Baillot is considered to have been the last distinguished representative
of the great classical school of violin playing in Paris. In his "L'Art
du Violon" he points out the chief distinction between the old and the
modern style of violin playing to be the absence of the dramatic element
in the former, and its predominance in the latter, thus enabling the
executive art to follow the progress marked out by the composer, and to
bring out the powerful contrasts and enlarged ideas of the modern
musical compositions. After the time of Baillot and his contemporaries
the style of Paganini became predominant in Paris, but the influence of
the Paris school extended to Germany, where Spohr must be considered the
direct descendant artistically of Viotti and Rode.

Perhaps the most illustrious pupil of Viotti was Pierre Rode, who was
born at Bordeaux in 1774, and exhibited such exceptional talent that at
the age of sixteen he was one of the violins at the Théâtre Feydeau in
Paris. He had made his début in Paris at the Théâtre de Monsieur, when
he played Viotti's thirteenth concerto with complete success. In 1794 he
began to travel, and made a tour through Holland and North Germany,
visiting England, driven there by stress of weather, on his way home. He
appeared once in London, and then left for Holland and Germany again. On
his return to France he was appointed professor of the violin at the
Conservatoire, then newly established. In 1799 ne made a trip to Spain,
where he met Boccherini. The following year he returned to Paris, where
he was made solo violinist to the First Consul, and it was at this
period that he gained his greatest success, when he played with Kreutzer
a duo concertante of the latter's composition. After this he went to
Russia, where he was enthusiastically received, and was appointed one of
the emperor's musicians. The life in Russia, however, overtaxing his
strength, from that time his powers began to fail, and he met with many
disappointments. In 1814 he married, and, although he made an