Regina Sacchi, who married a noted German violoncellist named Schlick, was celebrated for her performances on the violin.  She was born at Mantua in 1764, and educated at the Conservatorio della Pieta at Venice.  This lady was highly esteemed by Mozart, who said of her, “No human being can play with more feeling.”

When Mozart was in Vienna, about 1786, Madame Schlick was also there, and solicited him to write something for the piano and violin, which they should play together at a concert.  Mozart willingly promised to do so, and accordingly composed and arranged, in his mind, his beautiful sonata in B-flat minor, for piano and violin.  The time for the concert drew near, but not a note was put upon paper, and Madame Schlick’s anxiety became painful.  Eventually, after much entreaty, she received the manuscript of the violin part the evening before the concert, and set herself to work to study it, taking scarcely any rest that night.

The sonata was played before an audience consisting of the rank and fashion of Vienna.  The execution of the two artists was perfect and the applause was enthusiastic.  It happened, however, that the Emperor Joseph II., who was seated in a box just above the performers, in using his opera-glass to look at Mozart, noticed that there was nothing on his desk but a sheet of blank paper, and, afterward calling the composer to him, said:  “So, Mozart, you have once again trusted to chance,” to which Mozart, of course, graciously acquiesced, though the emperor did not state whether he considered Mozart’s knowledge of his new composition, or Madame Schlick’s ability to play with him unrehearsed, constituted the “chance.”

The next virtuosa was a Frenchwoman, Louise Gautherot, who was born about 1760, and who played in London and made a great impression about 1780 to 1790, and about the same time Signora Vittoria dall’ Occa played at the theatre in Milan.  Signora Paravicini, born about 1769, and Luigia Gerbini, about 1770, were pupils of Viotti, and earned fame.  The former made a sensation in 1799 by her performance of some violin concertos at the Italian Theatre at Lisbon, where she played between the acts.

Signora Paravicini attracted the attention of the Empress Josephine, who became her patroness and engaged her to teach her son, Eugene Beauharnais, and took her to Paris.  After a time, however, the Empress neglected her, and she suffered from poverty.  Driven to the last resource, and having even pawned her clothes, she applied for aid to the Italians resident in Paris, and they enabled her to return to Milan, where her ability soon gained her both competence and credit.  She also played at Vienna in 1827, and at Bologna in 1832, where she was much admired.

Catarina Calcagno, who has already been mentioned as a pupil of Paganini, was a native of Genoa, born about 1797, and had a short but brilliant career.  She disappeared from before the public in 1816.