Paganini Niccolo (1782-1840), Italian violinist and composer.
Born on October 27, 1782 in Genoa in the family of a small merchant. The father was the first to notice his son’s ability for music and began to teach him to play the violin and mandolin. These lessons became real torture for the boy, since Paganini Sr. was distinguished by an unbridled character, Niccolo was punished for the slightest mistake, and anyone else in his place would have hated music. Nevertheless, talent took its toll: at the age of eight, Paganini wrote his first sonata, and at nine he began giving concerts in Genoa.
From the age of 16, finally freed from his father's tutelage, he performed independently with constant success as a virtuoso violinist. An extraordinary, hitherto unprecedented talent quickly made Paganini a celebrity.
He played not only in Italy, but throughout Europe. With the brilliance of his performance and technical brilliance, the musician opened new era in the art of violin playing. Techniques such as playing on one (4th) string, the technique of double notes, various strokes to create coloristic effects - he not only used all this himself, but also introduced it into his own compositions. Many of them were considered unfeasible for a long time due to technical difficulties.
Paganini wrote for the violin, which he mastered perfectly, and also for the guitar (about 200 works). Among the violin works, the most famous are 24 caprices (published in 1820), 6 concertos for violin and orchestra (1815-1830), 12 sonatas, variations on opera and ballet themes.
Having thoroughly studied the art of violin, Paganini collected a whole collection of violins from famous Italian masters: D. Amati, A. Stradivari. He bequeathed his Guarneri instrument to his native Genoa, where the violin is still kept.
Paganini’s personality and his extraordinary abilities, considered “superhuman,” gave rise to numerous legends about him. For example, they said that he received his talent from the devil in exchange for his soul. Paganini did not dispute these speculations and even sometimes fueled them himself, which added a certain aura of mystery to his enormous popularity as the greatest violinist.
Niccolo Paganini (1782─1840) - an outstanding Italian composer, violinist, guitarist, who had an extraordinary musical gift. He was a master of musical instruments, amazing the audience with the highest skill and purity of performance. Paganini is a recognized classic of musical variations. Many are familiar with his compositions on the themes of the operas “Moses”, “Cinderella”, “Tancred”. The pinnacle of the maestro’s creativity is considered to be “24 Capricci”, “Venice Carnival”, “Perpetual Motions”.
Childhood and youth
Niccolo Paganini was born on October 27, 1782 in a small quarter of Italian Genoa called “Black Cat” in the family of Antonio Paganini and his wife Teresa. He turned out to be the second child and was very sickly from early childhood.
Once in a dream, Niccolo's mother, who was a very sentimental woman, saw in her dream an angel who predicted her son's future as a great musician. Since childhood, his parents forced him to play the violin, especially since his older brother Carlo was not particularly talented in this matter. Therefore, Niccolo had to take the rap for two. All his early years were devoted to monotonous learning the art of playing this musical instrument.
Nature has rewarded the Italian with a huge gift - the finest hearing, capable of picking up the smallest details in sound. Every day the boy opened the world around us with the help of numerous musical tones, which he perceived with particular acuteness. He tried to reproduce them on a magdalene, a guitar or his favorite little violin, which over time turned into a part of the musician’s soul.
The father discovered his son's talent early, counting on him winning fame and fortune. Therefore, little Niccolo was forced to play in the closet, constantly improving his skills. For the slightest sins, the child was deprived of food. All this negatively affected the boy’s fragile health. Already at the age of 8, Paganini wrote a violin sonata and several trumpet variations. Over time, the talented musician attracted attention, and he was noticed by the first violinist of the local choir, D. Kosto, who began to study with the young talent. Within six months, he passed on invaluable experience to his student, which allowed him to appear on stage for the first time.
First concerts
The musician's first public performance took place in May 1795 at the local theater of Sant'Agostino, the funds from which were to go towards a trip to Parma to study with the famous violinist A. Rolla. Here his “Variations on a Theme of Carmagnola” were performed, which were a success with the public. Soon a similar concert was given in Florence, which added the missing money. So Paganini’s father and son ended up in Parma with A. Rolla, but he was sick and did not want to accept anyone.
