Famous Quotes About Violins and Violinists

by Hermione Lai  

The violin is one of the most perfect instruments! It is the soprano member of the family of string instruments and has extraordinary musical versatility. The beauty and emotional appeal of the instrument are close to the human voice, and the violin is also capable of fantastic agility and brilliant figuration. For many great artists, “the violin represents one of the greatest triumphs of instrument making.” The instrument originated in Italy, and we all know the names of the famed violinmakers Nicolò Amati, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Antonio Stradivari. The violin has since become part of numerous cultural and musical activities across the globe, and composers have written countless great works of art for the instrument. Let us sample 10 famous quotes about violins and violinists from classical musicians and other famous arts personalities.

“I know that the most joy in my life has come to me from my violin” – Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, 1921

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) is probably one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. His theory of relativity revolutionized the way we look at the Universe, but his emotional passion belonged to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his violin sonatas. Einstein once said, “Mozart’s music is so pure that it seems to have been ever-present in the universe waiting to be discovered by the master.” Einstein started to take violin lessons at an early age and he became an accomplished amateur. As Einstein’s friend Janos Plesch wrote, “There are many musicians with much better technique, but none, I believe, who ever played with more sincerity or deeper feeling.” In another famous quote Einstein stated, “If I had not been a scientist, I would have been a musician. Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”   

“I wound up sticking with violin because it was the strongest current in my life.” – Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn

Three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn is famous for her “clear and brilliant musicality, expansive interpretations of an incredibly varied repertoire, and organic connections with her audience.” Hahn is without doubt, one of the greatest violinists on today’s concert stage. She showed remarkable musical ability as a toddler, but was equally interested in the visual arts, took gymnastics and rowing lessons, and freely admits that her biggest love was ballet. Her ballet lessons complemented instructions on violin technique and musical phrasing, as her teacher “always advised me to think about music as stories beyond the notes, and explained how to memorize and analyze the language of music.” Hahn remembers that after a good performance, “she was rewarded not with going somewhere, not with cakes or candies, but with a new book.” And as we learn from her famous quote, Hahn would have been successful in any field, but thankfully she stuck with the violin.   

“A violinist should always be happy when he is playing. If he is playing well, he should be happy that he is playing well. If he is not playing well, then he should be happy because it will soon be over.” – Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz, 1907

The unique and singular Jascha Heifetz was nicknamed “God’s fiddler,” as he was hailed as a “transcendentally great violinist.” He was only 16 when he walked onto the stage of Carnegie Hall, and a critic writes, “Heifetz’s breadth, poise, and perfect regard for the turn of a phrase constantly left his hearers spellbound. Nothing that he undertook was without a finish so complete, so carefully considered and worked out, that its betterment did not seem possible…For the moment it is sufficient to say that he is supreme; a master, though only sixteen.” Heifetz was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and he started violin lessons at the age of two. His public performances quickly created a sensation, and he would soon take Europe by storm. Heifetz was considered “the greatest violin virtuoso since Paganini,” but as his famous quote discloses, he remained a humble servant to music and his profession

“My father gave me my elementary lessons on the violin; in a very few months, I was able to play all manner of compositions at sight.” – Niccolo Paganini

Niccolo Paganini, 1836

Niccolò Paganini is probably the most famous violinist of all time. However, he never really spoke well of his father. As he reported, “It would be hard to conceive of a stricter father. If he didn’t think I was industrious enough, he compelled me to redouble my efforts by making me go without food.” Supposedly, Paganini was forced to practice the violin for up to 15 hours a day, and withholding food and water would certainly be considered child abuse today. The violinist writes, “I really didn’t require such harsh stimulus, because I was enthusiastic about my instrument and studied it unceasingly in order to discover new and hitherto unsuspected effects that would astound people.” The only thing his father really wanted was to make money from the boy’s musical talents. Nevertheless, Paganini almost single-handedly established a new brand of performing musician, the touring virtuoso, and his influence on violin performance is timeless.

