Camillo Sivori

(b Genoa, 25 Oct 1815; d Genoa, 19 Feb 1894). Italian violinist and composer. A child prodigy, he received his first lessons from Restano, then studied violin with Paganini’s former teacher Giacomo Costa, maestro di cappella at the cathedral of S Lorenzo, who encouraged Sivori to perform in religious services.

Between October 1822 and May 1823 Paganini was in Genoa, and, favourably struck by the young violinist, decided to give him lessons. Their relationship was brief but intense, and Paganini regarded Sivori as the only pupil for whose formation he was responsible (‘the only person who can call himself my pupil’, he wrote in 1828). He composed various pieces for him (a concertino, 12 cantabili e valtz, 6 cantabili and a sonata con variazioni), which were performed privately, with Paganni himself accompanying on the guitar. After leaving Genoa he continued to follow Sivori’s development, having entrusted him to his disciple Agostino Dellepiane for further study, and before he died, he gave him a violin, a copy of his favourite Guarneri del Gesù, made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume.
Sivori quickly set out to emulate Paganini’s artistic achievements. He adopted the same unusual playing position, and favoured the same notion of the miraculous, which involved imitation and extravagant and rhetorical elements, often misunderstood by classicists such as Wasielewski and Moser. His virtuoso repertory was based principally on his own compositions and those of Paganini, but unlike his teacher, Sivori also became an exceptional performer of Classical and early Romantic chamber music.
Sivori’s first important success was his concert of 27 April 1827 at the Teatro di Corte in Genoa. Immediately after this, he set off on a journey across Europe with Dellepiane. In London he performed alongside Giuditta Pasta at Her Majesty’s Theatre and at the Argyll Rooms, while in Paris, where he met Rossini, Cherubini, Baillot and Paer, he played at the Salle des Menus-Plaisirs and the Salle Chantereine with the young Liszt. On returning to Italy he played at the Teatro Re in Milan, and in Turin. Between 1829 and 1839 he studied counterpoint with Giovanni Serra, a renowned Genoese teacher, who introduced him to chamber music (and dedicated his Quartet no.4 to Sivori). In 1834 he made his quartet début in London. From 1836 to 1840 he was leader of the orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, where he gave regular recitals, and taught at the Istituto di Musica, taking over from Dellepiane. Between 1839 and 1840 he played all over Italy.
A stylish composer, who displayed a lovely melodic vein, Sivori composed around 60 pieces, some published at the time and others kept by his heirs. They include two violin concertos which await modern performance, numerous fantasies on operatic themes in the form of theme and variations where virtuosity and melodiousness are cleverly alternated, descriptive pieces, where the programme has a narrative content (the famous imitations), and shorter, simpler pieces with a broadly melodic element. The 12 études-caprices op.25 are outstanding pieces in which the great Paganinian model is reconsidered in a personal way.