While waiting for the master, the boy took the violin that was lying in the next room and played Roll's recently written work on it, to the latter's admiration. He stated that he would not teach the teenager anything and advised him to contact F. Paer, but he, busy with musical productions, introduced Paganini to the talented cellist G. Ghiretti, who became his new mentor. He forced his student to create works without an instrument, relying only on his inner ear.
In 1797, Niccolo and his father went on their first concert tour of Europe. Their route ran through Milan, Florence, Pisa, Bologna and Livorno. His performances, which were a huge success in every city, inspired the musician to new achievements. It was during this time that he wrote most of his famous 24 Caprices, in which he demonstrated the greatness of his artistic imagination. The unusual interweaving of mind-blowing virtuosity with grotesque images and powerful dynamics made his musical works inimitable.
Independent life
The fame that befell the young man began to be burdened by the influence of his father, and at the first opportunity Niccolo left his parental home, becoming the first violinist in Lucca. He passionately devotes himself to his work, leading the city orchestra and giving concerts at the same time. At this time, the musician begins to enjoy many of the joys of life, playing cards and indulging in love. Infatuated with a certain “Senora Dide,” he even leaves touring for several years, only “feeling the strings of the guitar with pleasure.”
In 1804, Paganini returned to creativity, but already at next year began to serve as court violinist in Lucca. F. Bacciocchi ruled here, whose wife was Napoleon's sister Princess Eliza, with whom the musician developed a passionate relationship. Since 1808, he resumed touring activities.
In 1814, Niccolo gives concerts in his homeland. Here he is greeted with great warmth, calling him nothing less than a genius. The audience was amazed by the extraordinary ease of playing the violin and the virtuoso performance of complex parts. It is no coincidence that the musician was repeatedly invited to perform at the famous La Scala theater.
In 1821, Paganini again left concert activity due to a large bouquet of aggravated illnesses - rheumatism, tuberculosis, intestinal and stomach pain. This forces him to move to Pavia closer to the famous doctor S. Borda. Bloodletting, a strict diet and rubbing ointments did not help immediately. Due to a surge of weakness, the musician did not risk picking up the violin for a long time, and his only outlet was private lessons with the son of a Genoese merchant, young K. Sivori.
Having overcome illnesses, except for an “unbearable cough,” Paganini performed in Milan, Pavia and Genoa in 1824. A little later, the musician creates new works - “Military Sonata”, “Polish Variations”, and with them three concertos for violin, the most famous of which was the second with the famous ronda “Campanella”.
At the zenith of glory
In the period from 1828 to 1834, Paganini gave many concerts in the largest halls of the Old World. He is applauded by both the general public and a large galaxy of artists, including F. Chopin, R. Schumann, F. Schubert, G. Heine, I. Goethe. The Austrian composer F. Liszt generally called Niccolo’s playing a “supernatural miracle.” In later concerts, to the delight of the audience, he increasingly plays with guitar accompaniment.
While in Vienna, Paganini composed “Variations on the Austrian Hymn” and conceived the idea of creating his main masterpiece, “The Venetian Carnival.” In 1830, thinking about the future of his son, the musician acquired the title of baron, which would be inherited by his son.
In 1829-1831, Paganini toured Germany. In a year and a half, he gave more than a hundred concerts in 30 cities. Here he completed work on the 4th and 5th concerts, and also wrote the work “Love Gallant Sonata”. Then there was France, and again a huge success. Here Niccolò composes again, dedicating 60 variations of the folk song “Barucaba” to his friend Jeremy, a serenade for guitar, violin and cello to his sister Dominica, and a sonata to the daughter of his patron de Negro.
Secrets and mysteries of Paganini
The musician often declared certain secrets of his performance, which he would reveal only after the end of his career. This is also related to his reluctance to publish his own writings, which supposedly could declassify his secret. Some particularly zealous spectators saw Satan on the musician’s shoulder during the performance, others saw him fly to heaven in a carriage along with his retinue.
He became the first to use violin playing by heart rather than by notes at concerts. Constant practice of playing musical instruments made it possible to develop phenomenal strength in the wrist muscles, so Paganini could easily break a porcelain plate with two fingers.
