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00:00:17In the autumn of 1801, a young man who had impressed a member of the government was invited
00:00:24to play the violin at a solemn pontifical mass in the old Tuscan town of Lucca.
00:00:33The story is told in the state archives by Abbe Iacobo Cellini, a member of the Cathedral
00:00:39Orchestra.
00:00:44It fell to a young Genoese Jacobin, known as a patriot and more especially as a violinist,
00:00:50to play at the mass.
00:00:53The government wished this excellent violinist to exhibit his musical ability, but since
00:00:58there was to be a motet at the epistle and a concerto at the offertory, there was no opportunity
00:01:03for him to play during the celebration of the mass.
00:01:07And so the Minister of the Interior, Adriano Mencarelli, gave orders which were contrary
00:01:12to all the regulations, that he should play at the end of the Kyrie, and he was indiscreet
00:01:18enough to play a concerto that took a good 28 minutes.
00:01:37This professor certainly manifested an unusual and unprecedented virtuosity. He imitated on his
00:01:44strings the songs of birds, the flute, trombone and horn.
00:01:51And although everyone admired his astonishing bravura, when they heard this mimicry on the
00:01:56violin, it aroused laughter, even in the church.
00:02:04He was undoubtedly a professor of considerable ability, but he lacked judgment and self-criticism.
00:02:11Nevertheless, the concerto received great applause, the Jacobins leading the ovation.
00:02:19Such music had never before been heard at a Santa Croce celebration.
00:02:34The story foreshadowed much that was to come in the next 39 years. The professor, who with
00:02:40such notable indiscretion, played a 28-minute concerto in the middle of a pontifical mass,
00:02:45was 19 years old at the time, and his career was to be full of just such dramatic surprises.
00:02:52He made it so, quite deliberately, and he suffered for it. But he was not to be distracted.
00:02:59He was possessed by his demon, and if ever there was an artist with an unshakable faith in his destiny,
00:03:05it was Niccolò Paganini.
00:03:36Is Niccolò Paganini.
00:04:03He's been here before John Mc nessa, and his Aufgabenini's house we all gave for it,
00:04:04to believe him.َ
00:04:08Paganini's faith in his destiny was based squarely on what he knew he could do,
00:04:13and he was to become soon the most successful instrumental soloist the world had ever known.
00:04:19But destiny had other things too in store for Niccolò Paganini,
00:04:23and the road turned out to be hard and painful.
00:04:27Showered with the greatest glory of any instrumentalist of his time or before him,
00:04:31he suffered, in almost equal and opposite measure,
00:04:35the devastating effects of continuing ill health, isolation and other subtler wounds inflicted along the way.
00:04:53Among his miseries, Paganini was to witness his pursuit of glory and of money,
00:04:58robbing him slowly of almost everything else.
00:05:02As a performer, he went at first from strength to strength, as none had ever done before.
00:05:08But the composer lost valuable time,
00:05:11and the man watched his dreams of a happy life waste away and turn to ashes in his hands.
00:05:42But the 19-year-old, who caused such a stir in the church at Lucca,
00:05:46was determined to enjoy himself, to the limits of his endurance, and sometimes beyond,
00:05:52with music, with gambling, and with girls.
00:05:56With his whirlwind talent, he left the world gasping,
00:06:00and then watched with amusement how the world made the story its own.
00:06:04Legend after legend was invented,
00:06:06so that his public might more easily enjoy,
00:06:09and explain,
00:06:10the miracle
00:06:12Paganini.
00:06:30Paganini saw it all,
00:06:32used the legends,
00:06:33and fed them in every way that he could.
00:06:36At 19, his capacity seemed limitless,
00:06:39and he began to compose his 24 caprices,
00:06:42which alone have won him a place in history.
00:06:44But it was the performer, not the composer,
00:06:47who set out to conquer the world,
00:06:49and he was to succeed
00:06:51beyond anything that he, or anyone else,
00:06:53could ever have dreamed possible.
00:06:55motto is,
00:07:23suppose if he knew,
00:07:40He speaks in sounds with which he entices us or drives us away.
00:07:44He creates emotions and then destroys them with piercing strokes and tears.
00:07:50But when we want to turn away full of resentment, he embraces our souls again with a golden line and
00:07:57threatens to draw them out of our bodies.
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00:09:26Much of Paganini's meteoric flight was born on the wings of surprise.
00:09:30Surprise and fruitful contrast.
00:09:34This came in part from extraordinary contradictions within his own character,
00:09:38which the world was never to understand,
00:09:40and which led in turn to dramatic contradictions in how he was seen by others.
00:09:46Paganini learned early to exploit this, to the delight or confusion and sometimes the downright disgust of his public.
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00:10:26I can find no base for this column of flame and cloud.
00:10:30I can only say that I heard some meteoric sounds which I have not yet succeeded in interpreting.
00:10:52The first time I heard him, he reminded me of Moses performing his tricks in the presence of the Egyptians.
00:10:58I found it irritating.
00:11:01The thing in him that captures and retains the attention to such a high degree is perhaps a certain mixture
00:11:07of the fantastic, a weird imagination and a longing for liberty.
00:11:12He is not so much a lunatic as a poseur.
00:11:15His playing is like a musical hors d'oeuvre, a kind of prairie oyster which one swallows down with the
00:11:21aid of pepper and vinegar.
00:11:27Oh foolish world! Oh wondrous taste! Oh enthusiastic Viennese!
00:11:33I have never been so let down as by this so-called virtuoso.
00:11:37I cannot understand how, after hearing Romberg, Roder, Spohr and Lafon, anyone can listen for one moment to such trickery.
00:11:46It was more like a twittering of sparrows than any legitimate musical sound.
00:11:59Criticism served only to strengthen Paganini's resolve, and again and again he successfully transformed hostility into wild enthusiasm.
