Some saw him as a swindler, others as a Genius. The whole life of the musician was shrouded in secrets and omissions, and only now some details of his biography began to be revealed. But everyone who spoke about the violinist agreed that this man was a real Master. From our article you will find out which master made the Paganini violin, which he bequeathed to Genoa, and why the great violinist presented this instrument to his native city!
"A worthy son of a glorious city"
The name Niccolo Paganini is very closely connected with. Firstly, the maestro was born in Genoa. In October 1782, on the 27th, in a poor Genoese quarter called the Black Cat, a third child was born in the family of Antonio and Teresa. The boy who was destined to glorify Genoa for centuries.
Despite the fact that Niccolo's father was an ordinary salesman, he was fond of music. Frustrated that the eldest son Carlo did not show any musical abilities, the father turned his attention to the youngest son, and literally forced the boy to play the violin all day long. He dreamed that one day his son would become a famous musician. and will earn a lot of money. And young Niccolo dreamed of at least one day to take a break from musical passages ...
The first solo concert happened when the young violinist was only 11 years old. The boy studied for several years with Giacomo Costa, who was Niccolò's first mentor and taught him violin making. The young genius surprised the townspeople, they started talking about a talented boy.
The next teacher was Gasparo Ghiretti, who instilled the composing technique and taught the boy to compose, focusing not on the instrument, but only on the inner ear.
At the age of 16, Niccolo manages to escape from his father's care and go to Pisa, where they started talking about his performances. None of the musicians could repeat those passages that Niccolo masterfully mastered. He was able to extract sounds from the violin, similar to the singing of birds., wind sounds and even a human voice. Concerts went one after another, the cities were replaced by a succession:, Livorno ...
But real success also came to the violinist again in Genoa. It happened in 1827, at the Falcone Theatre, where the musician's concert took place on November 9th. The listeners were amazed by the magic that the great maestro extracted from the violin.
Among the listeners was the King of Piedmont and Carl Felix. The august monarch did not skimp on applause, and after the concert he showed the musician his special disposition. This incident hit the pages of the Gazetta di Genova, and soon the name of Paganini was known throughout Italy.
Throughout his life, the musician was credited with many novels, including with the most august persons. History has preserved only the names of only two women with whom Niccolo had quite long romances.
One of the novels happened to Angelina Kavanna, True, he was overshadowed by the fact that Angelina wrote to the authorities, as if the musician had seduced her and kidnapped her.
Paganini even had to spend several days in prison. After posting bail and paying a large amount to Angelina, the case was closed.
The second novel is associated with the name of Antonia Bianca, who gave birth to the musician's only son, Achilles.
Due to numerous trips, constant music making Paganini did not take care of his own health at all. He began to be disturbed by coughing and periodic pains. Neither ointments, nor grinding, nor trips to French seaside resorts could cure the master.
The musician spent the last six months of his life in Nice.. Having rented a house on the coast, he lived out his last days almost alone, not wanting to see anyone and suffering from the inability to make music, as before.
Interesting facts about Paganini:
- Many contemporaries called Paganini "the violinist of the devil". Many refused to believe that the musician was capable of extracting such beautiful sounds from the violin, and only after listening to his performance, they admitted that this person is actually a virtuoso in his field.
- Paganini was impossibly distracted. He did not even remember the date of his birth, and in the documents everywhere, due to a misunderstanding, he indicated different dates - either two years later, or a year earlier. And he was the third child in the family, and not the second, as he himself said.
- It is unknown if Niccolò attended school. In his letters, written by him already in adulthood, there are very frequent and gross spelling errors.
Find out on the pages of our website, as well as how to visit the most famous landmark in Italy!
The history of the famous instrument
Who made the violin that Paganini bequeathed as a gift to Genoa? Master Paganini had a huge collection of violins, which were created by real masters of their era - Guarneri, Stradivari, Amati. But there was one that was my favourite. Her name is "il Cannone" ("Cannon"). Paganini gave this name to the instrument because of the Italian events taking place in the first half of the 19th century.