Niccolo was a virtuoso performer. Once, on a dare, he brilliantly conducted an opera, playing a two-string violin. And at Napoleon’s next birthday, he performed the sonata of the same name only on the fourth string. According to D.F. Oistrakh, the Paganini phenomenon lies in an extraordinary combination of talent, temperament and hard work, which made it possible to use psychophysiological qualities to the maximum.
After his death, the church opposed the burial of the musician’s remains in a Christian cemetery, since he refused to receive communion. The reason for this action of Paganini was clear - he claimed that he would not die and would live forever.
Personal life
Relationships with the female sex are one of the mysterious pages of his biography. Not much is known about his first novel. A certain lady, passionate about the guitar, took the young Paganini to her Tuscan castle, where he lived for several years. Then fate brought him together with Napoleon's older sister Eliza, who was in early XIX century princesses of Lucca and Piombino. The musician was very pleased with his relationship with an ugly but noble woman, thanks to whose patronage he began to regularly appear at court.
After spending three years next to Eliza, Paganini received permission to leave her, and soon his fate brought him together with another sister of the emperor, Polina Bonaparte. Their romance was very stormy, passionate and short. Indulging in lovemaking in Turin's Stupingi Castle, they quickly lost interest in each other, and the flighty Polina quickly found a replacement musician.
And then young Angelina Cavanna appeared in Paganini’s life, because of whom he almost went to prison. The father of a girl who became pregnant by Niccolo accused him of kidnapping and raping his daughter. The court ordered the musician to pay a fine, but this could not change the fate of the child, who died a year and a half before the end of the trial.
The maestro's new passion was the singer Antonia Bianca, whom Paganini decided to teach to sing at the beginning of their acquaintance. In 1825, she would give birth to his heir, Achille, but relations with Antonia would only worsen. In his letters, Niccolo more than once mentioned the frenzy of his girlfriend, who could easily throw the case with the violin. Dealing with many women, the great musician managed to maintain his independence, fully justifying the once spoken phrase: “Freedom is the greatest good for a man”.
The last chord
Paganini's contemporaries wrote that after the concerts the musician experienced convulsions similar to an epileptic seizure - his muscles cramped, his body temperature dropped, and his pulse froze. Niccolo himself called this state “electricity” that appeared in him and which “painfully torments, but comes out of me at the concert with divine harmony.” The first signs of a serious illness began to actively appear in 1834, which is why the maestro interrupted his performances. Two years later he plays several concerts in Nice, after which he becomes very ill.
Shortly before his death, Paganini, in very serious condition, visited his native Genoa.
The last six months of his life he was extremely exhausted, so he could not hold a bow in his hands. His beloved violin was left without magic wand, and the musician plucked its strings with weakened fingers. The great composer and musician died on May 27, 1840 in Nice. At first, the church prevented his burial in Italy. Permission was received only in 1876, after which Paganini’s ashes were reburied in Parma.
Niccolo Paganini, born on October 27, 1782, was not a child prodigy favored by his parents and society, and his musical talent was revealed at a relatively late age.
He was already forty-six years old when he first left Italy to set out to conquer world fame.
And indeed, he brought Europe into real ecstasy. His outstanding talent and the mysterious personality hypnotized the audience and asked experts riddles that remain unexplained to this day..
Apparently, part of the answer to Paganini's riddle lies in the unusual anatomy of his body, the design of which was ideal for playing the violin. All doctors who examined the violinist confirmed his unique anatomical predisposition to play this instrument.
He had abnormal shoulders that did not in any way correspond to his frail body. The left side of the chest was wider than the right and sunken in the upper part; his left shoulder was much higher than his right, so that when he lowered his arms, one of them seemed shorter than the other; his spider-like hands and fingers acquired such flexibility that they allowed him to make the most unimaginable movements and combinations.
The violinist's left ear heard much more acutely than his right, and his eardrum was so sensitive that he experienced severe pain if someone spoke loudly nearby. At the same time, he was able to detect the quietest sounds at a great distance. But in addition to his anatomical predisposition, Paganini also possessed, of course, innate musical genius.
In addition, much indicates that Paganini had complete control over new technology a game he never revealed to anyone. It happened more than once that curious violinists from the orchestra tried to play Paganini’s violin. And with considerable surprise they discovered that it was completely upset and impossible to play.
