Francois Cramer Capriccio  1833

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin (Stradivari 1699-‘Crespi’)

Franz/Francois Cramer’s solo surviving work for 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’. He becaime Master of the King’s Music in 1834, and held this position with the Accession of Victoria in 1837, until his death in 1848.

Franz Cramer, by Minasi

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.