How are you?
This week's lecture is “Niccolò
Paganini”, the 16th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “101.
Classical Music: 16. Niccolò Paganini” introduced on September
2nd, 2017.
Niccolò Paganini was an
Italian violinist and composer who was born on October 27, 1782 and died on May
27, 1840.
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| Portrait of Niccolò Paganini, Andrea Cefaly |
Born the third of the six children of Antonio and Teresa Paganini in Genoa, the capital of the Republic of Genoa at the time, he began learning the mandolin from his father at the age of five and moved to the violin at the age of seven.
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| Location of Genoa |
Although he
studied under various local violinists, including Giovanni Servetto and Giacomo
Costa, his musical talents soon surpassed their abilities, after which Paganini
and his father traveled to Parma to receive further instruction from Alessandro
Rolla. However, after listening to Paganini's playing, Rolla immediately
introduced him to his teacher, Ferdinando Paer, and later, his teacher, Gasparo
Ghiretti.
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| Alessandro Rolla |
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| Ferdinando Paër |
In 1801, Paganini was
appointed first violinist of the Republic of Lucca, but he still earned most of
his income from freelancing.
Annexed by Napoleon of
France in 1805, Lucca was ruled by Napoleon's sister, Elisa Baciocchi, and
Paganini became a violinist for the Baciocchi court, while giving private
lessons to Elisa's husband, Felice. In 1807, Baciocchi became the Grand Duchess
of Tuscany and her court was moved to Florence, but Paganini left Baciocchi in
1809.
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| Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi |
For the next few years,
Paganini performed in the areas surrounding Parma and Genoa, becoming very
popular with the local audiences, but still remained unknown in the rest of
Europe. In 1813, with the great success of the concert at La Scala in Milan, he
began to attract the attention of many prominent musicians across Europe.
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| La Scala |
In 1835, Paganini
returned to Parma at the request of Napoleon's second wife, Archduchess Marie
Louise of Austria, and was in charge of reorganizing her court orchestra, but
due to the conflicts with the players and the court, his visions were never
completed.
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| Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma |
In 1836, Paganini returned to Paris to establish a casino, but his failure led him to financial bankruptcy and eventually forced him to auction his personal belongings, including his musical instruments. At Christmas of 1838, he left Paris for Marseille and, after a brief stay, and travelled to Nice, where his health deteriorated. In May 1840, the Bishop of Nice sent Paganini a local parish priest to perform the last rites, but Paganini rejected the rites because he thought it was premature.
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| Bulletin advertising a performance of Paganini (1831) |
However, just a week later, he died from internal
hemorrhaging, and because of this and rumors of dealings with the devil, the
Church refused his body a Catholic burial in Genoa. Then, it took four years to
move his body from Nice to Genoa, but his body was still left unburied.
Finally, in 1876, his body was buried in a cemetery in Parma, and in 1896 it
was moved again to a new cemetery in Parma.
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| Tomb of Paganini, Parma, Italy |
He was the most famous
violin virtuoso of his time and made a great contribution to the establishment
of modern violin technique. His “24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1” are his
most famous works and have inspired many prominent composers.
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| Bust of Niccolò Paganini, David d'Angers |
Thank you.
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