Phipson Celebrated Violinists 1877

1877 Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of Celebrated Violinists

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Henri Standish

vii

I shall never forget the day - nor the astonishment that it caused to my worthy professor M. Henri Standish - when my mother once interrupted us in the middle of a lesson. It was a hot summer day in Brussels, in the year 1852; we were working away, with our coats off as usual, when she entered the room with a roll of music, evidently fresh from the publishers, and proceeded to unfold it without saying a word. Then, placing it before my master, she insisted that he should teach me to play it without delay. It was the seventh Concerto of De Bériot. The piece had been recently played at the annual competition by the older pupils of the Brussels Conservatoire, and my excellent professor had obtained the prize. From that moment I became a violinist.

André Robberechts

93

We have stated above that Viotti had few pupils, but they all became very superior artistes. Rode, Robrechts, Cartier, Mademoiselle Gerbini, Aldoy, Labarre, Pixis, Mori, Madame Paravicini, Vacher: such are the principal names of those who owed their talent directly to his teaching; but Viotti gave advice and encouragement to many others, and his influence appears to have been beneficially felt even by those who ranked as great artistes in his own day.