A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ferrari, Domenico

FERRARI, Domenico, an eminent Italian violin-player, born at the beginning of the 18th century. He was a pupil of Tartini, and lived for a number of years at Cremona. About the year 1749 he began to travel, and met with great success at Vienna, where he was considered the greatest living violin-player. In 1753 he became a member of the band of the Duke of Würtemberg at Stuttgart, of which Nardini was at that time leader. If Ferrari was a pupil of Tartini, he certainly, according to contemporary critics, did not retain the style of that great master in after life. He had an astonishing ability in the execution of octave-runs and harmonics, and appears altogether to have been more a player than a musician. He twice visited Paris, and played there with great success. He died at Paris in 1780, according to report, by the hand of a murderer. Ferrari published a set of 6 Violin-Sonatas (Paris and London), which however are now forgotten.

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