Francois Cramer
Francois Cramer Capriccio 1833
PSS-Violin
Engineer-Jonathan Haskell www.astoundingsounds.co.uk
Francois Cramer was the son of the acclaimed leader and violinist Wilhelm Cramer, and the brother of the acclaimed pianist, Johann Baptist Cramer. He led a number of Paganini’s concerts in addition to his regular appearances as leader and soloist at the Royal Philhamonic Society, where interestingly Paganini never appeared. Cramer was particularly noted as the leader of the ‘Handel Concerts’.
It was thought that he did not leave any orginal compositions, so the appearance of this work in Eliza Wesley’s visitor’s book, is exciting.
In this Capriccio from 1833; he has taken the techniques of Paganini’s unaccompanied writing, and applied them to material which is totally unlike Paganini’s. In point of fact, he has applied them to ‘ancient music’, ie, in the style of Handel.