It is believed that the violinist invented his own string tuning, which gave him the ability to easily play the most difficult chord sequences that were impossible with normal string tension. On this occasion, many argued that the maestro could, in one fell swoop, rearrange the strings of his instrument while playing.
The power of his playing over the audience was truly demonic. After all, it was not without reason that already at his first concert in Vienna, one music critic present there quite seriously asserted that during the witch’s variations he saw a living devil standing next to the violinist on the podium.
Even Heinrich Heine, after visiting one of Paganini’s concerts, wrote: “Perhaps at the end of the game he is no longer a living person, but a vampire who has risen from the grave, sucking the blood from our hearts with his playing?”
Franz Liszt was so shocked by the diabolical genius from Genoa that after one of Paganini’s concerts he was seized by a nervous fever, and he was convinced that the magician with the violin was the demon himself. He even believed that Paganini killed his mistress and for this he languished in a dark dungeon for many years, where he made himself a violin with one single string and thus mastered the magical art of playing the G string. Moreover, Liszt even claimed that Paganini made this string from the intestines of a girl he strangled.
However, Liszt was not the only one who believed in this. From time to time a rumor arose that Paganini spent many years in prison for taking the life of his beloved: either by murder, or by poisoning, or by stabbing to death. Many lithographs sold throughout Europe depicted the brilliant violinist in prison at the time of his murder.
Of course, Paganini suffered greatly from these rumors and tried everything to dispel them. For example, in Vienna, he even persuaded one Italian ambassador to openly declare that he had known Paganini as a noble man for more than twenty years. And in Paris he addressed an open letter to Professor Fetis, publisher of the Review Musical, where he attempted to reduce the rumor about the prison to a ridiculous misunderstanding.
But people didn't believe him. And they even found, it seems, compelling arguments for this. Thus, almost nothing is known about the period of six years, that is, the period when he ran away from his parental home and was accepted into permanent service at the court in Lucca. Although the remaining years of the violinist’s life are scheduled almost day by day. Where did Paganini spend these six years? - unknown. And one more thing: when he reappeared in the world, his playing truly reached a perfection inaccessible to mere mortals.
Musicologist and librarian G.E. responded to Paganini’s letter to Review Musical on May 3, 1831 in the same magazine. Andre. “If you want the bad rumors about you to subside,” he wrote, “and every decent person would feel disgusted by these conversations as pathetic slander, try the easiest and most effective remedy: illuminate the darkness of these years and pull the rug out from under the gossip!” Paganini did not answer this challenge. And, naturally, his silence was perceived as an admission of guilt.
And people's rumors never ceased to say that Paganini sold his soul to the devil. His contemporaries could not explain the maestro’s virtuoso mastery of the violin in any other way. And many added: “And after death he will not find peace!” These turned out to be absolutely right: the coffin with the body of the great musician was buried and torn out again more than ten times. The posthumous journey continued... fifty-seven years - almost as long as Niccolo Paganini lived on earth...
The famous violinist died of consumption in Nice in May 1840 at the age of fifty-eight. His body was embalmed, displayed for farewell, and thousands of people came to say goodbye to the brilliant musician.
A grandiose funeral was planned, but unexpectedly for everyone, the Bishop of Nice forbade the burial of the heretic Paganini in the local cemetery, which he informed the grief-stricken son of the musician Achille.
I had to urgently look for a burial place. They decided to deliver the musician’s body to his hometown- Genoa. The luxurious walnut coffin was secretly loaded onto a ship and delivered to the Genoese port. But the local governor refused to even let the ship into the harbor - black ingratitude on the part of Paganini’s fellow citizens, to whom he, by the way, bequeathed his amazing violin.
Be that as it may, the ship remained in the Genoese roadstead for three months. The team claimed that the sounds of violins and sorrowful sighs were constantly heard from the hold where the coffin was located.
In the end, the violinist’s influential friends managed to obtain permission to transfer the remains to the basement of a castle. But even there the coffin did not stand for long: the servants, one after another, began to demand payment, claiming that it was flickering in the darkness with a devilish light, and strange and eerie sounds were coming from it.
I had to send the coffin to the morgue of the local hospital. But even there, the seemingly accustomed employees rebelled: Paganini’s body filled them with indescribable horror, and sighs and sounds of strange music continued to flow from the coffin.