Then a national liberation movement unfolded throughout the country, and the frantic violin of Paganini only inspired the fighters for freedom. Paganini's concerts have been banned more than once but the violin continued to sound ...
So which of all the masters made the violin that Paganini presented to Genoa, whose work the maestro bequeathed to his native city?
The master who made the violin that Paganini bequeathed to Genoa is Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri, grandson of Andrea Guarneri. It was made, according to the archives, in 1743 (according to other sources - in 1742). It was presented to seventeen-year-old Niccolo by a Parisian merchant whose name has not been preserved in history.
He was amazed at the power of the instrument's sound.: he withstood the powerful pressure of the bow, while the sound remained smooth and not distorted. That is why the violin became Paganini's favorite concert instrument.
The musician treated her like a living being. Once the violin lost its voice, and the musician carried it to the violin maker Vil'om. There was a fame about this master that he could breathe a second life into any instrument.
Paganini turned to the master with hope. A week later, arriving at Vilhom's house, Paganini, with anxiety and pain, touched the strings with his bow and exhaled with relief - the sound remained the same, strong and powerful. As a reward for this, Paganini presented Vilhom with a precious box encrusted with stones.
At the same time, he explained his gift in this way: “I had two such caskets. I gave one of them to my doctor - he healed my body, and I give you the second - you healed my "Cannone".
After the death of the Maestro, the violin received another name - "The Widow of Paganini". Not a single musician was able to extract sound from it, as Niccolo did.
In the will of the great musician Paganini, it was specified that the collection of violins, and especially the Cannone, should be donated to his native city, Genoa, and never leave its borders.
The museum (Palazzo Doria Tursi) has kept the violin since 1851. By the way, some of the Maestro's things, his personal letters, scores and accessories for music lessons are exhibited in the same hall.
The famous violin is stored in a special showcase in which certain conditions are maintained - the temperature must be 20 degrees, and the humidity should not exceed 50%.
The violin is kept in the hall of the museum, but even today it continues to sound.. True, this right is not granted to everyone - only the musician who will be declared the winner of the Paganini Music Competition can play the Master's violin. And this musician plays the famous violin in front of a crowded hall ...
This gloomy-looking man, player and rowdy, was completely transformed by picking up a violin. Even those who thought that his fame as the best violinist in the world was inflated had to put up with it when they happened to hear him play. For people who did not understand music, he arranged real performances with onomatopoeia - "buzzed", "mumbled" and "talked" with strings.
The future genius was born in the family of a small merchant in Genoa. His father unsuccessfully tried to teach music to his eldest son, Carlo. But when Niccolò grew up, his father gave up classes with Carlo, which he was undoubtedly happy about. How to grow a genius and a virtuoso? You can captivate and entertain a gifted child, as Mozart's father did. And you can lock him in the pantry until he learns a particularly difficult study. It was in this atmosphere that Niccolo was raised. The boy had practically no childhood, all his days were spent in endless exhausting music lessons. From birth, he had an amazingly sensitive ear, he immersed himself in the world of sounds and tried to repeat it with the help of a guitar, mandolin and violin.
Niccolò Paganini's first concert took place at the age of eleven. The concert of the child prodigy, who performed his variations of famous works, shocked the audience. The boy had noble patrons. Giancarlo de Negro, a merchant and music lover, even provided him with the opportunity to continue his studies with the cellist Ghiretti. The teacher forced a talented student to compose melodies without an instrument, to hear music in his head.
After completing his studies, Niccolo became more and more famous. He began to earn good money by giving concerts all over Italy. The musician promised to reveal the secret of his skill when he finished his career, and this only fueled the interest of the public. Everything about him seemed mysterious. His appearance is deathly pale skin, sunken eyes, a prominent hooked nose and incredibly long fingers, twitchy movements of a skinny figure. His violin playing is God or the devil, but it was definitely inhumanly good. His lifestyle and gambling addiction, which often kept him broke. And his detached, sublime state, when he stood on the stage, merging with the instrument together.