“The violin—that most human of all instruments.” – Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott

Our next famous quote about violins and violinists comes from the novelist, short story writer, and poetess Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). She is best known for her novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boy’s. Jo’s Boy’s follows the characters introduced in Little Men, and we learn much about the violinist “Nat.” The famous quotation originates in a scene when Nat, who had studied in Germany, is asked to play and surprises his family with his progress in music and the energy and self-possession, which had made him a new man. “By and by when the violin—that most human of all instruments—had sung to them the loveliest songs without words, he said, looking about him at these old friends with a feeling of happiness and content, ‘Now let me play something that you will all remember though you won’t love it as I do.’ Mrs Jo said, some of our boys are failures, but I think this one is going to be a success.”

“It is as absurd to say that a man can’t love one woman all the time as it is to say that a violinist needs several violins to play the same piece of music.” – Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac, 1842

For our next famous quote about violins and violinists let’s stay in the realm of literature. The French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was famous for his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society. Critics called him “one of the founders of realism in European literature.” Balzac did not play any instruments, but music provided much inspiration for his works. Balzac was a close friend of George Sand, and part of an exciting artistic environment in 19th-century Paris. Some commentators have suggested that Balzac was thinking of Franz Liszt when he wrote “It is as absurd to say that a man can’t love one woman all the time as it is to say that a violinist needs several violins to play the same piece of music.” He did apparently qualify this initial assessment with another famous quote, “The majority of husbands remind me of an orangutan trying to play the violin.” I still don’t understand what that means.

“In the musician, there is a tendency to have a narrowness. It’s all compartmentalized. I am playing the violin; that’s all I know, nothing else, no education, no nothing.” – Itzhak Perlman

Itzhak Perlman

The great violinist Itzhak Perlman is one of the world’s most popular classical musicians. “Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to his irrepressible joy for making music.” Perlman has phenomenal talent and produces a big and radiant sound of great beauty and phrasing, with “immense breadth when the music demands it.” But what is even more, his outgoing and genial character and his generous temperament allow him to easily connect with the public, “and to call on deep reserves of emotion and humanity.” Perlman was stricken with polio at the age of four, and had to learn how to walk with crutches and how to play the violin in a seated position. As he said in another famous quote, “to be a child prodigy is a curse because you’ve got all those terrible possibilities.”

“When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you’re telling a story.” – Joshua Bell

Joshua Bell

Famed violinist Joshua Bell, who made his debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, has many stories to tell. He studied with the legendary Russian pedagogue Josef Gingold, and is currently in charge of the fantastic Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin, an instrument dating from Stradivari’s “Golden Era.” Bell just loves to explore technology, and he has collaborated with artists across a multitude of genres. In the process, he has recorded well over 40 albums, been named a “Young Global Leader,” and been nominated for six Grammy Awards. In 2007, Bell performed incognito in a Washington, D.C. metro station, which inspired the children’s book and subsequently an animated film titled. “The Man with the Violin.” You can easily tell where his love for storytelling is coming from, can’t you

“Art begins where technique ends.” – Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer (1845-1930) might be the most iconic violin teacher the world has ever seen. Among his students were Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman, Efrem Zimbalist, and numerous other great musicians. Jascha Heifetz wrote, “Auer is a wonderful and an incomparable teacher; I do not believe there is one in the world who can possibly approach him. A half-hour with Auer is always to me a great emotional and intellectual stimulus. ”Many commentators consider him as the founder of the “Russian Violin School,” and a decisive force in the development of modern violin pedagogy. The majority of his students came to him as finished technicians, so that he could develop their interpretative powers. And that is exactly what his famous quote refers to, which continues as follows: “There can be no real art development before one’s technique is firmly established. And a great deal of technical work has to be done before the great works of violin literature, the sonatas and concertos, may be approached.”

“The only downside to playing the violin is that you never know when you’re going to be asked to play.” – Charlie Siem

Charlie Siem

Charlie Siem is one of today’s foremost young violinists, with such a wide-ranging diversity of cross-cultural appeal as to “have played a large part in defining what it means to be a true artist of the 21st century.” And that means countless collaborations and endorsements from fashion brands including Armani, Chanel, Dior, Dunhill, and Hugo Boss. This kind of notoriety is expressed in his famous quote, “The only downside to playing the violin is that you never know when you’re going to be asked to play, I could be out to dinner or having a drink at a bar, and someone could just give me a violin, and I’ve got to be ready to play.” Above all, Siem is passionate about bringing classical music to new audiences, and it certainly appears that he is succeeding. There are literally hundreds of famous quotes about violins and violinists, so this top 10 is just a small and very personal sample. I hope you enjoyed my selections.