It was only in 1842 that the violinist’s body was finally interred - not in a cemetery, however, but on a deserted cape at the foot of an ancient tower. But two years later, the remains were dug up again and transported to Nice, hoping to still bury them in the cemetery.
And again nothing worked out - they had to place the coffin in the basement of the country villa of one of Paganini’s friends. It stood there until 1876 (fortunately, no one lived in the villa), and only then was it possible to obtain permission for a Christian burial in the local cemetery.
Alas, the maestro’s posthumous wanderings did not end there. In 1893, the coffin was dug up again because there were rumors that strange sounds were coming from underground. The exhumation was carried out in the presence of Paganini’s grandson, Czech violinist Frantisek Ondřicek.
The musician’s body has practically decayed, but his head, in a mysterious and incomprehensible way, has been perfectly preserved. The coffin was closed and... four years later they dug it up again to bury it in some little-known cemetery. And only then, in 1897, did Niccolo Paganini’s “posthumous odyssey” end.
Antonia Bianchi
There were so many rumors floating around Paganini! Contemporaries quite seriously believed that the great violinist had made a deal with the devil himself, and instead of strings on his violin, the intestines of the mistresses he had tortured were stretched. Women really went crazy about Niccolo, despite his, to put it mildly, unattractive appearance.
Ladies flocked to his concerts like moths to a flame, his playing drove them to hysterics. But even though he said that he wanted to get married, he never found a family home. Among his mistresses were Napoleon's sisters - Elisa Baciocchi and Paolina Borghese, the Englishwoman Carlotta Watson, the daughter of the writer Feuerbach, Baroness Elena Daubenek. History has brought to this day his adventures with the daughter of an ordinary tailor, a certain Angelina Cavanna.
A 17-year-old girl collected her last money to go to the concert and watch the mysterious virtuoso. To make sure that it was indeed Satan himself, as they say, who was speaking, Angelina went behind the scenes - it seemed to her that up close she would be able to discern signs of evil spirits. Passion flared up suddenly, and after finishing the performance, Paganini invited the girl to go on tour with him to Parma.
It soon became clear that Angelina would have a child, and Paganini secretly sent her to friends who lived in the vicinity of Genoa. But the girl’s father found his daughter and sued Niccolo for kidnapping and violence against her. The violinist was arrested and sent to prison. He left there after nine days, having paid the tailor a considerable sum. The trial lasted two years, during which time Angelina's child was born and died. In the end, Paganini got away with another monetary compensation and another stain on his reputation.
And Paganini’s longest love affair was his affair with singer Antonia Bianchi. He met her in 1816. Niccolo was 34 years old, Antonia was 22. Their relationship could not be called simple: Antonia, on the one hand, worshiped Niccolo, on the other, she was slightly afraid of him, but at the same time, without a twinge of conscience, she cheated on him with singers from the choir, young aristocrats and simple shopkeepers .
Paganini either tried to take revenge on Antonia, starting affair after affair, or kicked her out of the house, but the next quarrel was always followed by reconciliation. In 1825, Antonia gave birth to Paganini's son. Niccolo doted on the heir; he took pleasure in bathing the child and changing his diapers. If Achilles cried for a long time, the father took the violin in his hands and extracted from the instrument the singing of birds, the creaking of a cart, or even the voice of Antonia - the baby immediately calmed down.
After the birth of their son, the relationship between Niccolo and Antonia seemed to improve, but it turned out that it was just the calm before the storm. When another family scandal occurred, Paganini broke up with Antonia Bianchi, having achieved sole custody of his son. After that he worked like a man possessed. He gave one concert after another and asked for unimaginable fees for his performances - Paganini tried to provide the boy with a decent future. For the same purpose, the violin virtuoso bought himself the title of baron.
Paganini died in France in 1840 at the age of 57, Achilles was about 15. Subsequently, the musician’s son would spend all the bequeathed wealth and almost his entire life (56 years) to atone for his father’s sins and obtain permission from the church to rebury Paganini on homeland in Italy.
