In this imperfect sketch I have sought not to write a mere panegyric of one whose face was for half a century familiar in English musical circles, whose tones will ever live in the memory of those whom they once enthralled, and who was beloved by all who knew him. Mere laudatory phrases are out of place in the biography of a great artist; they are without interest to those who have not heard him play and superfluous to those who have. I have hoped rather to depict the man to those who only knew the artist.
All the varied incidents of an active life which are here narrated I have heard from the lips of Signor Piatti himself, and he kindly revised many of these pages before they were put into the publisher's hands. I have also to thank for information supplied to me, Messrs. Hill, Mr. F. C. Pawle, who has kindly also allowed the portrait by Holl to be reproduced in this volume, and most of all the Contessa Rosa Piatti-Lochis.
Morton Latham.
July, 1901.
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