Traveling and performing, the maestro composed music. At that time (1801-1804) he lived in Tuscany and, walking along the sun-drenched streets, composed his famous violin caprices. For some time (1805-1808) Niccolo even became a court musician, but then returned to concerts again. A peculiar, easy and unconstrained manner of performance and virtuoso possession of the instrument soon made him the most popular violinist in Italy. For six years (1828-1834) he gave hundreds of concerts in European capitals. Paganini aroused admiration and delight among fellow musicians. Admiring lines were dedicated to him by Heine, Balzac and Goethe.
His creative path ended swiftly and tragically. Due to tuberculosis, Paganini had to return to Italy, and coughing fits prevented him from talking. He returned to his native Genoa a deeply ill man. Terribly suffering from severe attacks, Niccolò lived for another three years. The musician died in Nice on May 27, 1840. The papal curia did not allow him to be buried in Italy for a long time because of his lifestyle. For two months the embalmed body lay in the room, for another year - in the basement of his house. He was reburied several times, and after 36 years Niccolò Paganini found peace in Parma. After the death of Paganini, mankind inherited 24 caprices, many variations on opera and ballet themes, six concertos for violin and orchestra, sonatas, sonatas for violin and guitar, variations and vocal compositions.
By the way, shortly before his death, Paganini revealed his secret of excellent violin playing. It consists in complete spiritual merging with the instrument. You have to look and feel the world through the instrument, store memories in the fretboard, become the strings and the bow yourself. It seems that everything is simple, but not every professional musician agrees to sacrifice his life and personality to music.
"Evening Moscow" brings to your attention 7 amazing facts from the biography of the great maestro.
1. At concerts, Paganini put on a real show. This made such a strong impression on the audience that some fainted in the hall. He thought out every number and exit to the smallest detail. Everything was rehearsed: from a repertoire consisting entirely of his own compositions, to spectacular tricks, such as a broken string, an out-of-tune violin and "hello from the village" - imitating animal sounds. Paganini learned to imitate the guitar, flute, trumpets and horns and could replace the orchestra. The audience in love nicknamed him "Southern Sorcerer".
"All the best and highest in the world is connected with Christianity. The best musicians of our century write church hymns. There is not a single classical composer who would not write oratorios and masses. Mozart's Requiem, Bach's oratorios, Handel's masses testify that the Lord does not leave Europe and that our whole culture is built on the principles of Christian love and mercy. But then a violinist appeared who turns off this road. With all his behavior, insatiable greed, the intoxicating poison of earthly temptations, Paganini sows alarm on our planet and gives people to the power of hell. Paganini kills baby Christ."
3. For some, Paganini was an undoubted genius, for others - a convenient victim for attacks. Mysterious "well-wishers" sent letters to his parents describing the revelry and debauchery in which their son was allegedly mired. Rumors swirled around him, one more surprising than the other. For example, only the lazy did not know that Niccolo Paganini honed his skills not by exhausting studies in childhood and adolescence, but by entertaining himself with music while in prison. This legend turned out to be so tenacious that it even found its reflection in Stendhal's novel.
4. Newspapers often printed reports of Paganini's death. It all started with an accidental mistake, but journalists got a taste of it - after all, newspapers with a refutation were distributed in double and triple circulation, and the violinist's popularity only grew because of this. When Paganini died in Nice, the newspapers routinely printed his obituary with the note: "We hope that soon, as usual, we will publish a refutation."
5. In 1893, the coffin with the maestro was dug up again, because people allegedly heard strange sounds coming from the ground. In the presence of Paganini's grandson, the Czech violinist Frantisek Ondřicek, the rotten coffin was opened. There is a legend that the musician's body had decayed by that time, but his face and head were practically unharmed. Of course, after that, for more than a decade, the most incredible rumors and gossip circulated in Italy. In 1896, the coffin with the remains of Paganini was dug out again and reburied in another cemetery in Parma.
