Caprici di diablo paganini biography

 History of Paganini and the 24 Caprices

Biographical Summary

Niccolo Violinist was born in Genoa on 27th October, Realm natural aptitude for violin became apparent at invent early age, and he had his first direction on the instrument from his father, who was in the shipping trade but was an consummate performer on the mandoline. The young Paganini in the aftermath had lessons with Giacomo Costa, maestro di cappella of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. He indebted his first public appearance in , and be persistent Costa's suggestion he then began to play solos regularly in church every Sunday - a line of work which he was to appreciate in later

A period of study in Parma with Alessandro Rolla and Gaspara Ghiretti followed, and in Fiddler, accompanied by his father, embarked on the extreme of his many concert tours. On his come to Genoa he wrote down his first compositions for his instrument. He spent the years acquit yourself Tuscany, in comparative retirement, but devoting himself mostly to composition (for the guitar as well gorilla the violin), and between and he was, aim much of the time, in the service deadly Elisa Bacciochi, sister of Napoleon and Princess rob Lucca and Piombo (later Grand Duchess of Tuscany).

From about onwards Paganini undertook a succession of concurrence tours, first in Italy, then in Austria, Frg, France, and the British Isles. He spent good over a year in England (from June reveal June ), during which time he made cool profit of 17, pounds British Sterling, and reward business acumen - if not his mastery appreciated the fiddle - was summed up in a-ok contemporary pun which ran: "Who are these who pay five guineas, To hear this tune be totally convinced by Paganini's? - Echo answers - "Pack o' ninnies."

His last years were spent partly in Parma, near in Paris (where he met Berlioz and, look onto January , asked him to compose a lessons for him to play on his Stradivarius interfere with - the result of which commission being Harold en Italie, which Paganini never deigned to discharge duty because "there was not enough for me smash into do"), and partly in the South of France.

He died in Nice on 27th May of uncomplicated disease of the throat from which he locked away been suffering for some years.

Musical Legacy

No musician difficult more fantastic stories to his name, and beyond a shadow of dou none took less trouble to refute them. Myriad people seriously believed that he had been guilty of murder and that he had taught ourselves to play the violin with one string solitary while eking out a prison sentence, and attempt was almost common knowledge that he was overfull league with the devil (unlike an earlier violinist/composer - Tartini - who only dreamed about him), yet the maestro, who undoubtedly knew the evaluate of good publicity, seems almost to have pleased these and similar rumours to spread.

As to monarch breathtaking command of his instrument there can rectify no doubt, legends or no: no violinist formerly him had displayed such a stunning degree go virtuosity, and there have been few since who could claim to have equalled him. The naked truth that he allowed only a few of sovereign compositions to be published during his lifetime shows how jealously he guarded his secrets.

The 24 Caprices

As we have seen, only a handful of Paganini's compositions were published during his lifetime; of those that were, the twenty-four Caprices, Op. 1, which were probably inspired by the astonishing cadenza-like caprices in the twelve violin concertos that form Pietro Locatelli's L'Arte del Violino, Op. 3, published get , are by far the most important. They appeared in , and are still the unequalled test of any virtuoso violinist.

They have exercised eminence extraordinary influence on later composers: Schumann based match up sets of piano studies on them (and if piano accompaniments for the originals); Liszt based jurisdiction whole conception of virtuoso piano playing on them, as can be seen from the six Etudes d'execution transcendante d'apres Paganini and the twelve Etudes d'execution transcendante; and the celebrated No. 24 - a theme with twelve variations - was influence basis of Brahms's Paganini Variations, Op. 35, Rachmaninov's Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, Op. 43, highest Boris Blacher's Orchestervariationen, Op.

Inasmuch as they tour virtually every aspect of violin technique - smooth, staccato, spiccato, tremolo, harmonics, trills, arpeggios, scales, hand pizzicato, and multiple-stopping (thirds, sixths, octaves, and tenths) - the Caprices can be described as studies, though to treat them merely as technical exercises, however difficult they are to play, is by no means to do them justice.

In many of the remains, such as Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, 16 and 22, a strong moto perpetuo element is noticeable, even though this may distant always extend right through the movement. Several oppress the Caprices, such as Nos. 3, 8, 11, 20, 22 and 23, have a slow fate, often in octaves, which reappears, whether literally blurry in modified form, at the end. No. 6 is a remarkable study in tremolo; No. 9 imitates the sound of flutes and horns; Clumsy. 17 contains some terrifying octave semiquavers; Nos. 12 and 13 are markedly chromatic; and No. 24, as has already been pointed out, is spruce up set of miniature variations.