00:12:08So much so, that in time this trick became an end in itself.
00:12:13From a very early age, he knew that he could surprise and hold his audience, and so with his violin,
00:12:20he set out quite deliberately to dazzle the world.
00:12:23But he kept a more private affection for the guitar, and when the guitar appeared, the music was almost always
00:12:30sunnier, gentler, and more intimately revealing.
00:12:35Predictably, this gave rise to the tale that he used the guitar for his sexual conquests, of which there were
00:12:42many.
00:12:42Predictably, this gave rise to the guitar for his soul, and the guitar for his soul.
00:13:12Niccolò Paganini was born in Genoa, in the Paso di Gattamora, the alley of the black she-cat, on the
00:13:1927th of October, 1782.
00:13:21His father, Antonio, a Genoese dock worker who taught him first the mandolin and guitar, and later the violin.
00:13:31His father gave him also a passion for gambling, that would cost him dear in his youth.
00:13:36When success came, he gave that up.
00:13:39But later, with a devilish twist to the tale, gambling was indirectly to cost him even more dearly.
00:13:56But his father taught him also the Genoese skill with money, and saw very soon the commercial potential in his
00:14:03child.
00:14:05He put his son to work good and hard, so hard that it took its toll on Niccolò's health, and
00:14:13seemingly for the rest of his days.
00:14:16Paganini said later that it would be difficult to imagine a stricter father.
00:14:23The relationship became complicated.
00:14:26If the boy failed to practice for long hours, he was beaten and given no food.
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00:15:03His mother, too, saw promise in her child,
00:15:06despite his evident frailty and recurrent illnesses,
00:15:09at least one of which was expected to be fatal.
00:15:13Teresa saw also unmistakable possibilities for social advancement
00:15:17and claimed to have had a dream, when her boy was five years old,
00:15:21of the grander that was to come.
00:15:24She saw a theatre in flames, with her son grown tall,
00:15:28playing triumphant music, with Tartini conducting
00:15:31and competing for the soul of her son with a red devil holding a guitar.
00:15:37Then an angel appeared,
00:15:39and she asked that her boy should become a great violinist
00:15:42and that his name should become immortal.
00:15:45A sign from the angel indicated that her wish would be granted.
00:15:50Paganini carried this story with him all his life long
00:15:53and vouched for its authenticity.
00:15:56When his mother died,
00:15:58he said that he lamented that he was not there to close her eyes.
00:16:00Her son Niccolò was, as nearly always,
00:16:07far away, in the service of his demon
00:16:09and the successful pursuit of glory.
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00:18:30Teresa Paganini's dream was to become a self-fulfilling prophecy,
00:18:33and not least in its suggestions of the diabolical.
00:18:38The violin had been associated with devilry since the time of Tartini,
00:18:41who had dreamed of the devil and composed his Devil's Trill Sonata.
00:18:47Both mother and son knew the story and used it.
00:18:50Soon it was widely believed that Paganini had made a pact with the devil,
00:18:55and the idea became an essential ingredient in the alchemy.
00:18:58It worked in the minds of both his admirers and his detractors,
00:19:02and at every level,
00:19:04from those who had never been to a concert in their lives
00:19:06to the most successful composers, performers, and poets of his time.
00:19:14The excitement that he caused was so unusual,
00:19:17the magic that he practised upon the fantasy of his hearers so powerful
00:19:20that they could not satisfy themselves with a natural explanation.
00:19:24Old tales of witches and ghosts came into their minds.
00:19:27They tried to explain the wonder of his playing through his past,
00:19:31to fathom the magic of his genius by invoking the supernatural.
00:19:35They even suggested that he had dedicated his soul to the devil.
00:19:43To describe him, one needs poetry or fairy tales.
00:19:48There is, in his appearance, something so demonic
00:19:51that one looks for a glimpse of a cloven hoof or an angel's wing.
00:20:00He wore a frock coat of dark grey which reached to his heels
00:20:04and gave him an appearance of great height.
00:20:06His long, dark hair fell to his shoulders in twisted locks
00:20:10and formed a black frame for his pale, cadaverous face,
00:20:13on which sorrow, genius, and hell
00:20:16had left their ineffaceable stigmata.
00:20:22Easter Sunday, in the evening I heard Paganini.
00:20:26What ecstasy!
00:20:28In his hands the driest exercises flame up like Pythian pronouncements.
00:20:36In Paganini's Adagio I heard the singing of angels.
00:20:40We will not see this fellow's like again.
00:20:45What a man, what a violin, what an artist,
00:20:49what suffering, what anguish, what torment
00:20:51those four strings can express.
00:21:14The musicians resisted the mythical and diabolical explanations
00:21:18of Paganini's success.
00:21:19They, of course, knew better.
00:21:21But even they were divided, both in their opinions
00:21:25and in their explanations.
00:21:27This provoked a stream of debate and analysis
00:21:30and prompted the conductor of the Frankfurt Orchestra, Karl Goer,
00:21:34to publish an account of the differences
00:21:37between Paganini and all other violinists.
00:21:40He identified six principal innovations.
00:21:44His method of tuning his instrument.
00:21:47In some works, Paganini raises the pitch
00:21:50of all four strings by a semitone and when he plays
00:21:53on the G-string alone, it is tuned a minor third high.
00:21:57This has a surprising and magical effect.
00:22:01It is to be hoped that he will share this secret with the world.
00:22:11His method of bowing Paganini's unique bowing gives his playing the greatest vitality and variety.
00:22:19His subtle nuances give his singing melodies a sweetness which words cannot express.
00:22:25But the chief difference is his astonishing staccato.
00:22:29He throws his bow on the strings with a whipping action
00:22:32and plays scale passages of incredible rapidity,
00:22:35while the sounds of his violin roll off as smooth as pearls.
00:22:46His practice of combining bowed notes with left-hand pizzicato.