Schumann-Liszt Widmung

by Anson Yeung  

Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck © pages.stolaf.edu

Marked by its technical bravura, Widmung (or Dedication in English) has remained one of the most popular encore pieces in piano recital, allowing pianists to display their virtuosity. However, Widmung is much more than a mere showpiece – containing probably the most passionate music writing and most heartfelt feelings. Written by Robert Schumann in 1840 (this piece was from a set of Lieder called Myrthen, Op.25), this piece was later arranged for piano solo by Franz Liszt. Myrthen was dedicated to Clara Wieck as a wedding gift, as he finally married Clara in September, despite the opposition from Clara’s father (who was also Robert’s piano teacher).

Below is the text of Widmung, written by Friedrich Rückert, with English translation:

Original Text by Friedrich Rückert

English Translation (by Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005))

Du meine Seele, du mein Herz, Du meine Wonn’, o du mein Schmerz, Du meine Welt, in der ich lebe, Mein Himmel du, darein ich schwebe, O du mein Grab, in das hinab Ich ewig meinen Kummer gab! Du bist die Ruh, du bist der Frieden, Du bist vom Himmel mir beschieden. Dass du mich liebst, macht mich mir wert, Dein Blick hat mich vor mir verklärt, Du hebst mich liebend über mich, Mein guter Geist, mein bess’res Ich!

You my soul, you my heart, You my rapture, O you my pain, You my world in which I live, My heaven you, to which I aspire, O you my grave, into which My grief forever I’ve consigned! You are repose, you are peace, You are bestowed on me from heaven. Your love for me gives me my worth, Your eyes transfigure me in mine, You raise me lovingly above myself, My guardian angel, my better self!

The work starts with a flowing sense of pulse, while the first phrase (“Du meine Seele, du mein Herz”) already captures Schumann’s love for Clara and devotion to the relationship. Here, Schumann sincerely confesses to Clara, declaring how important she is to him. For him, Clara is his angel, his spiritual support, and his entire world. Nevertheless, there is still a sense of fear and insecurity in the music, due to separation and uncertainty about their future. This complex mixture of feelings, as a true and full-bodied representation of love, certainly strengthens the emotional power of the music.

Friedrich Rückert © www.britannica.com

Liszt lengthened the first section by repeating the first theme, but with the melodic line mostly embedded in left hand (with some intertwining) and accompaniment in higher register. Then, the music moves on to the chordal section in E major, which is unchanged in Liszt’s arrangement. The repeated chords convey warmth, tenderness and peace, especially when the text here is associated with death and heaven. Here, the love has changed into everlasting, eternal one – love that transcends space and time.

Franz Liszt © img.wikicharlie.cl

After the brief hand-crossing passage, the music reaches its most technically brilliant and rousing part with arpeggios on right hand and chords highlighting the melodic line on left hand, revealing Schumann’s most intimate feelings. It is the moment when Schumann’s love for Clara becomes so dramatic and uncontrollable, and eventually erupts – a perfect combination of rapture, passion, commitment and sense of elevation. The rich orchestral colours (such as the harp-like figurations, quasi-brass calls) in the music further heightens the emotional intensity. What an outpouring of love here.

In the extended coda, where there are some triumphant chords marked fff, the passion in the music remains, but this time presenting different moods. With ecstatic joy, the music transforms into a declaration, as if Schumann is announcing that he is determined to spend the rest of his lifetime with Clara and willing to make sacrifices in the face of adversity, for Clara is an indescribable miracle of his life.

Maria Curcio Was One of the Best Piano Teachers Ever. Here’s Why

 by Emily E. Hogstad 

 

Maria Curcio could easily have been one of the most famous pianists of the twentieth century.

So why do only a handful of classical music lovers know her name today? What kept her from the solo career she seems to have been born for?

Today, we’re looking at the remarkable story of Maria Curcio: her astonishing precocity, the story of how she escaped the Nazis, and how she came back from wartime health issues to become one of the most influential piano teachers of all time.   