6. Paganini was a favorite not only of the masses, but also of titled persons. Every European monarch considered it his duty to invite him for a personal speech, and once he was called to perform the Masonic hymn before the Italian Grand Lodge. Of course, he received incredible fees for performances, but due to intemperance in gambling, he often found himself in situations where he did not have enough money for food. He had to repeatedly pawn his violin and ask for help from friends. With the birth of his son, he became calmer and by old age was able to accumulate a small fortune.
7. The maestro preferred not to write down his works on paper in order to remain the only performer (and those who could perform Paganini's melodies even with notes were negligible). Imagine the surprise of the master, who heard his own variations performed by the violinist and composer Heinrich Ernst! Is it possible that the variations were picked up by him by ear? When Ernst came to visit Paganini, he hid the manuscript under his pillow. He told the surprised musician that after his performance, one should beware not only of his ears, but also of his eyes.
Booker Igor 11/17/2012 at 16:00
The most legendary violinist in the history of European music is Niccolò Paganini. There are no musical recordings of this composer and performer, but the more acutely the listener realizes that there will never be another such Paganini. Throughout the short life of the maestro, he was accompanied by love scandals. Was there a love for a woman in Paganini's life that would surpass his love for music?
Niccolò Paganini was born on October 27, 1782 in Genoa. However, Niccolo himself preferred to subtract two years for himself, claiming that he was born in 1784. And he signed in different ways: Niccolò, or Nicolò, and sometimes Nicola. Paganini performed his first concert as a thirteen-year-old teenager. Gradually, the handsome boy who conquered the Genoese public on July 31, 1795, turned into an awkward youth with nervous gestures. It turned out the "ugly duckling" on the contrary. Over the years, his face had taken on a deathly pallor, sunken cheeks criss-crossed with premature deep wrinkles. Feverishly glittering eyes were deeply sunken, and thin skin painfully responded to any change in the weather: Niccolo sweated in summer, and perspired in winter. His bony figure with long arms and legs dangled in his clothes like a wooden puppet.
“Constant exercises on the instrument could not but cause some curvature of the torso: the chest, rather narrow and round, according to Dr. Bennati, fell in the upper part, and the left side, because the musician kept the violin here all the time, became wider than the right; percussion heard better on the right side− the result of a pleural pneumonia suffered in Parma,− writes biographer Paganini Italian Maria Tibaldi-Chiesa(Maria Tibaldi-Chiesa). − The left shoulder rose much higher than the right, and when the violinist lowered his arms, one turned out to be much longer than the other.
With such an appearance, the most incredible rumors circulated about the ardent Italian during his lifetime. They invented a story that the musician was imprisoned for the murder of his wife or mistress. It was rumored that only one string, the fourth, allegedly remained on his violin, and he learned to play it alone. And as a string, he uses the veins of a murdered woman! Since Paganini limped on his left leg, it was rumored that he had been sitting on a chain for a long time. In fact, the still inexperienced young musician was a typical Genoese who recklessly gave himself up to his passion: whether it was playing cards or flirting with pretty girls. Fortunately, he managed to recover from the card game in time. What can not be said about the love affairs of Paganini.
Very little is known about Paganini's first passion. Niccolo did not even tell his friend her name and the place of their meetings. In the prime of his youth, Paganini retired to the Tuscan estate of a certain noble lady who played the guitar and conveyed her love for this instrument to Niccolò. In three years, Paganini wrote 12 sonatas for guitar and violin, which make up his second and third opuses. As if waking up from the spell of his Circe, Niccolo at the end of 1804 fled to Genoa to pick up the violin again. Love for the mysterious Tuscan girlfriend, and through her, for the guitar helped the musician. A different arrangement of strings than on the violin made Paganini's fingers surprisingly flexible. Having become a virtuoso, the musician ceased to be interested in the guitar and only occasionally wrote music for it. But such affection as for this noble lady, who was probably older than him, Paganini never experienced for any woman. Ahead of him was an adventurous life as a wandering musician and loneliness...
