Giovanni Battista Viotti

La storia del violino realizzato nel 1728 da Antonio Stradivari e dai figli Francesco ed Omobono, in uso a Giovanni Battista Viotti e poi ceduto nel 1794 a Domenico Dragonetti (che lo lascia in prestito anche a Niccolò Paganini) e da quest'ultimo legato alla sua morte, avvenuta nel 1846, alla violinista diciannovenne Teresa Milanollo. Il violino porta il nome di «Dragonetti-Milanollo» dai suoli due principali proprietari.

Why did Beethoven’s Violin Concerto Op. 61 have such limited success after its premiere in 1806? This article addresses the various traditions of string playing in Beethoven’s time. I show that Beethoven was perfectly informed about coeval violin schools and disclose how this awareness influenced his compositions. Beethoven was not only himself a violinist and former violist of the Bonner Hofkapelle but also met notable violinists and cellists such as Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode, Jean-Louis Duport as well as Andreas and Bernhard Romberg. The virtuosi represented playing styles that varied remarkably in sound and articulation, and primarily resulted from the multiple bow types in use. The Tourte bow was favored by the French violin school (Viotti, Rode, Baillot, Kreutzer etc.), which allowed for expressive singing as well as a pithy and powerful sound, while representatives of transitional bows (the Cramer bow and alike) were distinguished by their staccato playing, finesse and elegance. As a matter of fact, Beethoven took into account these different playing styles in his compositions.
The Viennese violinist Franz Clement, a representative of the transitional bow, premiered the Violin Concerto Op. 61 in 1806. As Clive Brown has shown, Beethoven clearly designed it for the dedicatee, since it shares much in common with Clement’s own concerto in D major composed the year before. Due to the increasing success of the French violin school and the Tourte bow beginning in the early 19th century, however, Clement’s violin playing began to be considered outdated. This ongoing change in taste seems also to have influenced the reception history of Beethoven’s violin concerto: it only became popular in the 1840s, not by chance after the bowings had been adapted by Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim.

This paper will explore the social milieu and mutual connections that linked the stage designer Ignazio Degotti (Turin, 1758 – Paris, 1824) to the violinist and composer Gian Battista Viotti (Fontanetto Po, 1755 – London, 1824). To better introduce the character of Degotti, I will add details on his biography as well as bring to scholarly attention the analysis of his first documented artistic job: an Allegory of the Arts published in a book of poems in 1776. A defining moment in the life of Ignazio Degotti was his choice to move to Paris in 1790, where he established the greatest and most successful part of his career as a decorator and a stage-designer. Through the analysis of unpublished material on Degotti, I will add to current knowledge which comprises nationality, education, and some career choices Degotti shared with Viotti. This undertaking is done so as to chronicle the relationship between two key protagonists of theatrical life in Paris at the turn of the 19th century. It will become apparent through this paper, whose focus is the draft of an unpublished letter, that even though there were many reasons for Degotti’s move to Paris, it was Viotti who played a significant part.

Delle opere di Viotti - forse il più importante compositore nato in Piemonte di tutti i tempi - rimangono pochissime tracce in Piemonte. Tuttavia, a seguito di un recente censimento musicale condotto dalla Regione Piemonte e dall'Istituto per i Beni Musicali in Piemonte, alcune fonti finora misconosciute ma ugualmente importanti sono tornate alla luce: una lettera al banchiere francese Perregaux in  I-Trt (sigle biblioteche RISM), una lettera autografa indirizzata alla coppia di cantanti Debegnis in I-Tc, alcune stampe musicali in I-Tf non elencate in RISM A/I e una scoperta molto importante - una versione manoscritta sconosciuta del concerto per pianoforte WIa:20, completo, comprendente il movimento centrale Adagio, assente invece negli esemplari finora noti di questo concerto, che reca sul frontespizio il nome della Marchesa Clementina Della Rovere Guasco (segnatura Mus. Ms. 193 in I-Tci, ma di fatto custodito in I-Tc).
Inoltre, la presenza nelle biblioteche torinesi dell'edizione milanese degli Anecdotes sur Viotti di Ange-Marie Eymar offre l'occasione all'autore di stabilire la data di pubblicazione di ciascuna delle tre edizioni dell'opuscolo: settembre 1798 per la prima edizione in «La Décade Philosophique, Littèraire et Politique» (e non il 1792, come spesso ripetuto), 1799 per la seconda edizione di Milano e 1800 per la terza edizione di Ginevra.
In conclusione si dà segnalazione di due parti dei Duetti per due violini di Viotti in I-VCc, probabilmente appartenute ad un amatore locale (vercellese) di musica, a testimonianza di un precoce interesse per la musica del famoso compatriota, così come una copia manoscritta dei Quartetti op. 1 in una importante collezione privata di una famiglia nobile attiva in passato tra Casale Monferrato e Giarole, la famiglia Sannazzaro (I-GRLSannazzaro).
Per ultimo, un disegno di Viotti realizzato da Clementina Pregliasco - apparentemente una inedita rappresentazione iconografica del compositore - è posseduta dall'Archivio Storico Comunale di Crescentino.
(The presence of Viotti in Piedmont: some results of the recent regional census of music collections)

Probably the most important Piedmont-born composer of all time, Viotti had left very few traces of his works and biography in his native region. After a recent musical census by Regione Piemonte and Istituto per i Beni Musicali in Piemonte, some less known sources have came to light: a letter to french banker Perregaux in I-Trt, an autograph referring to the singers Mr. and Mrs. Debegnis in I-Tc, some musical prints in I-Tf not listed in RISM A/I and a very important finding - an unknown handwritten version of the piano concert WIa:20, complete with Adagio movement, bearing the name of the Marchioness Clementina Della Rovere Guasco (call number Mus. Ms. 193 in I-Tci, but actually in I-Tc).
Besides, the presence in Turin libraries of the Milan edition of the Anecdotes sur Viotti by Ange-Marie Eymar calls upon Baldi to establish the date when each of the three editions of the pamphlet was printed: on September 1798 in «La Décade Philosophique, Littèraire et Politique» (not 1792, as often said), 1799 the Milan edition and 1800 the Geneva edition.
Finally, two parts of Viotti’s Duets for two violins in I-VCc are pointed out, probably belonged to a local music amateur, testifying early interest for the music of the famous compatriot, as well as a late 18th-century manuscript copy of the Quartets op. 1 in an important private collection of a noble family in Giarole (province of Alessandria), I-GRLSannazzaro.
A drawing of Viotti by Clementina Pregliasco – seemingly a new iconography of the composer – is held in the Archivio Storico Comunale at Crescentino (province of Vercelli).