Niccolo Paganini
money was concerned, he was a man of greed.
Robert Schumann held Paganini the composer in as high esteem as Paganini the virtuoso. “His compositions,” wrote Schumann, “contain many pure and precious qualities.” Berlioz was equally enthusiastic about Paganini`s works: “A volume might be written in telling all that Paganini has created...of novel effect, of ingenious contrivances, noble and grandiose forms, and orchestral combinations unknown before his time. His melodies are broad Italian melodies, but full of passionate ardour seldom found in the best pages of dramatic composers of his country. His harmonies are always clear, simple, and of extraordinary sonorousness. His orchestration is brilliant and energetic without being noisy.”
Certainly, Paganini`s greatest importance as a composer rests with his brilliant pieces for the violin, in which he developed the resources of his instrument prodigiously and profoundly affected all violin-writing that was to follow. Of his works for the violin, perhaps the most famous are the twenty-four caprices which, in the opinion of Florizel von Reuter, are “Paganini`s most important work...and reveal such a wealth of pedagogic lore, coupled with such inexhaustible fantasy and poetical romance that they may be considered as convincing proof of Paganini`s worth as a musician and composer.”
Both Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann have transcribed the twenty-four caprices for piano. Johannes Brahms composed a series of piano variations on the twenty-fourth caprice, as did Sergei Rachmaninov.
Paganini`s performances must indeed have been astounding: on one occasion at a concert, 300 people were hopitalized on the official diagnosis of “over enchantment.” In London, people would very often poke Paganini with their canes to determine if he was really made of flesh and blood. A legend in his own time, who lives on through his brilliant music
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