A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Regondi, Giulio

REGONDI, Giulio, of doubtful parentage, born at Geneva in 1822. His reputed father was teacher in the Gymnasium of Milan. The child to have been an infant phenomenon on guitar, and to have been sacrificed by his father, who took him to every court of Europe, excepting Madrid, before he was nine years old. He arrived in England in 1831 or 1832 [App. p770 "in June 1831"]; and Giulio seems never to have left the United Kingdom again except for two concert tours in Germany, one with Herr Lidel, the violoncello player in 1841, the other with Mad. Dulcken in 1846. On the former of these tours he played both the guitar and the melophone (whatever that may have been), and evoked enthusiastic praises from the correspondents of the A. M. Zeitung in Prague and Vienna for his extraordinary execution on both instruments, the very artistic and individual character of his performance, and the sweetness of his cantabile. The concertina was patented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829 [see Concertina], but did not come into use till Regondi took it up. He wrote two concertos for it, and a very large number of arrangements, as well as of original compositions, among which a graceful piece, 'Les Oiseaux,' was perhaps the most favourite. He also taught it largely, and at one time his name was to be seen in almost all concert programmes. He was a great friend of Molique's, who wrote for him a Concerto for the Concertina (in G) which he played with great success at the Concert of the Musical Society of London, Apr, 20, 1864. When he went abroad for his second tour, his performance and the effect which he got out of so unpromising and inartistic an instrument astonished the German critics. (See the A. M. Zeitung for 1846, p. 853.) Regondi appears to have been badly treated by his father and to have had wretched health, which carried him off on May 6, 1872. He was a fine linguist and a very attractive person. His talent was exquisite, and in better circumstances he might have been one of the really great artists.

[ G. ]