Maria Curcio’s Childhood

Maria Curcio

Maria Curcio was born in August 1918 near Naples, Italy.

Her father was a wealthy Italian businessman, and her mother was a Jewish Brazilian pianist who studied under a pupil of composer/pianist Ferruccio Busoni.

Maria began taking piano lessons from her mother when she was  three years old.

She started giving public performances that same year, expressing delight at the toys that the appreciative audience handed her.

Curcio’s Unhappy Childhood

Curcio’s parents chose to homeschool her, so she’d have as much time as possible to pursue her musical studies and tour.

She didn’t go to school and didn’t play with other children. As an elderly woman, she described her childhood as “not a happy one.”

When she was seven, she was invited to perform for Mussolini. However, on the day of the performance, she threw a tantrum and hid underneath a tablecloth, refusing to come out. According to legend she claimed he was “ruining our country.”

Studying With Legendary Teachers

Maria Curcio

Despite that scandalous no-show, Italian artists took note of the prodigy.

Composer Ottorino Respighi invited her to perform at his home in Rome, and she studied for a time with composer and pianist Alfredo Casella.

Artur Schnabel

She also worked with pianist and conductor Carlo Zecchi, a student of legendary pianist and pedagogue Artur Schnabel.

Later, after her graduation from the Naples Conservatory at the age of fourteen, she spent a year in Paris studying with Nadia Boulanger, the most influential music teacher of the twentieth century.

Meeting Schnabel

Karl Ulrich Schnabel, 1940’s © schnabelmusicfoundation.org

When she returned to Italy, she played for pianist Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Artur’s son.

Karl knew his father didn’t like working with children, but Curcio was simply so dazzling that he urged his father to hear her play.

So Zecchi took Curcio to Lake Como, where the elder Schnabel was ensconced, teaching a series of masterclasses.

Schnabel was blown away by her, declaring her “one of the greatest talents I have ever met.” He quickly asked her to be his pupil.   

Curcio would also work intensively with Schnabel’s wife, singer Therese Behr, providing accompaniments to her students. This training gave her important insights into vocalists’ approaches to music. She later said that she learned just as much from Behr as she did Schnabel.

Through Schnabel, she met conductor Fritz Busch, who offered to work with her while Schnabel was touring. This invaluable connection enabled her to hear legendary opera and orchestral performances.

“You can’t play Mozart if you don’t know the operas,” she later said in an interview. “Because Mozart was vocal.”

A Promising Career Interrupted by War

In 1939, when Curcio was nineteen, she made her London debut.

Unfortunately for Curcio, 1939 was one of the worst years of the century to launch a European career.

That September, Hitler invaded Poland, sparking World War II. Months later, in the spring of 1940, the Nazis made another push and invaded multiple other European countries, including Holland.

Staying in Amsterdam During the Occupation

Upon the outbreak of war, Schnabel’s Jewish secretary, Peter Diamand, moved back to his home in Amsterdam. Curcio joined him and continued her concert career there.

After the Nazis forbade Jews from playing music in public, she protested by refusing to concertize. “I wouldn’t accept to play in a country where not everybody had equal rights.”

Her parents begged her to return to Italy, even involving the Italian ambassador and consul to convince her. But she was deeply loyal to her colleague, and she wasn’t about to abandon him.

Saving Peter Diamand

Diamand ended up being arrested by the Nazis and interned in a Dutch concentration camp. It was only through Curcio’s intervention and string-pulling that he and his mother were kept from being sent to an extermination camp deeper in Nazi territory.

The Diamands were freed, but were told that they would be prime candidates for re-arrest in the near future. It became clear they had no other option but to go into hiding.

Curcio coordinated the dangerous work of securing food and forged identity papers for them. The trio hid in cramped conditions, suffering extensive physical and mental traumas from their ordeal.

During their time underground, Curcio developed tuberculosis and malnutrition. It would take years of work for her to regain use of her limbs and enough physical strength to play piano at a high level again.

While filming a 1980s documentary, Diamand remarked, “It was typical for Maria. I mean, as I said, there are no compromises, and when it means risking one’s life, she risked her life.”

“Would you say that part of the price she paid was her concert career?” the interviewer asked him.

