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Punto, Giovanni

Giovanni Punto, born Jan Vaclav Stich (or Johann Wenzel Stich) was a virtuoso hornist who travelled most of Europe performing as a soloist and court musician. He also composed many original works to display his unique virtuosity. He was a cor basse player, using a silver cor solo made for him in 1778 in Paris. Works composed by and for him show that he was a master of quick arpeggios and stepwise passagework. Also an excellent violin player, Punto held positions in several orchestras as concertmaster. He was so famous in his day that at the première in 1800 of the Beethoven Horn Sonata Op.17 (with a young Beethoven at the piano), a music critic wrote, "Who is this Beethoven? His name is not well known in musical circles. Of course Punto is very well known."

Punto was acclaimed as a virtuoso of the highest order, considered to be the finest horn player to date, and perhaps of all times. A typical commentary (here by Franz Joseph Fröhlich) runs: "What distinguished Punto, in a way that one has never heard in any other artist heretofore, was his most magnificent performance, the gentlest portrayals, the thunder of tones and their sweetest indescribable blending of nuances with the most varied tone production, an agile tongue, dexterous in all forms of articulation, single and double tones, and even chords, but most important, a silver-bright and charming cantabile tone."