--The Child, Clara Wieck--Remarkable Genius as a
Player.--Her Early Training.--Paganini's Delight in her Genius.--Clara
Wieck's Concert Tours.--Schumann falls deeply in Love with her, and
Wieck's Opposition.--His Allusions to Clara in the "Neue
Zeit-schrift."--Schumann at Vienna.--His Compositions at first
Unpopular, though played by Clara Wieck and Liszt.--Schumann's
Labors as a Critic.--He marries Clara in 1840.--His Song Period
inspired by his Wife.--Tour to Russia, and Brilliant Reception given to
the Artist Pair.--The "Neue Zeitschrift" and its Mission.--The
Davidsbund.--Peculiar Style of Schumann's Writing.--He moves to
Dresden.--Active Production in Orchestral Composition.--Artistic Tour
in Holland.--He is seized with Brain Disease.--Characteristics as a Man,

as an Artist, and as a Philosopher.--Mme. Schumann as her Husband's
Interpreter.--Chopin a Colaborer with Schumann.--Schumann on
Chopin again.--Chopin's Nativity.--Exclusively a Piano-forte
Composer.--His Genre as Pianist and Composer.--Aversion to
Concert-giving.--Parisian Associations.--New Style of Technique
demanded by his Works.--Unique Treatment of the
Instrument.--Characteristics of Chopin's Compositions.
THALBERG AND GOTTSCHALK.
Thalberg one of the Greatest of Executants.--Rather a Man of
Remarkable Talents than of Genius.--Moseheles's Description of
him.--The Illegitimate Son of an Austrian Prince.--Early Introduction to
Musical Society in London and Vienna.--Beginning of his Career as a
Virtuoso.--The Brilliancy of his Career.--Is appointed Court Pianist to
the Emperor of Austria.--His Marriage.--Visits to America.--Thalberg's
Artistic Idiosyncrasy.--Robert Schumann on his Playing.--His
Appearance and Manner.--Characterization by George William
Curtis.--Thalberg's Style and Worth as an Artist.--His Piano-forte
Method, and Place as a Composer for the Piano.--Gottschalk's Birth
and Early Years.--He is sent to Paris for Instruction.--Successful
_Début_ and Publie Concerts in Paris and Tour through the French
Cities.--Friendship with Berlioz.--Concert Tour to Spain.--Romantic
Experiences.--Berlioz on Gottschalk.--Reception of Gottschalk in
America.--Criticism of his Style.--Remarkable Success of his
Concerts.--His Visit to the West Indies, Mexico, and Central
America.--Protracted Absence.--Gottschalk on Life in the
Tropics.--Return to the United States.--Three Brilliant Musical
Years.--Departure for South America.--Triumphant Procession through
the Spanish-American Cities.--Death at Rio Janeiro.--Notes on
Gottschalk as Man and Artist.
FRANZ LISZT.
The Spoiled Favorite of Fortune.--His Inherited Genius.--Birth and
Early Training.--First Appearance in Concert.--Adam Liszt and his Son
in Paris.--Sensation made by the Boy's Playing.--His Morbid Religious
Sufferings.--Franz Liszt thrown on his own Resources.--The Artistic

Circle in Paris.--Liszt in the Ranks of Romanticism.--His Friends and
Associates.--Mme. D'Agoult and her Connection with Franz Liszt.--He
retires to Geneva.--Is recalled to Paris by the Thalberg Furore.--Rivalry
between the Artists and their Factions.--He commences his Career as
Traveling Virtuoso.--The Blaze of Enthusiasm throughout
Europe.--Schumann on Liszt as Man and Artist.--He ranks the
Hungarian Virtuoso as the Superior of Thalberg.--Liszt's Generosity to
his own Countrymen.--The Honors paid to him in Pesth.--Incidents of
his Musical Wanderings.--He loses the Proceeds of Three Hundred
Concerts.--Contributes to the Completion of the Cologne
Cathedral.--His Connection with the Beethoven Statue at Bonn, and the
Celebration of the Unveiling.--Chorley on Liszt.--Berlioz and
Liszt.--Character of the Enthusiasm called out by Liszt as an
Artist.--Remarkable Personality as a Man.--Berlioz characterizes the
Great Virtuoso in a Letter.--Liszt ceases his Life as a Virtuoso, and
becomes Chapel-Master and Court Conductor at Weimar.--Avowed
Belief in the New School of Music, and Production of Works of this
School.--Wagner's Testimony to Liszt's Assistance.--Liszt's
Resignation of his Weimar Post after Ten Years.--His Subsequent
Life.--He takes Holy Orders.--Liszt as a Virtuoso and
Composer.--Entitled to be placed among the most Remarkable Men of
his Age.

THE GREAT VIOLINISTS AND PIANISTS.

THE VIOLIN AND EARLY VIOLINISTS.
The Ancestry of the Violin.--The Origin of the Cremona School of
Violin-Making.--The Amatis and Stradiuarii.--Extraordinary Art
Activity of Italy at this Period.--Antonius Stradiuarius and Joseph
Guarnerius.--Something about the Lives of the Two Greatest
Violin-Makers of the World.--Corelli, the First Great Violinist.--His
Contemporaries and Associates.--Anecdotes of his Career.--Corelli's
Pupil, Geminiani.--Philidor, the Composer, Violinist, and
Chess-Player.--Giuseppe Tartini.--Becomes an Outcast from his Family

on Account of his Love of Music.--Anecdote of the Violinist
Veracini.--Tartini's Scientific Discoveries in Music.--His Account of
the Origin of the "Devil's Trill."--Tartini's Pupils.
I.
The ancestry of the violin, considering this as the type of stringed
instruments played with a bow, goes back to the earliest antiquity; and
innumerable passages might be quoted from the Oriental and classical
writers illustrating the important part taken by the forefathers of the
modern violin in feast, festival, and religious ceremonial, in the fiery
delights of battle, and the more dulcet enjoyments of peace. But it was
not till the fifteenth century, in Italy, that the art of making instruments
of the viol class