00:22:51This was a device used by the old Italian school,
00:22:54especially in the time of Mestrino,
00:22:56but it has been neglected by the French and German schools.
00:22:59Today, only Paganini uses this technique and with the greatest success.
00:23:15His use of harmonics.
00:23:17One can say with certainty that much of Paganini's security and clarity on the violin
00:23:22is directly related to his complete mastery and extended use of harmonics.
00:23:27This enables him to play with astonishing ease phrases that would otherwise be quite impossible
00:23:32on the instrument, and he does this with the greatest facility.
00:23:57His compositions for the G-string alone.
00:24:00In these, the G-string is tuned a minor third high,
00:24:04and sometimes even a major third,
00:24:06while using a much thinner string,
00:24:08and they have won him the greatest celebrity.
00:24:34Paganini's Tour de Force.
00:24:36I cannot be expected to describe them all.
00:24:39Almost everyone who hears him for the first time is astonished and excited
00:24:43by so much that is new and surprising.
00:24:47Paganini can touch the deepest levels of the soul,
00:24:50and perform unprecedented feats with dazzling perfection.
00:24:53The effect is beyond description.
00:25:26Paganini's Tour de Force.
00:25:27Success and money generated more than legend and debate.
00:25:32Jealousy and resentment followed quickly in their train,
00:25:35and envy was to become the bane of Paganini's life.
00:25:39It pursued him relentlessly to the grave and even beyond,
00:25:43while his love of money and his obstinacy fanned the flames
00:25:47and delivered him again and again into the hands of his detractors.
00:25:54In his battles with the world, which became steadily more serious until the day he died,
00:25:59Paganini was fortunate in having the help of a Genoese lawyer, Luigi Gerni,
00:26:04who gave him counsel, took care of his money,
00:26:06and became his most loyal friend and his most devoted correspondent.
00:26:28Unhappily, Paganini did not always follow his friend's advice.
00:26:32In 1814, when he was 32 years old and already well practiced in escaping from his lovers,
00:26:39he ignored Gerni's warnings and resisted the claims of a Genoese tailor, Ferdinando Cavana,
00:26:44on behalf of his pregnant daughter, Angelina.
00:26:53Paganini was arrested and imprisoned for eight days,
00:26:56adding fuel to the legend that he had acquired his extraordinary skills
00:27:00through long years in prison for murder.
00:27:03This story haunted him persistently and caused him increasing anguish,
00:27:08because although it did no harm to his quest for gold,
00:27:12it did not at all suit his need for glory and the rising sense of his own importance.
00:27:20Paganini became more and more cautious with women,
00:27:23but in 1824, when he was 42 years old,
00:27:26he began a casual relationship with a soprano, Antonia Bianchi,
00:27:30which was to take an unexpected turn.
00:27:35Just as he began to tire of her, Antonia Bianchi announced that she was pregnant,
00:27:40and on the 23rd of July, 1825, gave birth to a son.
00:27:51Paganini maintained the relationship in the interests of his child,
00:27:54but refused to marry Bianchi,
00:27:56who became increasingly tempestuous and demanding.
00:28:15For Paganini, as usual, the dream had faded.
00:28:20The relationship collapsed into violence.
00:28:23Bianchi threatened to destroy Paganini's violin,
00:28:26and he demanded a separation.
00:28:30From this time on,
00:28:32he reserved his most intimate affection for his son,
00:28:35to whom he gave the names of no less than three conquering heroes,
00:28:39Achilles, Cyrus, Alexander.
00:28:43And for many years,
00:28:45Paganini gladly fulfilled the roles of father, mother, and nurse.
00:28:50Achilles became, in turn,
00:28:53his closest companion,
00:28:54his aide and translator,
00:28:56and his greatest solace in the suffering that was to come.
00:29:14After three years of mounting tension,
00:29:17Paganini wrote to Jeremy,
00:29:19All is finished with Bianchi.
00:29:21I thought it well to accept her proposal,
00:29:24and paid her the sum of 2,000 Milanese scudi.
00:29:27She renounced all claims on me.
00:29:30Here at Carlsbad,
00:29:31I started a cure with the waters,
00:29:33because the people here are wild to hear my violin.
00:30:04After his escape from his father to Luca,
00:30:06at the age of 19, Paganini remained in Italy for the next 27 years, his reputation rising
00:30:13steadily from the moment of his dramatic appearance during the Mass. This brought him an appointment
00:30:19as first violin at the theatre, and news of his successors soon reached Elise Baciocchi,
00:30:26Napoleon's elder sister, whom he had crowned princess of Luca and Piombino. Paganini was
00:30:34duly appointed first violin to the court, and not long afterwards captain of the royal
00:30:39bodyguard, on intimate terms with the princess. He was given leave to travel, and began to
00:30:47record his adventures. At a concert in Livorno I ran a nail into my heel, and came limping
00:30:53onto the stage, which made the audience laugh. As I was preparing to play, the candles fell
00:30:59out of my music desk, which produced more laughter. Then when I began the concerto, my E-string
00:31:05broke, which again provoked laughter. But when they saw me continue on three strings, it caused
00:31:11a furore. Paganini took note of the effect, and added a new surprise to his repertoire.
00:31:19In time, he would be accused of breaking strings deliberately.
00:31:30Relations with the princess became strained, when Paganini seemed to her to be too friendly
00:31:35with her younger and more beautiful sister Pauline, and then appeared at a court concert,
00:31:40resplendent in his uniform as captain of the royal bodyguard.
00:31:53The princess ordered her captain to change into concert dress. Her captain ignored the
00:31:58order. The princess repeated her command. Paganini continued the concert in full regalia, danced
00:32:05with the guests, and then, as he had done before and would do again, took flight to continue
00:32:12his conquest of the western world.
00:32:23His reputation had long since spread beyond Italy, and he considered travelling further afield.
