Nineteenth-century virtuosos

The nineteenth century was the first period in Western music history in which the virtuoso truly emerged. Virtuosos, as you may know, are performers with tremendous skill on their instruments (singers are not usually called virtuosos). Of course there had been skilled performers before, but the nineteenth century saw the virtuoso emerge as a pop culture phenomenon. They gave public concerts for large audiences and became fixtures in pop culture. In a way, this was the first time that instrumental performers began to rival opera singers as international performing stars. (Remember Farinelli and the divas we talked about earlier?). Even the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, for all his skill, was an orchestra leader who spent much of his career in Paris and did not give concert tours.

The existence of the virtuosos contrast heavily with the idealistic philosophizing common in Romanticism. These performers were renowned for their raw skill as performers; many composed music to show off their skill, which admittedly is often more powerful to watch in action than it is to hear. Virtuosos were also renowned for their carefully crafted stage personas.

As you can imagine, virtuosos were loved by audiences and often criticized by those who prized expression over showmanship. In other words, the virtuosos raised—and still raise—questions about authenticity and the purpose of music. What is the right way to use your talent?

Nicolò Paganini (1782 – 1840), one of the first sensational virtuosos, offers a few answers to these questions. A phenomenally skillful violinist and guitarist, he became famous for his violin pieces—both concertos and pieces for the solo violin. These works were designed to show off his incredible technique—including pieces to be played on one string of the violin. His first published works, the Caprices, op. 1, are a tour-de-force in violin technique and are still studied today. Caprice 24 (played here by Maxim Vengerov) is a set of variations which demonstrates among other things, the ability to play alternate strings rapidly, to play harmonies (difficult because the violin has a curved neck), to move rapidly up and down the neck of the violin, to pluck the violin like a guitar instead of bowing it, etc.

Paganini was, of course, criticized as a sensationalist for the way he flaunted his skills. The myth that his musical skills arose from some contact with the forces of darkness gave him a unique presence on stage (he does not seem to have attempted to discourage this).

Compared to Paganini, the pianist Ferenc “Franz” Liszt (1811 – 1886) had a completely different public reputation. A child prodigy (he gave his first concert in 1820), a touring pianist, a charming young man with long flowing hair, Liszt was mocked for his great popularity with female fans, especially during the height of his touring activity (1839 – 1847). But Liszt was more than a sensational performer who could expressive melodies that could only be played by repeatedly crossing your hands over each other. He invented the term recital for a concert given by a single musician, and his concerts took the piano from being a domestic instrument best played in the home, to an instrument that could be played solo in front of crowds of 3,000 people or more (it helped that the modern concert piano, with its tremendous volume and power, was effectively invented during his lifetime). He also played an important role as an arranger, publishing arrangements of his favorite opera tunes (Mozart, Bellini, Meyerbeer, Donizetti, etc.) and piano versions of Beethoven’s symphonies long before orchestras were playing them regularly. After Liszt retired from public performance, he became a renowned conductor at the court of Weimar, in Germany, where he championed Wagner’s music and wrote a series of symphonic poems in the Romantic style.

Perhaps the most influential virtuoso was Clara Wieck Schumann (1819 – 1896), who successfully balanced the skill of a virtuoso with the aesthetic authenticity of a Romantic musician. A gifted composer, she married the composer and critic Robert Schumann, had eight children between 1841 and 1854. She composed little after her marriage, although she continued to play concerts. Her husband’s death in 1856 led her to return to the concert stage to support her family; as a widow, she was able to remain respectable despite appearing on stage by herself. She gave at least 1299 concerts during her career (her last was in 1891), serving as her own agent and impresario. It is because of her example that we now expect soloists to perform from memory.

There were many other famous virtuosos, such as the pianist Frederic Chopin, who rarely played public concerts (he preferred to perform in aristocratic salons instead) and who only wrote complicated music when it was musically necessary, and never for show—we’ve already heard some of his work when we looked at the concept of Romanticism. And there are many other musicians who are relevant here, such as Henri Vieuxtemps, Ferdinand David, Joseph Joachim, Sigismund Thalberg, Henry Litoff, etc., etc. But I’d like to put two American musicians on your radar as well.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 – 1869) was one of the first composers from the United States to have an international reputation, although he was quickly forgotten after his death. A Creole from New Orleans, he studied music in Paris, and toured Europe, the United States, and the Caribbean. His interest in black and Caribbean musics is audible in much of his work, especially in pieces such as A Night in the Tropics, which seems to anticipate a samba feel (it was first performed in 1860 in Cuba), or Souvenir de Porto Rico, which contains the q.   q.    q    (3 3 2)  rhythm that jazz musicians later called the “Spanish tinge.”

Finally, you should know about the most famous American virtuoso of the later nineteenth century: Blind Tom (his last name is given at times as Wiggins, Green, or Bethune). Born in slavery in Georgia in 1849, he was blind, and was possibly autistic. His talent was discovered early, and the people who claimed ownership over him, the Bethunes, had him play public concerts as early as 1857. During the Civil War, the Bethunes donated revenues from his concerts to support the Confederacy; after the Civil War, they were appointed legal guardianship over him. He gave his last concert in 1905. Blind Tom composed 100 pieces of music, including the Battle of Manassas, which is a programmatic piece describing the battle.