(Continued)
TN the spacious and dignified age before the virtuoso made his appearance on the stage of musical life, when the task of the artist was to delight rather than to astonish his audience, Corelli held sway as the ruling master of his instrument. Alike as player and as teacher, he exercised an influence on the whole art of violin playing which it would be difficult to over-estimate. He not only founded a school, in the very widest sense of the word, in which grace and delicacy of execution and beauty of tone were the aims: he may be said with truth to have established the tradition on which the vioin playing, even of today, has its foundation. He was, moreover, a prolific composer, writing melodiously and deftly for his own instrument, and leaving behind him, also, a great volume of very fresh and attractive music, mainly designed for performance by small teams.
The brilliant variations which he wrote for the tune of this name have been regarded ever since as among the minor classics of the instrument. The tune is an old Portuguese dance, and many other composers have made use of it, even Bach- introducing it into his Peasant Cantata.

SZIGETI (Violin), with Orchestra Concerto in D - Beethoven
La Folia - Corelli