There is a legend that on the very first night after Teresa Paganini gave birth to her second child, an angel appeared to her in a dream, who announced: “This boy is destined to become a musician, and he will glorify your family throughout the world...” She did not attach any importance to this dream meaning and soon forgot about him for a long time, thinking: “I’ve had enough of a hubby who, instead of looking for work, strums the mandolin all day long...”
Then time passed, Teresa gave birth to three more children, and they were all so noisy in their small tattered yard that they drove her crazy. But the boy Nicolo, with a hooked nose like his father’s, was not like the others. It turned out that he had perfect pitch and often listened in fascination to the ringing of the church bells of their native Genoa and the playing of his father, for whom playing the mandolin was the last opportunity to earn pennies to feed the family...
One day his father handed Nicolo his old musical instrument, offering to play. A five-year-old boy picked up a mandolin, ran his fingers along the strings and, hearing the magical sounds,...smiled. Since the former port worker Antonio Paganini had plenty of time, he began to teach Nicolo to play the instrument with the idea of taking him with him to parties and celebrations in the future - after all, they would pay more! To his surprise, his son mastered the mandolin very quickly. And then Antonio decided to buy him a violin for the same selfish purpose: when he teaches his son to play it, they will have a small ensemble. ...Nicolo began grueling lessons in learning to play the violin. No matter how much the boy wanted to run away into the street where the neighboring children were frolicking, his father was adamant. One day at dinner, Teresa remembered that strange dream-prophecy about the fate of Nicolo... After this, classes began to drag on for 8-10 hours, and until the boy learned what his father had given him, Antonio did not let him out of the basement. He often punished his son for indiscretion by leaving him without food...
Nicolo's studies
Antonio Paganini achieved his goal - his son Nicolo began to play better than himself. At the age of 9, he already perfectly performed variations of Cormagnola and his other compositions. Father and son began to be invited to celebrations more often and paid more. They now performed not only in front of commoners, but also in front of noble people. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, patronage of the arts in Western Europe was held in high esteem, and every wealthy person sought to help those in need with something, knowing that this help was pleasing to God. I met such a rich man in Nicolo’s life. The Marquis Gianfranco de Negri once heard Nicolo play the violin and was so amazed that he decided to give money for further training talented teenager. So for Nicolo Paganini the time came to study with recognized violinists of that time - first with Antonio Cervetto and Giacomo Costa, then with cellist Gasparo Ghiretti, who taught him to compose music. The famous musician Alessandro Rolle, having listened to the performance of the young talent, was so amazed that he was silent for a long time, and then admitted that he “had nothing to teach this young man.”
Touring and first passion
In the early 1800s, violinist Nicolo Paganini began his first tours in his native Italy - they brought him resounding success. His virtuoso playing attracted thousands of listeners, and they spoke of him as a miracle. Nicolo became increasingly burdened by his father’s tutelage, and as soon as he received an offer to become the first violin in the orchestra of the city of Luka, he immediately agreed and moved there. At the same time, from time to time he continued to give solo concerts during tours in Pisa, Florence, Bologna and other cities. The inhabitants who attended his performances often conveyed from mouth to mouth that, apparently, Paganini’s bow was controlled by the devil, that a simple person could not play like that...
Since 1805, Nicolo began to serve as the first violin of the orchestra at the court of Napoleon Bonaparte's sister Elisa Bacciocchi, and later led her orchestra. Soon a passion broke out between the noble lady and the violinist, which lasted four years. But Eliza did not allow him to tour anywhere, and Nicolo did not like this. Elisa Paganini dedicated his composition “Love Scenes” for the B and A strings. Eliza demanded a continuation, and after some time the musician created the “Napoleon” sonata for one G string (during the performance of both works, unnecessary strings were removed). Since Nicolo masterfully mastered the technique of playing the violin, his performance always created a sensation. Eliza, without hiding her feelings, looked at him with loving eyes. But this love was not enough for Nicolo, he was eager to see the world, wanted to play on the best concert stages in Europe. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Paganini left Baciocchi's court to tour as a free artist.
