This exhibition about the violin also explores the transmission of the "art of violin playing" and its potentially unknown connections. Furthermore, it illuminates the development of violin schools from Corelli onward and their possible influences on music. This breadth of musical practice is illustrated through the relationships between teachers and students over a period of 250 years and further subdivisions into national schools, thereby highlighting their influences on our music-making today. This exhibition aims to unite all generations in an inspiring glimpse into the world of these violin virtuosos and composers. The transmission of these values is also an important component of the artistic and pedagogical mission of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Mdw).
Italy
At the beginning of the 18th century, Italy dominated the European musical scene. This was embodied in the violin playing of renowned composers and violinists such as Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713), Antonio Vivaldi (c. 1675–1741), Francesco Geminiani (1680–1762), and Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770). They contributed significantly to the development of the sonata and concerto genres, making them suitable for the stage. Italian musicians held many leading musical positions throughout Europe and were particularly prominent in the continent's expanding music publishing industry. Corelli's works were the most widely published in music history until the beginning of the 19th century, thus establishing his Europe-wide fame. Despite the Italian dominance, new traditions of violin playing naturally developed in many other European countries as well.
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 pioneered a bowing technique that employed the newly invented Tourte bow (1785–90). In fact, he was one of the first violinists to use this bow, which possessed a lightness, strength, and elasticity lacking in older versions. He is also called the “father of modern violin playing.”.
Viotti's time in Paris effectively established the renowned French school of violin playing in the 19th century. The three most important violin pedagogues, Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831), Pierre Marie François Baillot (1771–1842), and Pierre Rode (1774–1830), all worked concurrently at the Paris Conservatoire, founded in 1795. All three were students of Viotti and helped to disseminate the new Viotti style. Until 1845, only Viotti concertos were prescribed at the Paris Conservatoire. These concertos form the bridge between the violin concertos of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1775) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1806). Baillot later developed a more refined methodology, incorporating his years of experience at the Conservatoire. It was published in 1834 under the title "L'art du violon" (The Art of the Violin). Kreutzer and Rode, for their part, composed well-known études and caprices. The first verifiable violin études are by Federigo Fiorillo (1755-1823) in Paris, dating from 1793.
Germany
The development in Germany reached its first major peak with the publication of Leopold Mozart's "Versuch einer intensiven Violinschule" (Attempt at a Thorough Violin School) in 1756. The purpose of Mozart's violin school was to give students a thorough musical education in violin playing, not just mere finger 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 significant contributions was the invention of the chin rest. Perhaps even more important 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 Spohr's most individualistic and influential students was undoubtedly Ferdinand David, primarily due to 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, on the other hand, was certainly Joseph Joachim.
Under Joachim's direction, the Berlin Academy of Music flourished and produced many important violinists, including Jëno Hubay (1858–1928), Bronisław Huberman (1882–1947), and Maud Powell (1867–1920), to name just a few. Joachim's violin teaching style was passed on by one of his most famous students, Leopold Auer—who, in turn, is considered the founder of the "Russian School" of violin playing
Russia
Leopold Auer (1895-1930) adhered to many of Joachim's teachings, as his treatise "As I Teach It" confirms. However, it has long been recognized that the violinists Jakob Dont (1815-1888) and Jean-Delphin Alard (1815-1888) also had a significant influence on him. In 1868, Auer replaced the renowned Henryk Wieniawski as professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he taught from 1868 to 1917—an incredible 50 years! During this time, he played a crucial role in establishing the Russian violin school.
Henryk Wieniawski (1835-80), himself a student of Lambert Massart (Paris Conservatory), was the only violin professor at the founding of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He laid the foundation for the St. Petersburg violin school, which was later further developed by Auer into the so-called Russian school. Therefore, a connection exists between the French-Belgian school, the Viennese school, and the Russian school, even if it wasn't always immediately apparent.
Austria
Joseph Böhm ( 1795–1876 ), a pupil of P. Rode, is considered the founder of the " Viennese School of Violin Playing" one of the most important violin pedagogues of the 19th century. His most famous pupil was J. Joachim. Other notable figures include the virtuoso W. Ernst, Georg Hellmesberger Sr., Joseph Dont, Edmund Singer, Jakob Grün, and Ede Reményi. His colleague and co-founder Joseph Mayseder (1789–1863), also an outstanding representative of Viennese violin playing, embodied the refined elegance of this unique city as both a composer and a performing artist.
Studying with these teachers (Massart and Wieniawski) meant that Ysaÿe became part of the so-called Franco-Belgian violin school, which had emerged François Tourte (1747/1748–1835) and François Nicolas Voirin school include elegance, a full tone with a feel for a "long" bow stroke without jerking, precise left-hand techniques, and bowing with the entire forearm while keeping both the wrist and upper arm still (in contrast to the "German school," where Joachim Joachim bends the wrist and Leopold Auer uses the entire arm).
