This exhibition about the violin is also about the passing on of the "art of violin playing" and possible unknown connections. The development of violin schools from Corelli onwards and their possible influences on music are also examined. This range of music-making is shown through the links between teacher and pupil over a period of 250 years and further subdivisions into national schools in order to illustrate influences on our music-making today! This exhibition aims to unite all generations in an inspiring insight into the world of these violin virtuosos and composers. The communication of these values is also an important part of the artistic and pedagogical orientation of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Mdw).
Italy
At the beginning of the 18th century, Italy dominated the European music scene. This was embodied in the violin playing of renowned composers and violinists such as Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), Antonio Vivaldi (ca. 1675-1741), Francesco Geminiani (1680-1762) and Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770). They did much to make the development of the sonata and concerto genres ready for the stage. Italian musicians occupied many leading "musical posts" throughout Europe and were particularly prominent in the continent's expanding music publishing industry. Corelli's works were the most widely published works in music history until the beginning of the 19th century, establishing Corelli's fame throughout Europe. Despite the dominance of the Italians, new traditions of violin playing naturally developed in many European countries.
France - The Paris Conservatoire
A particularly central figure who linked the Corelli tradition with the 19th century was Giovanni Viotti (1753-1824) - "the most influential violinist between Tartini and Paganini". Viotti was the pioneer of a bowing technique using the newly invented Tourte bow (1785-90). In fact, he was one of the first violinists to use this bow, which had a lightness, firmness and elasticity that the older versions lacked. He is also known as the "father of modern violin playing".
Viotti's stay in Paris effectively founded the famous French school of the 19th century. The three most important violin teachers, Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831), Pierre Marie François Baillot (1771-1842) and Pierre Rode (1774-1830), worked simultaneously at the Paris Conservatoire, which was founded in 1795. All three were students of Viotti and helped to spread the new Viotti style. Until 1845, only Viotti concertos were prescribed at the Paris Conservatoire. They formed the bridge between the violin concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1775) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1806). Baillot later wrote a more mature methodology in which he incorporated his many years of experience at the Conservatoire. It was published in 1834 under the title "L'art du violon". Kreutzer and Rode in turn wrote well-known etudes and caprices. The first verifiable violin etudes were written by Federigo Fiorillo (1755-1823) in Paris in 1793.
Germany
The development in Germany reached its first major climax with the publication of Leopold Mozart's "Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule" in 1756. The purpose of Mozart's violin school was to give pupils a thorough musical education in violin playing, not just mere dexterity.
Louis Spohr then dominated the German violin world at the beginning of the 19th century. He experimented with both stringing and tuning; one of his most important contributions was the invention of the chinrest. Perhaps even more significant was the founding of his "school" of violin playing. Spohr's method was loosely based on the principles of the Mannheim School, inherited from his teacher Eck, supplemented by the influence of P. Rode's bowing techniques.
One of the most individual and influential representatives of Spohr's students was undoubtedly Ferdinand David, especially through his involvement in the founding of the Leipzig Conservatory. The most important representative of the German violin school in the second half of the 19th century was certainly Joseph Joachim.
Under Joachim's direction, the Berlin academy grew from strength to strength and produced many important violinists, including Jëno Hubay (1858-1928), Bronisław Huberman (1882-1947) and Maud Powell (1867-1920), to name but a few. Joachim's violin teaching style was passed on by one of his most famous pupils "Leopold Auer" - who in turn was regarded as the founder of the "Russian School"!
Russia
Leopold Auer (1895-1930) adhered to many of Joachim's teachings, as his treatise "As I Teach It" confirms. But it has long been recognized that the violinists Jakob Dont (1815-1888) and Jean-Delphin Alard (1815-1888) were another major influence on him. In 1868, L. Auer replaced the famous Henryk Wieniawski as professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he taught from 1868 to 1917 - an incredible 50 years! During this time, he was instrumental in establishing the Russian violin school.
Henryk Wieniawski (1835-80), another student of Lambert Massart (Paris Conservatory), was the only violin professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory when it was founded. He laid the foundation for the St. Petersburg violin school, which was later developed further by Auer into the so-called Russian School. There is therefore a connection between the Franco-Belgian school, the Viennese school and the Russian school, even if it was not always immediately apparent.
Austria
Joseph Böhm(1795_1876), a pupil of P. Rode, is considered the founder of the "Viennese violin school " - and was one of the most important violin teachers of the 19th century. His most famous pupil was J. Joachim. However, the virtuoso W. Ernst, Georg Hellmesberger senior, Joseph Dont, Edmund Singer, Jakob Grün and Ede Reményi should also be mentioned. His colleague and co-founder Joseph Mayseder (1789-1863), also an excellent exponent of Viennese violin playing, represented the gracefully elegant genre of this unique city both as a composer and as a performer.
Studying with these teachers (Massart and Wieniawski) meant that Ysaye became part of the so-called Franco-Belgian violin school, which had emerged from the development of the modern violin bow by François Tourte (1747/1748-1835) and François Nicolas Voirin (1833-1885). Qualities of this École include elegance, a full tone with a feeling for a "long" bow stroke without jerking, precise left-hand techniques and bowing with the whole forearm while keeping both the wrist and the upper arm still (in contrast to the "German school", in which Joachim Joachim bends the wrist and Leoplod Auer uses the whole arm).