00:32:29But success had become essential to him, and he waited cautiously for the invitation that
00:32:34he felt he deserved. Eventually, in 1819, when he was 36 years old, it came from the Austrian
00:32:41Prince Metternich, whose daughter had heard Paganini in Rome and been captivated. Paganini resolved
00:32:49to cross the Alps, but illness and caution made him wait nine years before he did so.
00:32:56The famous Genoese violinist, the Chevalier Niccolo Paganini, has at last decided to undertake
00:33:02a tour beyond Italy, and to dedicate his first performances to Vienna, the city of art.
00:33:11Paganini arrived early, made sure that his arrival was noted, appeared conspicuously in public,
00:33:17but remained aloof, except towards the prince and princess, whose drawing room was the only
00:33:22one in which he condescended to play. Then he announced a public concert in the Redutensaal
00:33:28for the 29th of March, 1828.
00:33:46Never has an artist caused such a sensation within our walls as this god of the violin.
00:33:52Never has the public so gladly carried its money to a concert, and never in my memory has the fame
00:33:57of a virtuoso
00:33:58penetrated to the lowest classes of the population.
00:34:25When we say that in his hands the violin sounds more beautiful and more moving than any human voice,
00:34:31that his glowing soul kindles warmth in every heart, that every singer could learn from him,
00:34:37one still has said nothing that illuminates his playing.
00:34:41That is Paganini. Anyone who has not heard him can have no idea of it.
00:34:46One must hear him, and hear him again. Only then can it be believed.
00:35:08The time was right for the performer who had become the first of the romantic virtuosi.
00:35:14Paganini rapidly became the focus of a rampant fashion that penetrated all levels of Vienna's social life.
00:35:20His grand tour of Europe had begun, and he had learned a few more tricks of self-promotion.
00:35:27He went on to tour Germany and Poland with equal success, although he did not fare so well in Prague.
00:35:34With his health much improved, he played more than 125 concerts in over 50 cities between 1828 and 1831,
00:35:42and began to make money as no instrumental soloist had ever done before.
00:35:47But as far as money was concerned, this was only the beginning.
00:35:52He became increasingly sure of himself, demanding and eccentric.
00:35:57At his concerts he would keep the public waiting, often for much too long,
00:36:02then emerge slowly and scrutinise the audience before coming onto the stage in a strangely awkward manner,
00:36:09offer a disconcerting smile that smacked of cynicism, and then sweep his bow to the floor in an imperious gesture
00:36:16as if he were making a salute with a sword.
00:36:21He had learned to build success upon success, and resolved to play in Paris in the certain knowledge that it
00:36:28would be his greatest challenge.
00:36:30Paris claimed to have the most refined school of violin playing in Europe, and more dangerously valued artistic expression above
00:36:38virtuosity.
00:36:39As usual, the challenge became an obsession, and as usual, Paganini took his time.
00:37:06The
00:37:23PIANO PLAYS
00:37:45Paganini had other reasons to delay.
00:37:48He had driven himself too hard, and his health had begun to fail again.
00:37:53He was seriously troubled by a persistent cough,
00:37:56a digestive tract ruined by endless medicines,
00:37:59including mercury for the treatment of syphilis, which destroyed his teeth,
00:38:03and other mysterious maladies which defied diagnosis,
00:38:07but may well have been the symptoms of mercury poisoning.
00:38:11His suffering was, at times, intense.
00:38:15He turned increasingly to quack remedies
00:38:17and consulted every willing doctor who crossed his path.
00:38:21But he continued to drive himself forward,
00:38:24travelled great distances by coach in difficult conditions,
00:38:27and put up in uncomfortable lodgings,
00:38:30sustained by some inner metal
00:38:32that astonished almost all who came into contact with him.
00:38:46Paganini arrived in Paris with his six-year-old son
00:38:48on 24 February 1831,
00:38:52and generated the usual tension by declining to play for the king
00:38:56on the grounds that his cough made it quite impossible.
00:39:00He also declined invitations to concerts,
00:39:03but on 5 March, and with the help of Rossini,
00:39:06announced his intention to play a gala concert at the Opera House on the 9th,
00:39:10and at double the normal ticket prices.
00:39:16The Opera House was crowded with the most distinguished and brilliant public
00:39:20that Paganini had ever confronted,
00:39:22including Théophile Gautier,
00:39:24Eugène Delacroix,
00:39:25Georges Sand, dressed as a man so that she could sit in the stalls,
00:39:29Rossini, Cherubini and Aubert,
00:39:32Heinrich Heine,
00:39:33and the young Franz Liszt,
00:39:35who were so profoundly impressed
00:39:37that the experience was to become a turning point in his life and career.
00:39:56It was a divine, a diabolic enthusiasm.
00:40:00I never saw or heard anything to equal it in all my life.
00:40:04The people have all gone crazy.
00:40:06But you should have seen how awkward he was.
00:40:11He swayed back and forth like a drunken man.
00:40:14His own feet got in the way.
00:40:15He kicked out with them,
00:40:17threw his arms in the air,
00:40:18stretched them out towards the wings,
00:40:19and supplicated heaven, earth, and all mankind
00:40:22for help in his great need.
00:40:24He is the most magnificent lout that nature ever invented.
00:40:32Sell all you possess,
00:40:34pawn everything but go to hear him.
00:40:36This is the most astounding,
00:40:38the most surprising,
00:40:39the most wonderful,
00:40:39the most miraculous,
00:40:41the most triumphant,
00:40:42the most bewildering,
00:40:43the most incredible,
00:40:44the most extraordinary,
00:40:45and the most unexpected thing that ever happened.
00:40:48In a dream,
00:40:50Tartini saw a devil playing a diabolic sonata.
00:40:54That devil was surely Paganini.
00:40:56Paganini.
