Giovanni Viotti

Giovanni Battista Viotti was an Italian violinist, composer, and conductor born on May 23 (or May 12) 1755 (one year before Mozart was born.) He took lessons from Gaetano Pugnani (pupil of Giovanni Somis) and later even toured with him until he made his Paris debut in 1782, where he was an immediate success. In fact, by all accounts, Viotti was the most brilliant violinist the public had ever heard until Paganini came along.  Partly due to the French Revolution, he moved to London in 1792, where he enjoyed acclaim, playing for royalty and directing various musical enterprises. He played many concerts alongside Johann Peter Salomon, another highly acclaimed violinist and impresario in London at the time.  Unfortunately, Viotti was forced to leave England after France and England became engaged in hostilities. He then retired from playing to run some kind of wine business which ultimately did not do very well. From 1819 to 1821, he ran the Royal Academy of Music in Paris. His pupils included Rode and Baillot who were instrumental in establishing a French school of violin playing, whatever that means.  It has been said that Viotti was very particular about who would be admitted into his violin class but never charged his students for lessons.  Viotti wrote 29 violin concertos, now seldom played. Nevertheless, Viotti's violin concerto number 22 in A minor was very much admired by Brahms. It has even been said that Joachim admired this Viotti concerto more than the Mendelssohn or Brahms concertos.  Viotti also wrote chamber music and a few songs plus a violin study book which remained unpublished until Habeneck incorporated a portion of it in his own method book many years later.  A famous (and beautiful) Stradivarius violin from 1709 is named after him. Viotti died (in London) on March 3, 1824, at age 68 (about three years before Beethoven.)