Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

Richter
—
94 EICHTER RIDDELL
much of his great practical knowledge of the stage
and stage business. In Jan. 1875 he conducted
a grand orchestral concert in Vienna, which had
the effect of attracting much public attention
to him, and accordingly, after the retirement
of Dessoff from the Court opera, Richter was
invited to take the post, which he entered upon
in the autumn of 1875, concurrently with the
conduotorship of the Philharmonic Concerts.
In 1884-90 he acted as conductor of the concerts
of the Gesellsohaft der Musikfreunde.
He had conducted the rehearsals of the
'
Nibelungen Ring ' at Bayreuth, and in 1876 he
directed the whole of the rehearsals and performances
of the Festival there, and, at the close of the
third set of performances, received the Order of
Maximilian from the King of Bavaria, and that
of the Falcon from the Grand Duke of Weimar.
In 1877 he produced the ' Walkiire ' in Vienna,
and followed it in 1878 by the other portions
of the trilogy. In 1878 he was made court
capellraeister, and received the Order of Franz
Josef. His first introduction toEnglishaudiences
was at the famous Wagner Concerts given in the
Albert Hall in 1877, when he shared the duties
of conductor with Wagner himself. In 1879
(May 5-12), 1880 (May 10-June 14), and 1881
(May 9-June 23) were started what were at
first called ' Orchestral Festival Concerts, ' but
afterwards the 'Eiohter Concerts,' in London,
which excited much attention, chiefly for the
oonductor'sknowledge ofthe scores ofBeethoven's
symphonies and other large works, which he
conducted without book. [The Richter Concerts
went on for many years with great success, but
after the great conductor went to live in
Manchester in 1897, as directorof theManchester
Orchestra, the London concerts were given less
regularly. In 1882 and 1884 he conducted
important performances of German operas in
London, introducing 'Die Meistersinger ' and
'
Tristan ' to the London public. The special performances
of German opera which form part of
the Covent Garden season have been conducted
by Richter since 1904. Since 1885 he has conducted
the Birmingham Festival In that year
he received the honorary degree of Mus.D. at
Oxford. He has numberless decorations. (See
Musical Times, 1899, pp. 441-6.) A special
concert in celebration of his thirty years' work
in England took place ai the Queen's Hall, June
3, 1907.]
Herr is certainly one of the very
.
greatest of conductors. He owes this position in
great measure to the fact of his intimate practical
acquaintance with the techniqueof the instruments
in the orchestra, especially the wind, to
a degree in which he stands alone. As a musician
he is a self-made man, and enjoys the peculiar
advantages which spring from that fact.
His devotion to his orchestra is great, and the
high standard and position of the band of the
Vienna opera-house is due to him. He is a
great master of crescendo and decrescendo, and of
the finer shades of accelerating and retarding
the time. ^- '^
RICOCHET. The employment of the bounding
staccato staccato a ricochet—is thus indicated
in violin music. As the best examples of
this bowing are to be found in the works of the
French and Belgian composers, it is probable
that it owes its invention to the father of
virtuosity—Paganini. The same system which
governs the flying staccato — so brilliantly
applied by Paganini, de Beriot, Wieniawski,
Vieuxtemps, and latter-day virtuosi, to the
execution of swift chromatic passages —
dominates the ricochet, but being thrown upon
the strings less rapidly, and with more force,
the eSeot is heavier. To accomplish this style
of bowing neatly, the stick should be held so
that the full breadth of the hair at the upper
part shall fall upon the strings accurately. The
wrist must remain flexible, while the fingers grip
the bow firmly and relax to allow the bow to rebound.
Two graceful examples of the application
of the ricochet are to be found in the Bolero of de
B^riot's ' Scene de Ballet,' and in the Polonaise
of Vieuxtemps's ' Ballade et Polonaise.' o. R.
RICORDI, Giovanni, founder of the wellknown
music-publishing house in Milan, where
he was born in 1785, and died March 15, 1863.
He made his first hit with the score of Mosca's
' Pretendenti delusi. ' Since that time the firm
has published for all the great Italian maestri,
down to Verdi and Boito, and has far outstripped
all rivals. The Gazzetta musicaU,
edited with great success by Mazzucato, has had
much influence on its prosperity. It possesses
the whole of the original scores of the operas
it has published— a most interesting collection.
Giovanni's son and successor Tito (bom
Oct. 29, 1811, died Sept. 7, 1888) further
enlarged the business. The catalogue issued
in 1875 contains 738 pages large 8vo. The
present head of the firm is his son GlULlo DI
Tito, bom Dec. 19, 1840, who is a practised
writer, a skilled draughtsman, a composer of
drawing-room music, under the pseudonym of
Burgmein, and in all respects a thoroughly
cultivated man. p. g.
RIDDELL, John (or ' Riddle '), composer of
Scottish dance music, born at Ayr, Sept. 2,
1718. It is stated in 'The Ballads and Songs
of Ayrshire,' 1846, that Riddell was blind from
infancy, also that he was composer of the wellknown
tune 'Jenny's Bawbee.' This latter
statement is not authenticated. Burns mentions
him as 'a bard-born genius,' and says he is
composer of ' this most beautiful tune ' (' Finlayston
House ').
Riddell published about 1766 his first '
Collection
of Scots Reels, or Country Dances and
Minuets,' and a second edition of it, in oblong
folio, in 1782. Hedied Aprils, 1795. p. k,
RIDDELL, RoEEKT, a Scottish antiquary'