Women also appeared in it. Many years later, Paganini would tell his son Achille that he had an affair with Napoleon's older sister, Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, who at that time was Empress of Lucca and Piombino. Eliza awarded the violinist the title of "court virtuoso" and appointed the captain of the personal guard. Putting on a magnificent uniform, Paganini received, in accordance with palace etiquette, the right to appear at ceremonial receptions. Communication with an ugly, but intelligent woman, moreover, the sister of the French emperor himself, amuses Nikkola's vanity. The violinist aroused the jealousy of Eliza, who was five years older than Paganini, by chasing skirts.
Once Paganini made a bet. He undertook to conduct an entire opera with the help of a violin, on which there will be only two strings - the third and fourth. He won the bet, the audience went on a rampage, and Eliza invited the musician who "did the impossible on two strings" to play on one string. On August 15, the birthday of the Emperor of France, he performed a sonata for the fourth string called Napoleon. Again, a resounding success. But success with "his" ladies had already bored Paganini.
Once, passing by a house, he noticed a pretty face in the window. A certain barber volunteered to help the maestro arrange a love date. After the concert, the impatient lover on the wings of love rushed to the appointed place. At the open window, looking at the moon, stood a girl. Seeing Paganini, she began to scream. Then the musician jumped onto a low windowsill and jumped down. Later, Niccolo found out that that girl had lost her mind because of unrequited love, and at night she looked at the moon all the time, hoping that her unfaithful lover would fly from there. The matchmaker hoped to deceive the mentally ill, but she did not take the genius of music for her boyfriend.
After three years at Elisa's court, Paganini asked her permission to go on vacation. His wanderings began in the cities of Italy.
In 1808, in Turin, Niccolo met the emperor's beloved sister, the charming 28-year-old Pauline Bonaparte. Like her sister, she was also older than him, but only by two years. Polina received the affectionate nickname Red Rose from the people of Turin, in contrast to the White Rose - Eliza. Another luxurious flower appeared in Paganini's bouquet. From early youth, the beauty was rather windy and Napoleon hurried to marry her off. After the death of her husband, General Leclerc, Polina married Prince Camillo Borghese, an attractive man who did not meet the requirements of a temperamental Corsican and, moreover, stupid. The husband irritated Polina so much that he caused bouts of neurasthenia. Lovers of sensual pleasures, Polina and Niccolo, had a pleasant time in Turin and in the castle of Stupinigi. Their passionate natures quickly ignited and cooled just as quickly. When the musician had a severe indigestion, Polina found a replacement for him.
Rumors about the "long years of prison" in which Paganini allegedly sat are pure fiction, but based on real events. In September 1814, the violinist gave concerts in Genoa, where 20-year-old Angelina Cavanna threw herself into his arms. It was not love, but a lustful relationship, and it is worth saying a few words about it in order to debunk one of the myths associated with the name of Niccolò Paganini. Despite the name Angelina, which means "angel" in Italian, Mrs. Cavannah turned out to be a whore, who was kicked out of the house by her own father for debauchery. Having become the violinist's mistress, Angelina soon became pregnant. Maestro Tibaldi-Chiesa's biographer points out that this does not yet prove Paganini's paternity, since the girl "continued to meet with other men." Niccolo took her with him to Parma, and in the spring Angelina's father returned with her to Genoa, and on May 6, 1815, Paganini was arrested on charges of kidnapping and violence against his daughter. In conclusion, the musician stayed until May 15. Five days later, Paganini in turn sued the tailor Cavannes to force him to pay compensation. The baby died in June 1815. The process ended on November 14, 1816, with a decision not in favor of the violinist, who was ordered to pay three thousand lire to Angelina Cavanna. A few months before the court order, Angelina married a man named ... Paganini. It's true, he was not a musician and a relative of a violinist. The namesake was named Giovanni Batista.
Niccolò Paganini (Italian: Niccolò Paganini; October 27, 1782 - May 27, 1840) was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer.
One of the brightest personalities in the musical history of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Recognized genius of world musical art.