Sinner Nicolo
At this time, Nicolo composed many works for the violin, and performed them himself at concerts, causing constant delight. Despite the fact that, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, he was ugly, women were crazy about him and his playing and even fainted at his concerts. Love adventures with noble ladies and commoners took him so far that he did not avoid an unpleasant incident that ruined his reputation - in 1814 in Genoa, the daughter of a tailor, Angelina Cavanna, whom he met after a concert, became pregnant by him. When Nicolo found out about this, he hastened to send her to his friends until she was relieved of her burden. But the girl’s father accused Nicolo of kidnapping his daughter and raping her and sued him. The child died as soon as he was born, but the judge sentenced Nicolo to pay 3 thousand lire in favor of Angelina. Paganini's reputation in the eyes of ordinary people was damaged, and he hastened to leave his homeland in order to quickly forget this incident.
Touring Europe, Paganini always attracted full houses of enthusiastic listeners who, seeing his virtuoso playing, were sure that the violinist was being helped by the devil. Paganini himself supported rumors about his superhuman talent, confident that this would contribute to a successful career. So, when in 1828 he lost all his teeth due to illness, Nicolo explained this as “the touch of the devil on his appearance.”
Love for Bianchi
...At the end of 1816 in Venice, Paganini met the aspiring singer Antonia Bianchi and began teaching her music. Joint activities took the young people so far that in the end Nicolo took the beauty with him. ...Until 1821, the violinist gave many concerts in different cities of Europe. He prepared and published his compositions - 24 caprices - which later became part of the world's musical treasury of humanity. But over time, constant nervous tension and an intense touring schedule undermined Nicolo’s already poor health - at the end of 1821 he became seriously ill with tuberculosis and long time was between life and death. At that time, his relationship with Antonia was interrupted, since Nicolo, accompanied by his mother, went to Pia for treatment. And rumors spread across Europe that violinist Nicolo Paganini had died. In those years, consumption was a serious disease. Nicolo, fortunately, was able to avoid death, but the painful cough remained with him for the rest of his life. When he met Antonia Bianchi again in 1824, she was already a famous singer and shone on the best stages of her native Italy. The old feelings flared up between the young people, and a year later they had a son, who was named Achilles. However, their life together lasted only three years.
Illness and death of Paganini
Antonia could not resist the temptations of bohemian life - Nicolo more than once had to take her away from noisy companies and turn a blind eye to many things. However, when he received irrefutable evidence of his wife’s infidelity, he decided to break up, suing custody of his son in his favor. Perhaps, left alone, he also went to great lengths and after some time fell ill with syphilis. The treatment of this disease with a medicine based on mercury, which was very common in those years, completely undermined the health of Nicolo Paganini. IN recent years Throughout his life, the brilliant violinist toured little, but composed a lot of music, including pure sonatas and violin concertos...
In October 1839, the already very ill Paganini came to his homeland, Genoa, for the last time. And less than a year later, on May 27, 1840, in Nice, when the brilliant violinist was only 50 years old, he passed away. Here it would be possible to put an end to the story about Nicolo Papanini, but, alas... It must be admitted that a certain evil fate haunted Paganini even after his death. The fact is that for some mysterious reasons the body of the brilliant violinist was not buried, and when this happened, his grave was disturbed twice.
Oddities with the burial of Paganini
At first, the deceased Paganini was not buried due to a church ban, because he allegedly refused communion before his death. But if Nicolo Paganini, as foreign sources testify, died of laryngeal cancer, then perhaps on his deathbed heI simply physically could not - due to excruciating pain - utter a word. The priests perceived his behavior as a refusal. After Paganini's death, when Achilles brought the coffin with his father's body to bury him in Genoa, he was denied entry into the city. For five long years, Achilles had to keep the coffin in a deep basement while he sought permission for burial through the court. When Achilles Paganini finally received it and buried the body, for a strange, inexplicable reason, the coffin was dug up again - for some purpose, the Czech violinist persuaded Achilles to do this.
...It was only in 1876 that the body of Nicolo Paganini was forever lowered into the soil of his native Genoa. Today, his tomb is one of the attractions of this Italian city, visited by thousands of tourists every year. Nicolo Paganini's favorite violin, Il Cannone (The Cannon), created by the great Giuseppe Guarneri, is now kept in the Town Hall of Genoa. Once a month, a specially appointed curator takes it out of the display case and plays... works by Nicolo Paganini. And it seems that it is the great violinist himself who is playing his famous left-hand pizzicato with his bow...