“Indeed,” Diamand replied. “Indeed. She ruined her health.”

Despite the intensity and desperation of their circumstances, or maybe because of them, Curcio and Diamand fell in love. They married in 1947.

Recovering from the War

After the war, she entered a sanitarium to recover from her tuberculosis infection.

She later told a student that while she was bedbound, she spent a huge amount of time thinking about how to play the piano, working out technical and musical problems in her head.

(During this time, fellow patient, conductor Otto Klemperer, tried flirting with her, but only succeeded in spilling orange juice on her.)

She slowly returned to playing during the 1950s.

Although she had lost a huge amount of strength and time, she had also built up a reserve of inner strength and internal conviction that would serve her well as a teacher.

Making Musical Friends

She also had the benefit of being married to Diamand, who, in 1948, became director of the Holland Festival.

As she recovered, through her husband’s work, she was able to remain connected with the greatest musicians of the era.

During this second phase of her performing career, she worked with stars like Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears, Otto Klemperer, Pierre Monteux, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler also wanted to work with her, but, interestingly, she declined. Although she admired his music-making, she couldn’t justify working with someone whom she felt had legitimised the Nazis.

He sent her a bouquet of roses as a token of his admiration, and she returned the generous gesture by sending him a gift of oranges (a rare treat in late 1940s Europe), but she still refused to make music with him.

In 1963, the year she turned forty-five, she retired from public performance, choosing to focus on teaching instead.

Moving to Britain

In 1965, Peter Diamand was named the director of the Edinburgh International Festival, a position he would hold for thirteen years. The couple moved from Amsterdam to the United Kingdom.

This appointment helped to solidify the family’s connection with Benjamin Britten, who had several of his most important works premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1950s and 1960s.

Curcio often played four-hand piano with him, and the two artists exchanged ideas and inspiration.

Britten helped her get a position teaching at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She also joined the jury of the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition.

Her Teaching Career

Maria Curcio and Simone Dinnerstein

After she settled in Britain, her reputation as a teacher began to grow exponentially.

Many of the most beloved pianists of the last and current centuries visited her studio seeking advice, including:

• Martha Argerich
• Simone Dinnerstein
• Leon Fleisher
• Radu Lupu
• Yevgeny Sudbin
• Inon Barnatan
• Mitsuko Uchida

And those are only a few of many.

Later Life and Death

In 1971, when she was fifty-three, it came out that Diamand had an affair with actress Marlene Dietrich. He and Curcio divorced that year. However, he continued to speak positively of her and agreed to be interviewed for a documentary in the 1980s.

Through the personal turmoil, she continued teaching and redoubling her devotion to her career and her students.

In her eighties, she moved to the coastal city of Porto, Portugal, where she died in 2009. She was ninety years old.

The Legacy of Maria Curcio

Thankfully, before her death, a couple of priceless documentaries were made about her, featuring interviews with her, Diamand, and some of her students.

One BBC Scotland documentary from the 1980s begins with her telling a pupil who is playing the Chopin G-minor Ballade:

The sound that we need on the piano must always not express just notes; it must express feelings.

It must be immediately the transmission between your soul and the soul of the composer, which goes through your ear and your hands, must go immediately to us.

It’s the soul of Chopin which is crying, which is loving.

It’s not the notes.

The Greatest Child Prodigies of All Time, Part 1

by Emily E. Hogstad 

 

Throughout music history, there have been many incredible children who have demonstrated an astonishing, unnervingly early mastery of their art.

Some went on to become the greatest musicians of their age. Others have vanished from our collective memories.

One thing they all have in common is that the stories of their childhoods are all fascinating.

Today, we’re looking at the backgrounds, education, and jaw-dropping accomplishments of some of the greatest child prodigies of all time.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is likely the most famous musical prodigy of all time. He was born in 1756, the second surviving child of court musician Leopold Mozart and his wife.

His older sister Maria Anna, nicknamed Nannerl, began taking keyboard lessons when she was seven and Wolfgang was three.

Nannerl later wrote:

He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good…

In the fourth year of his age, his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier… He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time…

At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father, who wrote them down.