00:41:03Dissenting voices were drowned,
00:41:05and Paganini wrote to Gernie,
00:41:08It is impossible to give you any idea
00:41:10of the prodigious triumphs
00:41:12that I have enjoyed in Paris.
00:41:14In a contract made the day before yesterday
00:41:16with La Porte,
00:41:17impresario of the King's Theatre in London,
00:41:19I promised to begin a series of concerts there
00:41:22early next month,
00:41:23and to give no less than six in eight weeks.
00:41:26It is astonishing to see the success
00:41:28of all these Paris concerts
00:41:30following so closely one upon the other.
00:41:33If only I had come a year ago,
00:41:35I could have made a million.
00:41:39From eleven concerts in six weeks,
00:41:41Paganini made 158,000 francs.
00:41:45Such a thing had never been done before.
00:42:12Paganini,
00:42:13Paganini made 158,000 francs.
00:42:13and me in the last half of the year.
00:42:13And now I am going to be obsessed with the king.
00:42:14And I am going to be Butterfield.
00:42:22Of course,
00:42:22It is a way of working for the king,
00:42:24I am going to be a man.
00:42:25I am going to be a man here at Llewellyn.
00:42:29And I am going to be a man here at Llewellyn.
00:42:32And I am going to be a man here,
00:42:32and we are going to be one of the small,
00:43:19I imagined that his features would bear the stamp of his genius, and that if he was not beautiful, he
00:43:25could not be downright ugly.
00:43:27I was disillusioned. I saw, entering the room, a man with a figure that looked almost twisted, with large ears
00:43:35and a long square face framed in long black hair that fell over his collar in the old directoire style.
00:43:43His nose and mouth matched the rest of his appearance, as did his deep-set eyes that burned with a
00:43:49dark fire.
00:43:50All of this gave a look of the satanic to his whole person.
00:43:54But when he spoke of the violin, he displayed the most vivid enthusiasm.
00:43:59I was enchanted.
00:44:02I no longer thought him ugly.
00:44:03And when I heard the divine sounds of that instrument at the opera, I felt I was transported to another
00:44:09world.
00:44:10In the presence of this magician, I was prepared for anything.
00:44:14Had the devil himself appeared, I should not have been surprised.
00:44:23But Paris began to resist the magic.
00:44:27Paganini had gone too far, and success brought resentment.
00:44:31Reports of personal meanness began to spread.
00:44:34And instead of ignoring them, as he had done in the past, Paganini became increasingly intransigent.
00:44:41The pace of his life, his ill health, the effects of the medicines, and the burden of his growing importance,
00:44:47all contributed to make him nervous and unpredictable.
00:44:52He refused to play at a charity ball, which provoked a spate of attacks in the papers.
00:44:57He made the mistake of issuing public justifications, which made matters worse.
00:45:02And despite donations to charity in an effort to stem the tide, almost everything that he did now seemed to
00:45:08work against him.
00:45:10Even the old legends of his imprisonment and his association with the devil were paraded in public.
00:45:17On the 28th of April, 1831, he left Paris for London.
00:45:22He was said to be looking weaker than ever.
00:45:25Fears were expressed that if he survived the crossing, the English fog would probably put an end to it.
00:45:35After his triumphs in Paris, Paganini was ill-prepared for the contrast of London.
00:45:40The city was in political and economic turmoil.
00:45:43He was disturbed by the noise, the weather, and the English, whom he found as foreign to him as he
00:45:50was to them.
00:45:52The state of the country is still dreadful.
00:45:55A feverish activity about the future universally prevails, for no man can foresee what course events will take.
00:46:03Paganini, unsettled and unwell, made a series of errors from which his reputation with the English would never recover.
00:46:10But it did not matter to him.
00:46:12He had set his sights on English gold.
00:46:17Laporte's presumption in doubling the prices of admission to the King's Theatre on the first night of Paganini's performance
00:46:23is one of those extravagancies which could only have entered the head of a foreigner
00:46:28who had beforehand arrived at the happy conviction, moreover, of the infinite gullibility of the English nation.
00:46:37We have had instances enough before in this country of extravagant pretension,
00:46:42yet none of them ever ventured on such an outrageous proceeding as this.
00:46:46The common sense of the majority of the frequenters of the King's Theatre will, we are persuaded,
00:46:52furnish the best remedy for such extortion by causing them to absent themselves
00:46:58till Laporte and his foreign idol are brought to their senses.
00:47:03The King's Theatre, at the prices demanded by the Italian violinist,
00:47:08would hold the enormous sum of £3,980, or in round numbers, £4,000.
00:47:16A sum which, if properly invested, would give to Signor Paganini and his heirs forever
00:47:21the income of an Italian gentleman, and this for a single performance.
00:47:26The duration whereof could not altogether exceed in the course of the evening a single hour.
00:47:33The protests grew to alarming proportions.
00:47:36Paganini cancelled the concert, saying that he was too ill to play, and wrote to the Times.
00:47:42Accustomed in all the nations of the continent to double the ordinary prices of the theatres
00:47:46where I have given my concerts, and little instructed in the customs of this capital
00:47:51in which I present myself for the first time, I did believe that I could do the same.
00:48:01The concert finally took place on the 3rd of June, 1831, at normal ticket prices.
00:48:09The maestro, remembering the failure of his efforts to check the resentment in Paris,
00:48:14resolved to ignore the controversy and extract as much as he could
00:48:18from a nation that he felt had exploited his beloved Italy.
00:48:26He is not only the finest player, perhaps, that has ever existed on that instrument,
00:48:31but he forms a class by himself.
00:48:36To judge him properly, he must be heard.
00:48:38He is the greatest musical wonder, without question, of this or any previous age.
00:48:46Five days after his first concert, Paganini wrote to Jeremy.
00:48:51If you could read some of the English papers, you would see what unparalleled frenzy
00:48:55I aroused among the cold Britons with my first concert at the large Italian opera house.
