Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

488-489

text excerpt

Mr. Ambrose Femy, a Martinico merchant, called upon me in the way of trade. He had with him his two sons ; and our trading affair being ended, hearing that I was fond of music, he informed me they were violin-players, and proposed to have a trio of Beethoven's in the evening. It was at the Angel Inn that I met them. The father, a large stout man, had a force and breadth of play, a grandeur of style, surpassing everything I had hitherto heard upon the violin [...] His love of music led him to carry his son Francis to Paris, and to place him under Cherubini, to be educated in the musical profession. Henry, who was in business with the father, had been tutored by him upon the violoncello, and was a most accomplished performer. The style of Francis was very different from that of the father ; full of passion, exquisitely neat and delicate. In the 57th quartett of Haydn, the elder Femy impressed a force and brilliancy upon the first bar that was like the rushing of a sky-rocket into the ethereal expanse ; even Yanewick, with all his boldness, would have appeared feeble in his presence. Their combined talents were most skilfully shown in Beethoven's serenade trio; the father playing the tenor, Francis the first, and Henry the bass. Such was the unity of taste, and perfection of intonation, that the piece sparkled from beginning to end.

excerpt from 'Music and Friends: Or, Pleasant Recollections of a Dilettante' pp. 488-489 (238 words)

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1433879464338