Despite Leopold’s reputation as a pushy stage father, when it came to his early attempts at composition, Wolfgang was clearly the instigator. His early manuscripts are stained with ink and bear evidence of his enthusiasm for composing.

After both Nannerl and Wolfgang became prodigies, Leopold decided to take leave from his job and accompany them on a tour of Europe. Over a period of years, the Mozart family traveled across Austria, Germany, France, and Britain, showcasing the talents of both children.

Wolfgang composed on the road and wrote his first symphony when he was eight (possibly with the assistance of Nannerl).  

Thomas Linley the Younger

Thomas Linley the Younger

Thomas Linley the younger was born the same year as Mozart, in 1756, in Bath, England. His father shared his name, so the son often went by the nickname Tom.

Thomas Linley the Elder made his living as a music teacher and local impresario, and eventually became the most famous musical patriarch in Bath.

Presenting concerts became a family affair. His children, including Tom, started out by collecting tickets, but once they began showing musical talent, Thomas the Elder had them appear onstage. The musical performances of the Linley children helped secure the family’s social and economic fortunes.

Tom gave his concerto debut on violin in the summer of 1763, just after his seventh birthday. That year, he began studying composition with William Boyce, Master of the King’s Musick.

In between lessons, the Linleys began touring Britain. In 1767, two of the Linley siblings performed at a Covent Garden performance of The Fairy Favour by Thomas Hull. Tom played the violin, sang, and danced, receiving rapturous reviews.

In 1768, the year he turned twelve, Tom went to Italy to study violin playing and composition with Florentine master Pietro Nardini. Tom became Nardini’s favourite pupil.

In April 1770, the month he turned fourteen, he met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was traveling through Italy with his father to concertize and study. The two boys became fast friends. English writer Charles Burney wrote of their meeting:

The Tommasino, as he is called, and the little Mozart, are talked of all over Italy as the most promising geniuses of this age.

When Wolfgang had to leave for the next stop on his tour, both boys were upset at having to separate. Leopold Mozart wrote to his wife, who remained in Salzburg during the Italian tour:

These two boys performed in alternation during the whole evening, constantly embracing each other.

The next day, the little Englishman, a very dear boy, had his violin brought to us and played the whole afternoon; Wolfgang accompanied him on the violin.

The day after, we dined with Msr. Gavard, the Grand Duke’s financial administrator, and these two boys played in alternation the whole afternoon, not as boys, but as men!

Little Thomas accompanied us home and cried the most bitter tears because we were leaving the next day.

Tragically, Tom would never get to develop into a fully fledged performing artist or composer. He died in August 1778 at the age of twenty-two in a boating accident.

Mozart would never forget his friend, telling tenor Michael Kelly years later that Tom was “a true genius” and, had he lived, would have become one of the great musicians of the age.   

William Crotch

William Crotch

William Crotch was born in Norfolk, Britain, in the summer of 1775. His father was a carpenter and instrument builder.

When William was two years old, he began performing on an organ that his father had built. He made fast progress. The following year, his mother brought him to London, where he performed for King George III, playing on an organ at St. James’s Palace.

One magazine reported:

As soon as he has finished a regular tune, or part of a tune, or played some little fancy notes of his own, he stops, and has some of the pranks of a wanton boy; some of the company then generally give him a cake, an apple, or an orange, to induce him to play again…

Later in life, Crotch admitted that this strategy to get him to play had spoiled him.

His first oratorio was performed when he was just fourteen.

He attended Oxford University and became a professor there in 1797, when he was twenty-two. Over the course of his career, he taught a number of important British musicians.  

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn was born in early 1809 to a wealthy and musical banking family. He grew up to become one of the most impressive musical prodigies in classical music history.

A variety of influences played into Felix’s early development.

His older sister Fanny Mendelssohn was a child prodigy herself, and the two siblings bonded over their musical studies.

The wider family also valued the arts and education, and their wealth enabled both Fanny and Felix to explore their musical interests in a supportive environment.

In addition, the Mendelssohns’ social cachet meant that all manner of artistic and intellectual leaders of the nineteenth century flocked to the family home.

In short, it was the perfect environment for a prodigy to develop.

Felix began studying the piano with his mother when he was six. Throughout his childhood, he had a number of first-rate teachers, including Marie Bigot (who had worked with Beethoven) and Ludwig Berger (who had studied with Clementi). He also began studying composition.