00:49:02The whole theatre, pit, boxes and gallery, seemed like a sea in temples.
00:49:10As soon as possible, I shall give you a better account of the money, which is the most important.
00:49:16Everyone says that such a triumph here is unprecedented.
00:49:19I played, and all the malignant slander changed to ineffable praise.
00:49:27We are slow to swallow mountains, and therefore did not believe all we heard touching the signior before his arrival.
00:49:35We here retract.
00:49:37Paganini is a solitary man in his art.
00:49:41There is a relation between a unit and a million.
00:49:44There is none between Paganini and his fellow men.
00:49:49Paganini and his fellow men on the border of Paganini and his fellow men.
00:49:49There is only one between a second of the butterflies and spirits, because heemed hehehe.
00:50:03A mentor of the joel warning and his first concert, heems the whole structure, and would understand both a member
00:50:03of a lot of the miesz Dale.
00:50:03Perhaps it might mean, despite if his words areuted, he quoi?
00:50:20Paganini's music had won the day as usual,
00:50:23but not all the slander changed to praise,
00:50:26and the English press continued to characterise him
00:50:29as a grotesque and unsympathetic figure,
00:50:31despite the enthusiasm of the critics.
00:50:35The maestro was more concerned with other things.
00:50:37He recorded the receipts from his first six London concerts
00:50:41as £10,212.11.
00:50:46He gave 151 concerts in 12 months,
00:50:48and what he earned in that year
00:50:51would have bought him nearly five times his own weight in pure gold.
00:50:54An unimaginable sum,
00:50:56and once again something that had never been done before.
00:51:01Paganini was celebrating the apex of his career.
00:51:04PIANO PLAYS
00:51:18PIANO PLAYS
00:51:24PIANO PLAYS
00:51:24PIANO PLAYS
00:51:24PIANO PLAYS
00:51:27PIANO PLAYS
00:51:28PIANO PLAYS
00:51:28PIANO PLAYS
00:52:06By the end of his first English tour,
00:52:09Arginini had been travelling constantly for four years
00:52:12and already made his fortune.
00:52:14But he was tired and ill
00:52:17and beginning to dream of returning to Italy with his son.
00:52:21He wrote to Jeremy.
00:52:24I am not feeling well.
00:52:26The electricity which I experience in producing my magical music
00:52:30does me infinite harm.
00:52:32But being home again and near you for a time will prolong my life.
00:52:38To be honest, I regret that there is a general opinion among all classes
00:52:41that I am in collusion with the devil.
00:52:43And the papers make too much of my outward appearance
00:52:46which arouses incredible curiosity.
00:52:49I am tired and loathe travelling.
00:52:53Achilles is my consolation.
00:52:56When I have a severe coughing spell,
00:52:58the dear boy gets up,
00:53:00helps me
00:53:01and comforts me with unspeakable affection.
00:53:04May heaven preserve him
00:53:06and you as well.
00:53:12On his return to Paris in November of 1833,
00:53:16Paganini collapsed with a hemorrhage of the lung
00:53:18and wrote immediately to Jeremy.
00:53:21I am so ill that I do not know if I will recover.
00:53:24My lungs are affected.
00:53:26I have had a hemorrhage
00:53:27and do not know what to tell you.
00:53:30I should be happy
00:53:31if you could come to Paris.
00:53:34Three weeks later, he wrote again.
00:53:37I have recovered.
00:53:38When I scratched my letter to you on the 24th,
00:53:41the doctors gave me only eight or ten hours to live.
00:53:45In August I shall come to embrace you without fail
00:53:47and enjoy the autumn and winter with you.
00:53:52But his resolution did not hold.
00:53:54He could not resist another invitation to play in England.
00:53:58Despite all the signs and his failing health,
00:54:01he ignored Jeremy's advice yet again.
00:54:04He returned to London,
00:54:05but interest had waned.
00:54:07He was confronted by unfilled houses
00:54:09and wrote to Jeremy,
00:54:11admitting that it had been a mistake.
00:54:14He fired a last parting shot at the English.
00:54:18You pay largely for your own amusements and your own vanity.
00:54:22You made me the fashion.
00:54:24You saw and heard me perform.
00:54:26You listened to me in preference to your Lord-Chancellor.
00:54:29You flocked in crowds to see me,
00:54:31and you enabled me to purchase an estate at Parma.
00:54:35You had my face and figure in all the print shops.
00:54:37Your lords invited me to sup,
00:54:39your ladies to tea,
00:54:41and your aldermen to dine.
00:54:43But for this,
00:54:44I acknowledge no claim on my gratitude.
00:54:47I supplied your longing for something wonderful,
00:54:50or rather, something new.
00:54:52You filled my pockets,
00:54:54and we are quits.
00:54:55Great,
00:54:56thank you.
00:54:57We all do and celebrate for something new.
00:54:58It's calledhehe,
00:55:07andША,
00:55:08Thank you,
00:55:10You are still są you,
00:55:10indiantda
00:55:10zaði Areas
00:55:10tak
00:55:10d
00:55:11alike
00:55:13y
00:55:14et
00:55:17z
00:55:18em
00:55:19km
00:55:20don y
00:55:21no
00:55:21w
00:55:21or
00:55:21e
00:55:29Again, and even more unwisely, Paganini postponed his return to Italy with the idea of marrying
00:55:35Charlotte Watson, the daughter of his London manager.
00:55:38He bought her an extravagant array of jewels in Bond Street, and they planned to meet in
00:55:43Calais.
00:55:43But her father got wind of it and arrived there first.
00:55:47With the help of the British Consul and the French police, Mr Watson escorted his daughter
00:55:53back to England.
00:55:58Paganini returned to Paris, where he felt more at home, but not for long.
00:56:04News of the Watson affair had preceded him, and fed the growing resentment at his avarice
00:56:09and envy at his success.