Already from the age of six, Paganini played the violin, and at the age of nine he gave a concert in Genoa, which was a huge success. As a boy, he wrote several works for the violin, which were so difficult that no one but himself could play them.
At the beginning of 1797, Paganini and his father undertook the first concert tour of Lombardy. His fame as an outstanding violinist grew extraordinary. Soon getting rid of his father's strict ferula, he, left to himself, led a stormy life, which affected both his health and reputation. However, the extraordinary talent of this violinist aroused envious people everywhere, who did not neglect any means to damage Paganini's success in any way. His fame increased even more after traveling through Germany, France and England. In Germany, he even received the title of baron. In Vienna, no artist enjoyed such popularity as Paganini. Although the size of the fee at the beginning of the 19th century was far inferior to the current one, Paganini nevertheless left behind several million francs.
For the last five months, Paganini could not leave the room, his legs were swollen, and he was so exhausted that he could not take the bow in his hand, the violin lay nearby, and he fingered its strings with his fingers.
Paganini's name was surrounded by some kind of mystery, which he himself contributed to, talking about some extraordinary secrets of his game, which he would reveal only at the end of his career. During Paganini's lifetime, very few of his works were printed, because the author was afraid that by printing many of his virtuoso secrets might be discovered. The mystery of Paganini aroused such superstition that the Bishop of Nice, where Paganini died, refused a funeral mass, and only the intervention of the pope changed this decision.
The unsurpassed success of Paganini lay not in the deep musical talent of this artist, but in the extraordinary technique, in the impeccable purity with which he performed the most difficult passages, and in the new horizons of violin technique discovered by him. Working diligently on the works of Corelli, Vivaldi, Tartini, Viotti, he was aware that the rich means of the violin had not yet been fully guessed by these authors. The work of the famous Locatelli "L'Arte di nuova modulazione" led Paganini to the idea of using various new effects in violin technique. The variety of colors, the wide use of natural and artificial harmonics, the rapid alternation of pizzicato with the arco, the amazing skillful and varied use of staccato, the wide use of double and triple strings, the remarkable variety of use of the bow, the playing of entire pieces on one string (fourth) - all this led to surprise the audience, who got acquainted with hitherto unheard of violin effects. Paganini was a true virtuoso, possessing an extremely bright personality, basing his playing on original technical techniques, which he performed with infallible purity and confidence. Paganini possessed a precious collection of Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati violins, of which he bequeathed his wonderful and most beloved violin by Guarneri to his native city of Genoa, not wanting any other artist to play it.
Encyclopedic YouTube
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Biography
early years
Niccolo Paganini was the third child in the family of Antonio Paganini (-) and Teresa Bocciardo, who had six children. His father was at one time a loader, later had a shop in the port, and during the census of the population of Genoa, carried out on the orders of Napoleon, he was called "mandolin holder".
When the boy was five years old, his father, noticing his son's abilities, began to teach him music, first on the mandolin, and from the age of six on the violin. According to the memoirs of the musician himself, his father severely punished him if he did not show due diligence, and this subsequently affected his already poor health. However, Niccolo himself became more and more interested in instruments and worked hard, hoping to find still unknown combinations of sounds that would surprise listeners.
As a boy, he wrote several works (not preserved) for the violin, which were difficult, but he himself successfully performed them. Soon, Niccolo's father sent his son to study violinist Giovanni Cervetto ( Giovanni Cervetto). Paganini himself never mentioned that he studied with Cervetto, but his biographers, such as Fetis, Gervasoni, mention this fact. From 1793, Niccolò began to play regularly at divine services in Genoese churches. At that time in Genoa and Liguria there was a tradition to perform in churches not only spiritual, but also secular music. Once he heard the composer Francesco Gnecco (Francesco Gnecco), who undertook to advise the young musician. In the same year, he was trained by Giacomo Costa, who invited Niccolò to play in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, of which he was bandmaster. It is not known whether Paganini attended school, perhaps he learned to read and write later. In his letters, written in adulthood, there are spelling errors, but he had some knowledge of literature, history, mythology.
