There can be no doubt that the talent for violin-playing which Mozart displayed at a very early age was carefully cultivated by his father. He performed in public on his first journey and at the beginning of the first Italian tour; but by the time they reached Rome he had ceased to play in public, though he still continued his studies regularly. It was part of his official duty in Salzburg to take the violin at court concerts. His father admired Wolfgang's effrontery in taking a violin from one of the orchestra at Vienna in 1773, and performing a concerto upon it (p. 146). He afterwards devoted more serious attention to the instrument, and became a first-rate performer on it, but evidently more from his father's impulse than his own inclination. Not only was the violin-playing at court a burden to him, but he seems to have had little liking for the instrument, and no real confidence in his own powers of execution. "You have no idea yourself how well you play the violin," writes his father (October 18, 1777); "if you only do yourself justice, and play with fire, heartiness, and spirit, you may become the first violinist in Europe." But, nevertheless, he practised regularly and industriously, and his father wrote after he had left home (October 6, 1777): "I feel a little melancholy whenever I go home, for as I get near the house I always imagine that I shall hear your violin going." After 1774, Mozart's violin compositions take more of the bravura type, and afford a good standard of his technical development. He had as a rival the well-established solo violinist, Brunetti, favoured by the archbishop as being an Italian, but considered by L. Mozart as inferior to his son. "He played your concerto very well," wrote L. Mozart (October 5, 1777), "but was twice out of tune in the allegro, and once almost stuck fast in a cadenza." When Brunetti's inconvenient rival had left Salzburg, he was ready to do full justice to his performances. "Brunetti cannot praise you enough," writes the father (October 9, 1777); "and the other day, when I said you played the violin 'passabilmente,' he cried out, 'Cosa? cazzo! se suonava tutto! questo era del Principe un puntiglio mal inteso, col suo proprio danno.'" {MOZART AS A VIOLINIST.} (317)