VIOTTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA

born May 12, 1755, Fontanetto da Po, Piedmont died March 3, 1824, London Italian violinist and composer, principal founder of the 19th-century school of violin playing. In 1768 he went to Turin, where he studied with the virtuoso Gaetano Pugnani. He travelled with Pugnani in Germany, Poland, and Russia and made his debut in Paris as a violinist in 1782. He became court musician to Marie-Antoinette and established himself as a teacher and opera impresario. In 1792 he went to London, where he conducted Italian operas and appeared as soloist in his own violin concerti at the Salomon Concerts. In 1798 he went to Germany but returned to London in 1801 to enter the wine business. He was director of the Italian opera in Paris from 1819 to 1822. Viotti greatly developed the violin concerto, using the sonata form and a skilled orchestration. He wrote 29 violin concerti, of which No. 22 in A Minor is especially well known; 10 piano concerti, some of them transcriptions of the violin concerti; and string quartets and other chamber works.