(Brescia, March 11, 1818 – Milan, February 10, 1897)
Bazzini was born in Brescia. As a boy he was a student of Faustino Camisani. At 17 he was appointed organist of a church in his hometown. The following year he met Paganini and was completely influenced by that master's art and style. Paganini encouraged Bazzini to begin his concert career that year, and he quickly became one of the most popular artists of his time. From 1841 to 1845, he lived in Germany, where Schumann was greatly admired both as a violinist and as a composer, as well as by Mendelssohn (Bazzini gave his first private performance of Violin Concerto). After a brief stay in Denmark in 1845, Bazzini returned to Brescia to teach and compose. In 1846 he played Naples and Palermo. In 1849-1850, he toured Spain, and from 1852 to 1863, he lived in Paris. He concluded his concert career with a tour of Holland in 1864.
Returning once again to Brescia, Bazzini devoted himself to composition, gradually abandoning the virtuosic operatic fantasies and character pieces, which had formed much of his early work. He composed an opera, Turanda, in 1867 and produced a series of dramatic cantatas, sacred works, concert overtures, and symphonic poems over the next two decades. However, his greatest success as a composer was with his chamber music compositions. In 1868 he became president of the Brescia Concert Society, and was active in promoting and composing for quartet societies in Italy. In 1873, he became a professor of composition at the Milan Conservatory, where he taught Catalani, Mascagni, and Puccini, and later became director in 1882. Bazzini died in Milan on 10 February 1897.
Bazzini was one of the most popular artists of his time and influenced the great opera composer Giacomo Puccini. His most enduring work is his chamber music, which is written in the classical forms of the German School and earned him a central place in the Italian instrumental Renaissance of the 19th century. Of particular note is his String Quartet no. 1, which won the first prize of the Society of Quartets of Milan in 1864. His music is characterized by a highly virtuosic technique, expressive without too much feeling. Bazzini played a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri, which passed to M. Soldat-Roeger upon his death.
Artists who have recorded his music include Chloë Hanslip. But many far better-known virtuoso violinists have distinguished themselves by undertaking to record his fiendishly difficult La ronde des lutins (or Dance of the Goblins, with its extended passages of rapid double stops, artificial harmonics in double registers (using all four left fingers) and left pizzicato. These include Bronislaw Huberman, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, David Garrett, James Ehnes, and Itzhak Perlman.