His parents paid for a private orchestra to perform at house concerts, and Felix began writing music for the ensemble. As a child, he wrote thirteen string symphonies for them.

His first published work, a piano quartet, appeared when he was just thirteen. (It is believed that his father helped to ensure the publication of the work.)  

But Felix’s father wasn’t encouraging his son out of pity: the works were of genuine, astonishing quality. In fact, Mendelssohn’s string octet, written for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, is widely considered to be one of the finest works of chamber music ever written…and he was only sixteen when he composed it!  

The following year, he followed the Octet up with his Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream, which still appears on concert programs today.

In 1821, when Felix was twelve, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe compared Felix to Mozart, suggesting that between the two, Felix might be even more talented. It was a shocking comparison, especially because Goethe had met Mozart when he was a touring seven-year-old prodigy.

Charles-Valentin Alkan

Charles-Valentin Alkan

Charles-Valentin Alkan was born in Paris in 1813 to a musical family. His father was a musician and head of a private music school, and all five of his siblings went into music professionally in some capacity.

His musical talent was obvious from an early age. Astonishingly, he took his first audition for the Paris Conservatoire solfège class when he was just five years old. One of his examiners wrote that he had “a pretty little voice.”

A year later, he auditioned for the piano class, too. That time the examiners wrote, “This child has amazing abilities.”

In 1821, when he was seven, he won a first prize in solfège. That same year, he gave his first public performance on violin.

He also began studying piano, and at the age of ten, he won a piano prize to add to his collection.

His opus 1 for solo piano was written in 1828, when he was just fourteen. As the work makes clear, he was already a master musician.  

Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns was born to a Parisian family in 1835. Tragically, just a few months after Camille’s birth, his father died of tuberculosis.

He spent the first two years of his life in the countryside with a nurse, and was only reunited with his widowed mother in Paris in 1837.

Before his third birthday, he began picking out melodies on the family piano. His great-aunt was his first piano teacher, but he quickly learned all that she had to teach. When he was seven, he began studying with Camille-Marie Stamaty.

He began playing for small groups when he was five years old, but his mother made sure that he didn’t concertize too widely as a very young boy.

He gave his public debut when he was ten in a remarkable double-header, playing Mozart’s fifteenth piano concerto and Beethoven’s third concerto.

In 1848, when he was thirteen, he enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. Over the course of his studies there, he became an organ virtuoso as well as a piano virtuoso.

He began his formal composition studies when he was fifteen. That same year, he wrote a symphony in A-major, although he never published it.

He capped off his student career by writing his Op. 1 for harmonium in 1852, the year he turned seventeen.  

Blind Tom Wiggins

Blind Tom Wiggins

Thomas Wiggins was born on a Georgia plantation in the spring of 1849. His lot was unimaginably difficult: both of his parents were enslaved, and he was born blind.

Because his blindness kept him from doing work that an enslaved person would generally do, he was permitted to wander the grounds as a child.

One day, he heard one of the plantation owner’s daughters play piano, and he was immediately intrigued. He was allowed access to the piano and was composing by the time he was five.

The master of the plantation, a man named General Bethune, saw a money-making opportunity. He moved Tom into his own room and made a piano available to him. He began playing twelve hours a day.

Because of his lack of traditional formal training, he focused on reproducing the sounds he heard around him, like rainstorms and birdsong.

When he was eight years old, General Bethune hired a promoter to oversee Tom’s career. Tom began a grueling touring schedule, being marketed as a freak of nature and compared to an animal. He began earning the family the modern equivalent of millions of dollars a year. Of course, Tom and his family saw none of that money.

To publicise Tom, Bethune would hire musicians to play for Tom, then challenge him to reproduce what he’d just heard, which he could always do. That extraordinary memory resulted in his learning thousands of pieces of music by ear.

In 1860, when he was eleven, he appeared at the White House for James Buchanan, becoming the first Black artist to give a command performance there.

After the Confederacy lost the American Civil War, Bethune sent a teenage Tom to Europe. While there, he received testimonials from pianist Ignaz Moscheles and conductor Charles Hallé, attesting to his genius.