00:56:12What he encountered now was worse than anything that he had endured in England.
00:56:17His happy relationship with his public had disappeared almost entirely, and even the critics joined
00:56:22in the game.
00:56:23Their leader, Jules Janin, published a taunt in the Journal of Debates.
00:56:30How does it happen that Paganini has now been in Paris all of a week incognito, and no one
00:56:36has yet asked him to play the prayer from Moses for the twentieth time?
00:56:41I know an admirable, even an infallible way for him to regain universal admiration and respect.
00:56:48He need only take his violin any evening this week, and go to any theatre he pleases, and play
00:56:55there anything he likes for the benefit of the unfortunate workman of Saint-Étienne.
00:57:00If he does this, he will be the most famous musician in the world.
00:57:07Paganini, who was ill, and felt that he had suffered enough at the hands of the press, replied immediately.
00:57:14The extraordinary method adopted by your witty feuilletonist to induce me to give a concert
00:57:19for the benefit of the poor, compels me to reply to this attack.
00:57:23For more than three months, I have given no concert in France.
00:57:28My debilitated health requires the greatest rest, and I am about to return to Genoa, my
00:57:33native place, where I shall remain all the time requisite for my re-establishment.
00:57:39I have given two concerts in Paris for the benefit of the poor.
00:57:42Who has the right of doubting that I should have pleasure in giving a third?
00:57:47I trust that you will give place to these lines in your estimable journal.
00:57:56The paper did not accord him that courtesy, and the letter was not published, although
00:58:01it did appear in the London Times.
00:58:06Paganini, realising that his tormentor would deny him a public hearing, and in any case always
00:58:11have the last word, retreated in silence to Genoa.
00:58:18He was tired, and sick at heart.
00:58:22He arrived in Genoa early in October, 1834.
00:58:27His grand tour beyond the Alps had lasted a little over six and a half years.
00:58:37He had returned to Italy the most applauded soloist of his time, and by an astonishing
00:58:42margin, the most wealthy.
00:58:47At his first concert in Genoa, the city of his birth, he was greeted with a wave of public
00:58:53affection that overwhelmed him.
00:58:55It should have been his moment of greatest triumph, but in fact, it marked the beginning
00:59:00of the end.
00:59:02He was confronted with the dual nightmare of waning powers and intractable, painful illness.
00:59:10He said,
00:59:11I came back home to see my friends and regain my health, then once more to face the world.
00:59:17I am going to, and must, get well.
00:59:25But fate decreed otherwise.
00:59:27He was haunted by a sense of futility that was something new to him.
00:59:34Then, to the surprise of all who knew him, he showed that his irrepressible optimism was
00:59:40still capable of being fired.
00:59:42He was invited by Napoleon's widow, the Archduchess Marie Louise, to reform the court orchestra
00:59:48at Parma, and he saw the fulfilment of a lifelong dream, the creation of the finest orchestra in
00:59:55Italy and under royal patronage.
01:00:00Marie Louise knighted him and promised that his every proposal would be adopted.
01:00:06Paganini plunged into the task with a commitment and vigour that astonished everyone involved,
01:00:11but he took the Archduchess too literally at her word, behaved high-handedly and provoked disputes with
01:00:18her courtiers.
01:00:21His dreams of a new era were quickly crushed in a web of intrigue, and as he had done before,
01:00:28he slipped away to preserve his dignity.
01:01:02So,
01:01:14he was a rich man of the bridge in a different way which walks into the world,
01:01:14and he was slowly turns out to the world over the world.
01:01:15However,
01:01:15he was also seeing an amazing little будто with a mysterious possibility.
01:01:15And as he had a spiritual perspective, he was always following the world in Diplomation,
01:01:15And I was watching a very short story with some YA,
01:01:17but he was always listening to him an isle of the world where he was born.
01:01:17And I was learning from a modern world where he was born and has a dream of the world where
01:01:17he was born.
01:01:17And I was also seeing him to that.
01:01:18he the female.
01:01:18He lived on the world'sazioni.
01:01:22He lived on the world where he lived in his family to that.
01:02:58With a lingering thought for Charlotte Watson, who had gone to America with her father.
01:03:03And as usual in difficult moments, he wrote to Jeremy.
01:03:08I still want to spend a winter in Russia and also to go to America.
01:03:13Besides the pleasure of visiting new cities, a million scudi more with a sympathetic girl at my side would be
01:03:19nothing to despise.
01:03:26His body was failing and syphilis was beginning to affect his mind.
01:03:32His mood swung rapidly between dejection and elation with delusions of grandeur.
01:03:38He consulted more doctors and looked for a new enterprise to lift his spirits.
01:03:44It was not long in coming.
01:03:46He was invited to take shares in a project to build a casino in Paris to be named the Casino
01:03:51Paganini.
01:03:53He invested heavily, but was unable to appear at the opening because of his illness and paralysis of the larynx,
01:04:00which had almost entirely destroyed his voice.
01:04:03The gaming license was refused, an illegal concert organized, and the casino was closed by the authorities.
01:04:11A flurry of lawsuits followed.
01:04:13One of the directors was imprisoned, and the others sued Paganini for damages.
01:04:19With his usual optimism, and convinced that they had no case against him, Paganini brought a counteraction.
01:04:26He lost the case and wrote to his lawyer.
01:04:30I have just this moment learned that a verdict has been brought against me by the civil court, condemning me
01:04:36to pay 20,000 francs in damages.
01:04:39As this strange sentence is incomprehensible to me, I must ask you to explain the reasons for it.
01:04:47Paganini appealed, and to the astonishment of his lawyer, he lost again.
01:04:52I am so shocked, so grieved, that I do not know if I shall have the strength to tell you
01:04:57what has happened.
01:04:58The court has increased the damages to the exorbitant sum of 50,000 francs.
