Anna Wróbel TUTTI I CAPRICCI DEL SIGNOR PIATTI

Carlo Alfredo Piatti, born at Bergamo, Jan. 8, 1822, died at Crocette di Mozzo – about four miles from Bergamo – at the residence of his son-in-law, Count Carlo Lochis, on July 18, 1901.

His father, Antonio Piatti, born at Bergamo in 1801, was a violinist of some repute, who held the post of leader in the orchestra of his native town. Piatti began in his extreme youth to study the instrument which was destined to make him famous. Given the option – at the age of five – of choosing between the professions of violoncellist and cobbler, he decided in favour of the first, and was promptly sent to his great-uncle Zanetti to receive instruction. Though an old man at the time, Zanetti was an accomplished violoncellist, and a patient teacher. He mode it a rule to seat his diminutive pupil in a chair placed upon a table, and it was in this elevated position that the precocious child easily mastered those ordinary difficulties, which severely tax most students. After two years' study his great-uncle, considering his pupil sufficiently advanced, applied for, and obtained permission for him to play in the theatre orchestra. The only return he received for the serious physical effort of the engagement – which lasted three months – was a present of ten francs from the Impresario, half of which was retained by his great-uncle...