Joseph Panny

Joseph Panny was born in Kolmitzberg, in Lower Austria, in October 1794, and died in Mainz in September 1838. A violinist and composer, his name is now usually linked more to his brief association with Paganini than to a career of the first rank, although his output reflects the Austrian musical milieu of the first half of the nineteenth century.

His training was largely within the family: he learnt the violin from his father and the organ and harmony from his grandfather, Joseph Breinesberger. While working as a schoolmaster in Greinberg, at the age of nineteen, he attracted the attention of Joseph Eybler, who offered to teach him after hearing one of his cantatas. By about 1815 he was studying with Eybler in Vienna. His public debut took place in April 1825 with a programme made up entirely of his own works and, despite an unfavourable review in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, which criticised his clumsiness and lack of originality, he went on organising similar concerts in 1827 and 1828, before audiences made up mostly of invited guests.

In 1824 he met Paganini in Venice and Trieste, and in July 1828, at Paganini's farewell concert in Vienna, the latter performed Panny's dramatic sonata entitled The Tempest. However, Paganini soon changed his opinion of the work and its author. The following years took him on tours of Germany and the north of the country, to posts as a conductor in Bergen and Altona, and to the founding of a music school in Weisserling, in Alsace. His last tour reached Berlin, Scandinavia and England, but without the enthusiasm he had hoped for. In 1836 he settled in Mainz, where he married, opened a school and continued to compose, but his health deteriorated in 1837.

Panny's legacy is modest. Sources describe him as a musician of notable ambition and perseverance, whose talent as a performer did not live up to those expectations, and his principal historical interest lies in his episode with Paganini.