01:05:03To sum up, the court has passed judgment upon you as a man to whom public opinion ascribes a capricious
01:05:09and eccentric character,
01:05:11and it wanted to strike at a man who is reputedly worth several millions.
01:05:18Paganini now understood only too well, and to make it more painful, he knew that his time was running out.
01:05:25But he still had one more grand surprise for the world.
01:05:30Berlioz had suffered a crippling failure with his opera Benvenuto Cellini.
01:05:34In the words of Jules Jeannin,
01:05:36one need only to look at Berlioz to recognise his fearful dejection.
01:05:40This is no longer the intrepid titan, but a defeated man.
01:05:46Paganini then attended a performance of Harold in Italy,
01:05:49on the 16th of December, 1838,
01:05:52and what happened was to touch all who witnessed it,
01:05:55confound his adversaries,
01:05:57and even convert some of his fiercest critics.
01:06:02The concert was just over.
01:06:04I was in a profuse perspiration and trembling with exhaustion,
01:06:08when Paganini, followed by his son Achilles,
01:06:10came up to me at the orchestra door, gesticulating violently.
01:06:14No one could even guess at what he was saying.
01:06:17He made a sign to the child, who got up on a chair,
01:06:20put his ear close to his father's mouth, and listened intently.
01:06:24Achilles then got down, and turning to me, said,
01:06:27My father wants me to tell you, sir,
01:06:29that he has never in his life been so impressed at a concert,
01:06:33that your music has greatly affected him,
01:06:36and that if he did not restrain himself,
01:06:38he should go down on his knees to thank you.
01:06:41I made a movement of incredulous embarrassment at these strange words,
01:06:45but Paganini took my arm and rattled out,
01:06:48Yes, yes, with what little voice he had left,
01:06:52dragged me onto the stage,
01:06:54knelt down, and kissed my hand.
01:06:57I cannot describe my astonishment.
01:07:02Two days later,
01:07:04Paganini wrote to Berlioz with a promissory note
01:07:06for the extraordinary sum of 20,000 francs.
01:07:11I hurried to the Neoterm, where Paganini was then living.
01:07:14I was told that he was alone in the billiard room.
01:07:17I went in, and we embraced without a word.
01:07:22After some minutes, as I was stammering out I know not what in the way of thanks,
01:07:26Paganini, whom I was able to understand in the empty room,
01:07:29cut me short with these words.
01:07:32Do not speak of it.
01:07:34Not another word.
01:07:36You will never know how your music has affected me.
01:07:41Nothing was more cruel, more unjust, more pitiless.
01:07:45I confess it to my shame than my anger.
01:07:49I was wrong in form, and I was wrong in substance.
01:07:52But public opinion was with me,
01:07:55and everybody repudiates an avaricious artist.
01:07:59Today, I admit that the artist was in the right.
01:08:03He considered it a shame to give away for nothing
01:08:06the almost divine fruits of an art that had cost him so much.
01:08:12A talent that he felt, without openly admitting it,
01:08:16was ebbing away little by little with his life.
01:08:19He tried in vain to answer me.
01:08:22He only succeeded in making me more angry than ever,
01:08:26and increased the plaudits of the gallery.
01:08:29And so he relapsed into silence.
01:08:33But he awaited the day of his revenge.
01:08:36And when at last that day came,
01:08:39he showed us how a great artist avenges himself.
01:08:43He avenged himself in the manner of a king of the House of Valois.
01:08:57Paganini had made his last grand job.
01:09:00He continued to cherish the waning hope of recovery,
01:09:03but died in Nice,
01:09:05suffering pitifully from multiple illnesses,
01:09:08less than a year and a half later,
01:09:10on the 27th of May, 1840.
01:09:14He was 57 years old.
01:09:19But the world had not finished with Niccolò Paganini.
01:09:24His reputation pursued him even beyond his own death,
01:09:27and he was denied a Catholic burial.
01:09:31An unsuccessful battle with the Bishop of Nice ensued.
01:09:35His body was embalmed and ferried back and forth by his friends for two years,
01:09:40before being buried unofficially on a private estate.
01:09:44It was then exhumed three times,
01:09:47before being laid to rest in the Parma Cemetery,
01:09:5036 years later, in 1876.
01:09:55It was then exhumed yet again to be reburied in the new Parma Cemetery,
01:10:00a further 20 years later, in 1896.
01:10:10What did he achieve in his 57 restless years?
01:10:15He cherished his gift and polished it with intelligence,
01:10:19enthusiasm, and tireless hard work.
01:10:23He composed a great range of original and memorable music.
01:10:26He changed violin playing decisively,
01:10:29and he created the age of the Romantic Virtuoso.
01:10:34He fulfilled his mother's dream,
01:10:37and wrote his own page in the history of Western music.
01:10:41But parental fanaticism and a suspicious nature
01:10:44made him greedy for success, for gold, and for women.
01:10:49And so everything became a battle.
01:10:54He brought the gift of music to hundreds of thousands of people.
01:10:58But he was cavalier,
01:10:59and showed little respect for those who so responded to his miraculous gift,
01:11:04and conferred on him such enormous privilege.
01:11:09To make matters worse, he made himself extremely rich.
01:11:13And so the world became envious,
01:11:15and his attitude exacerbated the envy.
01:11:21Paganini professed indifference,
01:11:23and went on to create one of the most enduring legends in all of music.
01:11:27But he used his legend,
01:11:29and the world has not forgotten that.
01:11:32And yet, through all of it,
01:11:34he served his demon with commitment and dedication,
01:11:37despite appalling suffering.
01:11:40And in so doing,
01:11:41he changed the world.
01:11:45The world has not forgotten that, either.
01:12:01The world has not forgotten that, either.
01:12:01The world has not forgotten that, either.
01:12:12The world has not forgotten that, either.