A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Milanollo

MILANOLLO, the sisters, celebrated violinists, were both born at Sevigliano near Turin, where their father lived as a poor silk-spinner; Teresa in 1827 [App. p.719 "Aug. 28"], Maria in 1832 [App. p.719 "June 19"]. Teresa was but four years of age when she heard a violin solo in a mass, and was so much impressed by the sound of the instrument that from that moment she could think and talk of nothing else, and would not rest till she got a fiddle of her own. Her first teacher was Giovanni Ferrero, a local musician, and afterwards Gebbaro and Mora at Turin. She was not yet seven years old when she made her first public appearance at Turin and other towns of Piedmont. But the pecuniary results of these concerts being quite insufficient to extract the family from the state of absolute poverty they were living in, the father was advised to emigrate to France. Accordingly he set out with his wife and two children, Teresa, then seven years old, and Maria, an infant in arms, and after having crossed the Alps on foot, the little caravan made its first halt at Marseilles. Here Teresa played three or four times with much success, and then went to Paris, furnished with an introduction to Lafont, who took much interest in her talent and instructed her for some time. After having appeared with much success at Paris, she travelled for some time with Lafont in Belgium and Holland. She next came to England, appeared in London and the provinces and on a tour through Wales, played within less than a month in forty concerts with Bochsa, the harpist, who however, according to Fétis, absconded with the whole of the proceeds. Meanwhile Teresa had begun for some time to instruct her younger sister Maria, who shewed a talent hardly inferior to her own, and who began to play in public at the age of six. Henceforth the two sisters invariably appeared together, and on their journeys through France, Germany, and Italy were received everywhere with the greatest enthusiasm. Their performances shewed all the best peculiarities of the Franco-Belgian school of violin-playing—great neatness of execution of the left hand, facility of bowing, gracefulness and piquancy of style. Teresa's playing appears to have been distinguished by much warmth of feeling, while Maria, the younger, had remarkable vigour and boldness of execution. These qualities, combined with the charm of their personal appearance, never failed to enlist the sympathies of the public. At Vienna especially, where the sisters gave within a few months not less than 25 concerts, their success was almost unprecedented. They visited England once more in 1845, and played at the Philharmonic on June 9. Their reception in England appears hardly to have been in accordance with their enormous continental reputation, and the critics of the day severely condemn the exaggerated style and incomplete technique of the sisters—with what right it is difficult to say. In 1848 [App. p.719 "Oct. 21"] Maria, the younger, died suddenly of rapid consumption at Paris, and was buried at Père la Chaise. Teresa after some time resumed her life of travel, but since her marriage with M. Parmentier, an eminent French military engineer, has retired into private life.

[ P. D. ]