The first public concert (or, as they said then, the academy) Niccolo gave on July 31, 1795, at the Genoese theater of Sant'Agostino. The proceeds from him were intended for Paganini's trip to Parma to study with the famous violinist and teacher Alessandro Rolla. The concert included Niccolo's "Variations on a Theme of Carmagnola", a piece that could not fail to appeal to the pro-French Genoese audience at the time. In the same year, the philanthropist Marquis Gian Carlo Di Negro took Niccolò and his father to Florence. Here the boy performed his "Variations ..." to the violinist Salvatore Tinti, who, according to the first biographer of the musician Conestabile, was struck by the incredible skill of the young musician. A concert given by Niccolò at the Florentine theater made it possible to raise the missing funds for a trip to Parma. On the day when Paganini's father and son visited Roll, the latter was ill and was not going to see anyone. In the room next to the sick man's bedroom, on the table were the sheet music of Rolla's concerto and a violin. Niccolo took the instrument and played from the sheet the piece he had created the day before. Surprised, Rolla went out to the guests and, seeing that a boy was playing his concerto, declared that he could no longer teach him anything. According to the composer, Paganini should have turned to Ferdinando Paer for advice. Paer, busy staging operas not only in Parma, but also in Florence and Venice, having no time for lessons, recommended the young violinist to the cellist Gaspare Ghiretti. Ghiretti gave Paganini lessons in harmony and counterpoint; at the time of these lessons, Niccolo, under the guidance of a teacher, composed, using only pen and ink, "24 four-voice fugues." In the autumn of 1796 Niccolo returned to Genoa. Here, in the house of the Marquis Di Negro, Paganini performed the most difficult pieces from the sheet at the request of Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was on a concert tour. The famous violinist was amazed and "predicted extraordinary fame for this young man."
The beginning of an independent career. Lucca
1808-1812 years. Turin, Florence
Foreign tours
Around 1813, the musician was present at La Scala at one of the performances of the ballet Vigano-Süssmeyer "Nut Benevento". Inspired by the scene of the unrestrained dance of witches, which struck his imagination, Paganini wrote an essay that became one of the most famous in his work - "Witches", variations on the theme of the ballet "Nut Benevento" for violin and orchestra (Variations on the fourth string).
The work premiered at his solo concert at La Scala on October 29, 1813. The Milan correspondent of the Leipzig music newspaper reported that the public was deeply shocked: the variations on the fourth string so amazed everyone that the musician repeated them at the urgent request of the public. Following this, Paganini gave eleven concerts over the course of six weeks at La Scala and at the Theater Carcano", and variations called "Witches" were invariably a special success.
Paganini's fame increased after traveling through Germany, France and England. The musician was very popular everywhere. In Germany, he bought the title of baron, which was hereditary.
At the age of 34, Paganini became interested in the 22-year-old singer Antonia Bianchi, whom he helped with the preparation of a solo performance. In 1825, Niccolo and Antonia had a son, Achilles. In 1828, the musician broke up with Antonia, having achieved sole custody of his son.
Working a lot, Paganini gave concerts one after another. Wanting to provide his son with a decent future, he asked for huge fees, so that after his death his inheritance amounted to several million francs [ ] .
Constant touring and frequent performances undermined the health of the musician. In September 1834, Paganini decided to end his concert career and returned to Genoa. He was constantly ill, but at the end of December 1836 he performed in Nice with three concerts.
Throughout his life, Paganini had many chronic diseases. Although no definite medical evidence exists, it is believed that he had Marfan's syndrome. Despite the fact that the violinist resorted to the help of eminent doctors, he could not get rid of his ailments. In October 1839, ill and in an extremely nervous state, Paganini came to his native Genoa for the last time.
For the last months of his life, he did not leave the room, his legs constantly hurt, and the diseases were no longer curable. The exhaustion was so strong that he could not take the bow in his hand, his strength was only enough to finger the strings of the violin lying next to him.
