Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

SIVOEI SIVORI 477
classical player. Though perfectly satisfied with
the progi'ess of his protAg6, he at the same time
considered him lacking in virtuosity, and therefore
suggested a change from Costa's scholastic
method, to the more volatile system of his
intimate friend Dellepiane. Again the boy's
progress was astonishing, and at length his
father, conquering his objections to a musical
career for his son, became desirous that he
should make some public appearances outside
his own country. Accordingly, accompanied by
his master Dellepiane, Camillo Sivori travelled
first to Turin, where he played at a concert on
May 3, 1827. He next appeared at Susa on
the 5th, Saint Michel 6th, Chambery 7th,
Lyons 16th, Paris 18th, and made his d^but in
London on the 25th. Two days later he was
again in Paris, where the Duchesse de Noailles,
the Due de Berri and most of the dilettanti of
the town interested themselves in him, as did
likewise Rossini, Cherubini, Baillot, and other
eminent musicians of the day. He gave a very
successful concert in Paris on Dec. 4. In
1828, Sivori repeated his first triumphs in
Paris and London. The autumn of the same
year was spent by him in touring in the
French provinces. After an absence of eighteen
months he at length returned to Genoa in
January 1829, and devoted himself earnestly
to studying composition with Giovanni Serra,
a profound theorist of the classical school, then
occupying the post of musical director at the
Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. During the year
1829 Sivori did little else but study, only acting
at intervals as Dellepiane's substitute at the
Teatro Carlo Felice, and also at the Conservatorio
when the latter was taken ill. He genei'ously
gave the entire benefit of these services to his
old master, and after Dellepiane's death extended
the same charity to his impoverished
widow and child for the space of a year.
February 1834 found Sivori again in England
making his d^but as a quartet-player in the
Queen's Square ' Select Society ' meetings at
Mr. Alsager's house, and on March 28 he
played in the first performance of Cherubini's
Requiem.] He next traversed Italy, beginning
with Florence, in 1839 ; then in 1841 and
1842 visited Prague, Vienna, Leipzig, Berlin,
Frankfort, Brussels, St. Petersburg, and Moscow.
On Jan. 29, 1843, he made his rentrie to Paris
with a movement from a concerto of his own,
his performance of which carried away his
audience and procured him a special medal.
He also made a vast impression in chambermusic.
[The brilliantly successful appearance
of Jan. 29,—when he played his own Concerto
in E flat, Pagauini's Concerto in B minor, and
the same composer's 'Moise,' for the G string
—took place at the Conservatoire, and that
institution presented him with its gold medal
of honour.] From Paris he went to London,
where he made his first appearance at the Philharmonic
in May, playing his Concerto in A at
the same concerts on June 5, 1843, and repeating
it on the 19th (Spohr was in London
at the same time) ; returned in 1844, when
Mendelssohn, Joachim, Halle, Piatti, and Ernst
were here also, and in 1845, when he assisted
in the famous performances of Beethoven's
Quartets at Mr. Alsager's house (see vol. i. p.
72), played at the Musical Union on June 24,
etc. etc. [Tours in Great Britain and Ireland,
and in Holland followed, and in the ensuing
year he gave a concert at Brussels (on March 12),
returning from thence to Paris and playing en
route at Liege, Antwerp, Ghent, etc. The
season of 1844 was again successfully occupied
in London with his own concert at Her Majesty's
Theatre, an appearance at a Philharmonic
concert under Mendelssohn : a farewell concert
at Hanover Square Rooms, where he played the
' Kreutzer Sonata ' with Julius Benedict— a performance
which was repeated at the Melodists'
Club—and numerous private engagements. In
August, Sivori in company with Dohler, Piatti,
Henry Russell, and Lablache, jun., made a
tour of Great Britain. After playing at Hamburg,
he came to London again during the
season of 1845.] In 1846 he was again here ;
on June 27, played Mendelssohn's Concerto at
a Philharmonic Concert, and was solo violin at
Jullieu's Concerts ' d'Et^. ' He then left for
America, in which he remained till 1850,
travelling from the Northern States, by Mexico
and Panama, to Valparaiso, Rio, Buenos Ayres,
and Montevideo, and narrowly escaping death
by yellow fever. In 1850 he returned to Genoa,
and shortly after lost nearly all the money he
had made in the new world by an imprudent
speculation. In 1851 he was again in Great
Britain, touring throughout the whole country.
[In London he played at Professor Ella's Musical
Union concert with Golinelli (pianist) andPiatti.
In 1852 he played in Beethoven's Triple concerto
in C—with Piatti as violoncellist—at the New
Philharmonic Society at Exeter Hall under
Berlioz's baton. A tour in Scotland in 1853
was followed by a tour in Switzerland, where
he broke his wrist in an unfortunate carriage
accident at Geneva. On Dec. 15, Sivori played
at the Pergola, Florence, returniug to Genoa in
time for the opening of the Teatro ApoUonio.
1854 brought a tour in France, and the
following year, his marriage to the actress
Ortensia Damain, after which he toured in
Spain, where the Queen made him Knight of
the Order of Carlos III. From Spain he went
to Portugal, where the King made him Knight
of the Order of Christ the King, and in the
spring of 1856 he made appearances in Belgium,
Holland, and Germany. In 1857 Sivori toured
in England with Piatti, and the fourteen-yearold
pianist, Arthur Napoleon.] In 1862 he
scored one more success in Paris in the B minor
Concerto of Paganini. In 1864 he revisited