Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

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III.
SGAMBATI.
I NOW come to speak of one of the greatest living
exponents of the Liszt school at its point of highest
perfection. Giovanni Sgambati (known among his
friends as Nino) holds at the present moment a
brilliant position in Eome, where he is the pianist par
excellence, the favourite and much sought for professor,
an honoured guest in the most aristocratic circles ; a
composer whose works for the pianoforte, concerted
chamber music, and the orchestra are known both in
France and Germany—to both of which countries he
has been more than once invited to conduct his own
symphonies, and to play his compositions both for
the pianoforte solo, and for this instrument in con-
cert with others.
In the high social circles where Sgambati is so
often a guest, he is invariably accompanied by his
wife ; and as I saw them then they were indeed a
singularly interesting and distinguished-looking pair.